Router/Access Point on a boat

[Matwill]

Hi Guys,

I just installed an emtrak 954 that can send ais data to my tablet via wifi. This works great.

However I usually hotspot my phone and connect the tablet to it to get live data on navionics.

What I think I need to do is buy an wifi access point and connect the tablet and 954 and also connect to the phones hotspot to this AP.

My main concern is the 954 AIS data wont connect to navionics via the AP. I assume I would connect using station mode.

Has anyone done this or know if it can be done?

Mathew

 

[Yngmar]

What I think I need to do is buy an wifi access point and connect the tablet and 954 and also connect to the phones hotspot to this AP.

Good thinking, but it's not so easy. You can join the B954 as station to a router network as station, no problem. But the phone in hotspot mode will always insist on being an AP of its own. So you would need a router that either has a SIM card slot and replaces the phone (which probably means a separate contract), or have a second interface with which it joins the phone hotspot AP. This can either be a second wifi interface (very few routers have this) or an USB interface with a wifi dongle plugged in (must be compatible - bit of a hassle usually). Or, since most routers have an Ethernet interface, this can also be used, but then you need another Ethernet to Wifi device (like the popular Ubiquiti Bullet, for example). So unfortunately not very simple at all, but you have options.

We're using a little GL.Inet router running OpenWRT. It has a USB dongle for the SIM card that does 4G. Even easier, you can get a router with internal SIM slot. The only problem then is that it cannot share the SIM card with your phone.

 

[Matwill]

WiFi Camp-Pro 2 v2

Do you think something like this could do it?

 

[lustyd]

Good thinking, but it's not so easy. You can join the B954 as station to a router network as station, no problem. But the phone in hotspot mode will always insist on being an AP of its own. So you would need a router that either has a SIM card slot and replaces the phone (which probably means a separate contract), or have a second interface with which it joins the phone hotspot AP. This can either be a second wifi interface (very few routers have this) or an USB interface with a wifi dongle plugged in (must be compatible - bit of a hassle usually). Or, since most routers have an Ethernet interface, this can also be used, but then you need another Ethernet to Wifi device (like the popular Ubiquiti Bullet, for example). So unfortunately not very simple at all, but you have options..

The Teltonika rut240 does all of this

 

[Yngmar]

WiFi Camp-Pro 2 v2

Do you think something like this could do it?

Yes, that can go the wifi-to-wifi-to-4g route. Although the R36a is very outdated and you can just buy their USB wifi interface and antenna and hook it up to any OpenWRT router. I'd recommend GL.inet, because they come with it installed already, saving you the hassle of doing that. This route really only makes sense if you absolutely want to keep the SIM in the phone. Otherwise the wifi-to-4g with the SIM in the router makes more sense (one less hop of latency and interference). But with the Wifi antenna you can also pick up marina wifi, making it more of a general purpose boat router. Choices!

 

[TSB240]

I have been using a teketonik rut 950 for networking phones and tablet running navionics and PC.
I had considered adding the emtrak ais with WiFi output to the router hetwirk.
I am waking up an alternative approach using a less expensive SODTMA high output transponder without Wifi.

I can easily hardwire this to my existing chartplotter and use a 2 port yakka from the chartplotter to supply all the boats nmea data to either phones tablets or pcs.
NMEA0183 to Wi-Fi 2 port converter by YAKBITZ, from AVES Marine UK Distributor | eBay.

The yakka is probably half the price of a router and could be used to add another WiFi outlet from the Emtrak but you will only have aIs data.

 

[pyrojames]

I installed one of these (D-Link DWR-921/B 4G/3G LTE), but you will need an extra 4G contract. Ethernet to Victron kit and wifi onboard.

 

[Matwill]

I installed one of these (D-Link DWR-921/B 4G/3G LTE), but you will need an extra 4G contract. Ethernet to Victron kit and wifi onboard.

the issue is - if the only option is to get another sim then i can just put that in the tablet. The point is to avoid having 2 data plans, especially when the data plan per month is around 30 bux and possible router solution is maybe 100 bux total.

Another option I have been shown is this EZ Hotspot Extender v4 WiFi 4 Hoog vermogen hotspot versterker

Apparently its a wifi extender on wifi wan and a router on wifi lan.

 

[lustyd]

No need for another sim with the Teltonika I mentioned, although it does support that too.

 

[Daverw]

We use RUT 950 for all wireless and wired on board, cheep data sim £15 per month, does Victron, TV, AIS chart plotter, iPads and phones. Never missed a beat in 4 years on line

 

[SimonKNZ]

A travel router will be able to do what you want - connect to the phone hotspot as a client and then act as a router for other connected devices. They're designed like this so that you can establish your own private network, connected via the router to a public hotspot such as in a hotel. The one I have is the TP-Link AC750: https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-Support-Extender-UK-TL-WR902AC/dp/B01NAYG15H

 

[Matwill]

I think you might be right, im going to give this one a crack

GL-MT1300 / Beryl

 

[Yngmar]

I think you might be right, im going to give this one a crack

GL-MT1300 / Beryl

This does have two radios (2.4 and 5GHz), but make sure your phone supports 5 GHz too (almost all recent phones do, but there's exceptions). Then you can use the 5GHz radio to connect to the phone (as station) and the 2.4 GHz radio as AP for the boat stuff.

 

[Matwill]

Update in case anyone googles this in the future,

The GL-MT1300 worked a charm, i needed to put my emtrak 954 in station mode and gave it a dedicated ip, I connected the beryl to the internet via my phones hotspot and connected my tablet to the router just normally via dhcp, I then set the navionics ais address to the static IP i assigned the 954, all works perfectly.

I now have internet and ais targets on my tablet using internet from my phone and ais from the emtrak

so for the cost of a 70 euro travel router I do not need to buy a second data sim card for the tablet

Also for the record, digital yacht, navionics, some other boat network companies and even at first emtrak all told me it was impossible to do. To emtraks credit after they said it wouldn't work, they emailed me back and thought it might if i put the emtrak in station mode which was my plan all along.

If anyone wants to give this a go and needs help with the settings of all the devices just let me know,

 

[Matwill]

 

[Ningaloo]

We're using a little GL.Inet router running OpenWRT. It has a USB dongle for the SIM card that does 4G. Even easier, you can get a router with internal SIM slot. The only problem then is that it cannot share the SIM card with your phone.

I use a gl inet 750x which can connect to external WiFi (either the marina or a phone hotspot) or use its own 4g SIM.
Excellent for gathering all the data together and making it available remotely, or offering boat wide WiFi/internet.
It doesn't need its own dim if you just need it on the boat.