Wireless wind instruments

Morgan's post prompted me to look at the NASA unit. We don't get NASA here, if they have a distributor they are very low key. The unit looks - well cheap and cheerful. And its solar powered.

Given that no-one has a good word for Raymarine and comments on NASA have been mute - are NASA better than Raymarine?

Jonathan
 
There's no track record for the NASA wireless, it's not been on the market that long ( I would say 12 months, so with my bad memory it's probably two years).

There is a good guy at Raymarine who I talked to ages ago, but you have to get through to him. Again faulty memory withstanding I think his name was Steve? He was actually one of the original Tacktick people.

A couple of "interesting" snippets about my Tacktick wind. It doesn't work once I get inside the lock in St Katz in London. First time I was buzzing round in small circles trying to get the masthead to pair - unsuccessfully. The minute I left the lock it all worked again, so I would probably put it down to EMF interference. Also happened in Limehouse this year.
 
Neeves said:
The factor that does discourage me is that if wireless had a future we would see more usage but it remains a niche application. Apart from TackTick there is virtually no other user experience and most respondents have quite old installations, no-one seems to be rushing out to buy.

Jonathan
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Wireless has a future in many other domains - I use a wireless printer, for example, and send music wirelessly to a speaker driver.

My suspicion is that Raymarine bought TackTick in order to bury it - no product development since the acquisition in 2011. Too much of a threat to the status quo. But if wireless is a good idea (and why not?) someone else will come along to eat Raymarine's dinner.
 
Twister_Ken said:
My suspicion is that Raymarine bought TackTick in order to bury it - no product development since the acquisition in 2011. Too much of a threat to the status quo. But if wireless is a good idea (and why not?) someone else will come along to eat Raymarine's dinner.
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You may well be right about Raymarine's acquisition. But as to "why not?", wireless is much more expensive, has limited-life transducer batteries which need replacement, and can fail to work in certain areas of radio interference. With Garmin/Nexus saying the batteries last 3 years, and Nasa saying nothing, why risk it?
 
pvb said:
Wireless wind transducers are not "fit and forget". If you're not happy to make repeated trips up the mast (or pay someone else to do it), the attraction of a one-time job of feeding the cable becomes obvious.
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What do you have to do up the mast? Mine have been up there for 12 years - just put a new replacement up this year as it stopped spinning. I quite like them - this was the original model and they work well. I dont think the design or technology has changed at all in that time.

The buggers did change the mast head fitting so that the new one would not fit the old mast head base. The new design also means you cannot remove it over winter (which I never do) if you wish to and as they advise.
 
Wireless obviously has a future, even on a yacht - depending on your definition of 'wireless' - I'm a nerd when it comes to technical definitions. But GoPros are wireless (as are some really cheap clones from China), my Simrad WiFi is wireless - radar to ipad is fantastic, my GPS signal is wireless. If the problem were power - we all have wires up the mast for lights, solar panels have increased in efficiency, the power needed for wireless instrumentation is minimal. There is a market, evidenced by those that have wireless instrumentation and the points made about removing masts and what do do with cables. If Raymarine bought TackTick to bury it - they must be mad - I suspect they bought it and then other issues overtook them.

But the idea of opening a box, climbing the mast, drilling two holes and then fit and replace battery once a year (doesn't everyone inspect their rig?)- really it has great appeal.

There was an Airmar unit - that did everything, fluxgate, humidity, GPS, wind direction and speed (I think sold as a weather sensor) - but I suspect it was cabled - must look it up again.

Jonathan
 
Neeves said:
But the idea of opening a box, climbing the mast, drilling two holes and then fit and replace battery once a year (doesn't everyone inspect their rig?)- really it has great appeal.



Jonathan
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Johnathan, - I have not replaced the battery at the mast head in 12 years - now I have a new unit - but the battery was still fine. Neither have the batteries in the display units ever caused a problem - (find some wood to touch). I just wonder what the designed life is of these batteries, anyone know?
 
Chris_Robb said:
Johnathan, - I have not replaced the battery at the mast head in 12 years - now I have a new unit - but the battery was still fine. Neither have the batteries in the display units ever caused a problem - (find some wood to touch). I just wonder what the designed life is of these batteries, anyone know?
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Thanks Chris, very reassuring and encouraging - but I'll still go up the mast to check the rig anyway :)

Jonathan
 
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