Thinking about AIS purchase

[Travelling Westerly]

Apologies Cornish - for my misenterpretaion. Here we have little commercial traffic, container ships and cruise ships (except the latter have all melted away). These large vessel follow well worn tracks and you can predict where they will be (following the 200m depth going south and around 100m going north (keeps them in or out of the current so they save fuel) - so AIS is of less importance. We domn't have much fog and as long as you keep a sensible watch these big vessels are hard to miss. Our worry is very small fish boats, run about, and or buoys laid by fishing boats - and they don't have AIS (so radar is a bit more useful).

I'd agree with Fred - if you think you need it - its better at the helm. Rushing to and from the helm to chart table is bound to increase heart rate.

Repeaters, or WiFi to a waterproofed tablet, is what we do.

The downside to your route that I see is that you need to keep the Vesper unit on overnight, to enable the anchor alarm and though the alarm might be good - what is the power draw - compared to a phone tablet.

Jonathan

Hey no apology needed - I always read and value your threads/replies.

I think i was editing my reply when you typed this so go back and have another read, Im sure youll like it

 

[Neeves]

I might add - I was brought up in Scotland with a strictly presbyterian (not a capital 'P') background and spending money unnecessarily was frowned upon. Actually spending money at all was frowned upon (partially because it did not exist - but I'm showing my age ).

Take care, stay safe - enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Jonathan

 

[Neeves]

Saying all that though, I do agree that perhaps I have a need to start another thread about how to sleep soundly whilst at anchor as long as it does not descend into a which anchor is best thread as we all know where that will end up. Ill start one but Im sure it will go south, off topic and end in a row . You just want me to start it dont you

Cheers

Magic!

Not at all - when boredom strikes I'm more than. capable of starting an anchor thread (as others might tell me ) - but it would save me time if others did it as well!

I'm actually not a fan of anchor apps, I prefer a reliable anchor (that should get them going!) ......... and I don't keep upto date on the apps - so I am interested in the comments.

Jonathan

 

[PaulRainbow]

At the risk of repeating myself, but kind of following on from Jonathans comments, particularly about using a separate anchor watch alarm (which can be on the phone or tablet, or both) and having a tablet too, although for the OP it's a little different as the OP has his Axiom at the helm, so it's even easier to use a tablet down below, as it doesn't need to be waterproof etc.

The AIS does not need to be Raymarine or any specific brand, but IMO, Emtrak are hard to beat. So, we send the AIS to the Axiom over N2K (Emtrak AIS support N2K, 0183 and USB, some also do wifi and some have built in splitters, very easy to install). Now, with the Raymarine Control app' we get everything from the Axiom on the tablet and we can control the Axiom from the tablet, exactly the same as if another plotter was fitted down below.

We can also install Navionics or various other charting app's on the tablet and use it stand alone, handy if the Axiom fails, the power fails or if you just want to use it down below in the evening without switching all of the instruments on, or even take it home to do next weeks passage planning. If we chose an AIS with wife WIFI the AIS is also available on the tablet when in stand alone mode. You can create waypoints or routes on the tablet and sync them with the Axiom.

Lots of other potentially useful app's out there that can be used on the tablet, not to mention you can use it to read PBO or check your email.

Samsung Galaxy TAB A 10" tablets on Ebay for £119 brand new

Edit: I see from the OPs new thread he already has a Samsung tablet, so i'm scratching my head now, wondering why he'd buy an AIS with a built in screen, he already has the screen.

I suspect a lot of people don't yet appreciate how useful the tablet can be with a modern, wifi enabled, MFD.

 

[Travelling Westerly]

Magic!

Not at all - when boredom strikes I'm more than. capable of starting an anchor thread (as others might tell me ) - but it would save me time if others did it as well!

I'm actually not a fan of anchor apps, I prefer a reliable anchor (that should get them going!) ......... and I don't keep upto date on the apps - so I am interested in the comments.

Jonathan

You will be pleased to know Ive done it for you Jonathan - lets see what happens now (see sleeping at anchor thread)

 

[Travelling Westerly]

If we chose an AIS with wife

Paul - I always sit up and take note when you post as you're one of the guys that knows his stuff - but this comment is just one step to far! Im not letting her get involved in chosing my AIS - she will want it in a specific colour and in a type of fabric!!!

 

[PaulRainbow]

Paul - I always sit up and take note when you post as you're one of the guys that knows his stuff - but this comment is just one step to far! Im not letting her get involved in chosing my AIS - she will want it in a specific colour and in a type of fabric!!!

Apologies for my terrible advice, after further consideration i'd suggest that choosing one with WIFI would be much better than choosing one with wife

 

[Neeves]

I like a tablet/wifi combo because I can sit on the foredeck and have all the data available, I can lie in our berth (ditto) and can make porridge and toast and not burn anything - and have all the data.

