Radar onto Ipad?

[longjohnsilver]

Any thoughts as to how this can be done, if at all?

Just out of interest I recently bought a Garmin GLO which is a bluetooth gps receiver which seems to work well with the Ipad. I know it's not needed where there's a good signal, but should be useful further offshore.

 

[Mistroma]

Any thoughts as to how this can be done, if at all?

Just out of interest I recently bought a Garmin GLO which is a bluetooth gps receiver which seems to work well with the Ipad. I know it's not needed where there's a good signal, but should be useful further offshore.

I thought iPads came with internal GPS chip so didn't think an external Bluetooth one would be required. I know that iPad marketing blurb was meant to be confusing and mentioned A-GPS. That should just mean accuracy can be improved close to land based stations but you still get a fix at sea. Perhaps they weren't entirely truthful and it doesn't have a GPS chip.

Regarding RADAR, I think it would take too much processing power to take the raw feed from a radar set. A lot also depends on they Radome itself and if it is sending analogue signals you would also need hardware.

However, it would be a lot simpler to get data from a mult-function display. The data has been processed and ready for display. So sounding more realistic but I don't know if anybody is doing that yet. There won't be NMEA sentences due to the amount of data and complexity of data. You'd be talking about enough to rebuild a screen display quite quickly.

It doesn't sound very feasible unless Raymarine and other manufacturers see a market. It would also need to be via a fast output probably via RJ45 (unless interface box built into the display).

Perhaps someone else has more detailed information based on more than my conjecture about data type & rates.

 

[Rivers & creeks]

3G and 4G iPads have proper GPS chips that acquire position within seconds, the assisted GPS also uses cell tower and wifi hotspot geographical data to speed first acquisition - useful when the ipad is made in Taiwan but could be sold anywhere or when you travel long distances with GPS turned off.

RADAR on the ipad will just need a wifi signal from a multifunction unit - if wifi can transmit a movie to an ipad in real time it can show a RADAR picture! I'm not aware though of any products doing this at present though Raymarine may do so as the ipad can mirror their latest displays.

 

[johnalison]

My Raymarine e7 will show the radar image on my iPad quite happily. I can also control it with the right app.

 

[Mistroma]

Ah, I think that I was coming at this from the wrong direction. I was thinking that you wanted to feed Radome output to an iPad. Complex.

Then I thought about an interface to multifunction display and still went down the route of a DIY interface. It wasn't the absolute amount of data, just the problem of getting it out to feed an iPAd. Hence reference to NMEA as unsuitable. Silly me, of course Raymarine do actually have software to remote display (& control) multifunction units. I actually downloaded the Android versions a while ago (they might still be available free). I haven't tried them as I still need to sort out the WiFi interface.

Getting a bit brain dead these days, started out on one track and managed to miss the obvious solution (if you have Raymarine).

 

[longjohnsilver]

Ah, I think that I was coming at this from the wrong direction. I was thinking that you wanted to feed Radome output to an iPad. Complex.

Then I thought about an interface to multifunction display and still went down the route of a DIY interface. It wasn't the absolute amount of data, just the problem of getting it out to feed an iPAd. Hence reference to NMEA as unsuitable. Silly me, of course Raymarine do actually have software to remote display (& control) multifunction units. I actually downloaded the Android versions a while ago (there might still be available free). I haven't tried them as I still need to sort out the WiFi interface.

Getting a bit brain dead these days, started out on one track and managed to miss the obvious solution (if you have Raymarine).

No you were right first time, trying to have just an Ipad without any other displays or screens, so yes, trying to find a way of connecting the radome direct to Ipad.

If it can't already be done I bet it will be possible at some time in the future. The big question is when and how!

 

[NB Willawaw]

The raw data needs to be converted to Ethernet. This is feasible in a radar head designed to do that and more and more displays are just that.

I've seen a wifi powered iPad radar used on cruise ships for docking and so the captain can show the passengers but don't know if anybody is doing it in the leisure market yet.

 

[Mistroma]

Ah, then it's back to being complex. Analogue data from a Radome would need an interface to convert to digital domain as well as proceessing. If the data is already digital then you just need to process it. I don't know how much processing digital Radomes carry out but suspect it still leaves quite a lot of work at the display end.

This is quite a difficult home brew project and I suspect manufacturers will focus on selling a multi-function display (larger market).

Something might appear soon but I'd bet against it unless Radomes carry out a lot more processing than I imagine. Not really a problem of absolute processing power, just a lot of work for a small market. So that trumps technical feasibility, unless it is "home-brewed".

 

[Dockhead]

My Raymarine e7 will show the radar image on my iPad quite happily. I can also control it with the right app.

That's the best way to do it! Simrad and B&G MFD's will do the same thing.

 

[Cardo]

My Raymarine e7 will show the radar image on my iPad quite happily. I can also control it with the right app.

That's what I do.