We all, now (almost all) have a phone and tablet - wifi does cost (but less than a wife - and given the choice I'd choose the wife . ) but then allows you to use the tablet/phone to at least 50% of its potential (and it gives you that 'sort of' floating screen).

Jonathan

 

[Stooriefit]

When it comes to electronics onboard the pace of change is difficult to keep up with. I have the Vesper unit which I bought and installed 3 years ago. Its great. Do I worry that it might be replaced by something else - no. My main chart plotter is an old Garmin from 2006. It still works perfectly well, but what i do have and will always ensure I have is a fully up to date set of paper charts. So my advice to the OP (for what its worth!) is go and buy the current vesper.

 

[RJJ]

I like a tablet/wifi combo because I can sit on the foredeck and have all the data available, I can lie in our berth (ditto) and can make porridge and toast and not burn anything - and have all the data.

We all, now (almost all) have a phone and tablet - wifi does cost (but less than a wife - and given the choice I'd choose the wife . ) but then allows you to use the tablet/phone to at least 50% of its potential (and it gives you that 'sort of' floating screen).

Jonathan

It's also great offshore if you have a couple of crew/watch-leaders. I like to have my phone or tablet by my bunk, so when they're changing over I can keep an eye on nav without going to the chart table. Including the AIS.

 

[Neeves]

It's also great offshore if you have a couple of crew/watch-leaders. I like to have my phone or tablet by my bunk, so when they're changing over I can keep an eye on nav without going to the chart table. Including the AIS.

Its a difficult problem that wifi/tablet removes.

Getting our of you berth and checking on the crew implies a lack of trust - being able to monitor progress from your berth on a tablet means you can keep that 'insecurity' to yourself and hopefully that, apparent, lack of oversight engenders confidence.

Jonathan

 

[Moodysailor]

At the risk of repeating myself, but kind of following on from Jonathans comments, particularly about using a separate anchor watch alarm (which can be on the phone or tablet, or both) and having a tablet too, although for the OP it's a little different as the OP has his Axiom at the helm, so it's even easier to use a tablet down below, as it doesn't need to be waterproof etc.

The AIS does not need to be Raymarine or any specific brand, but IMO, Emtrak are hard to beat. So, we send the AIS to the Axiom over N2K (Emtrak AIS support N2K, 0183 and USB, some also do wifi and some have built in splitters, very easy to install). Now, with the Raymarine Control app' we get everything from the Axiom on the tablet and we can control the Axiom from the tablet, exactly the same as if another plotter was fitted down below.

We can also install Navionics or various other charting app's on the tablet and use it stand alone, handy if the Axiom fails, the power fails or if you just want to use it down below in the evening without switching all of the instruments on, or even take it home to do next weeks passage planning. If we chose an AIS with wife WIFI the AIS is also available on the tablet when in stand alone mode. You can create waypoints or routes on the tablet and sync them with the Axiom.

Lots of other potentially useful app's out there that can be used on the tablet, not to mention you can use it to read PBO or check your email.

Samsung Galaxy TAB A 10" tablets on Ebay for £119 brand new

Edit: I see from the OPs new thread he already has a Samsung tablet, so i'm scratching my head now, wondering why he'd buy an AIS with a built in screen, he already has the screen.

I suspect a lot of people don't yet appreciate how useful the tablet can be with a modern, wifi enabled, MFD.

We're in the middle of an enforced electronics upgrade (our old C80 plotter died at the end of last year) and after looking through the various options we went along the lines of this. Our yacht is a 50yr old Moody Carbineer with two helm stations, but the outer helm was never intended or designed for an MFD. We wanted to keep some of the traditional aspects intact but still benefit from the best tech so we with one Raymarine Axiom Plus for the lower helm/nav station and Vesper Marine XB-8000 AIS. We will use a tablet outside as this can be removed when not needed.

We went with this approach for the same reasons @PaulRainbow mentions - to leverage the WiFi facility to cast to a second screen, and went with the Vesper AIS as we can use this via their tablet/phone app independently if needed. We both have smartphones so we gained two extra small screens for no additional cost.

The Vesper XB-8000 also is an NMEA multiplexer, so we can combine 0183 data on the N2K bus and vice-versa. With the Raymarine ST1 to STNG bus this opened up a lot of options and meant we didn't need to replace the existing ST instruments that work fine, and adds the benefit of bringing data into our laptop that runs OpenCPN via hardwire USB connection from the XB-8000.

It wasn't cheap, but we could have spent a hell of a lot more and gained several independent and redundant systems as part of the upgrade. We are also future proofed to add the radar and autpilot in coming years once the budget has recovered!

We didn't look at Emtrak, but their equipment sounds functionally similar to Vesper (the built in splitter is a nice touch). There is a lot of love for Vesper in many places so we followed the noise....