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Instruments, Tablets, PCs and Intranets on boats


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I've been working on a marine PC out of the USA. It can speak either NMEA0183 or 2000. It comes with a long range WiFi antenna, and a small one for a boat intranet - that is a WiFi access point for the boat, for those who don't know. This allows the connection of any WiFi device to the boat's WiFi, AND the sharing of the long range connection if available.

The PC draws only 10w!! The touchscreen (15") another 20w. That makes this more power efficient than many laptops, and better than many plotters.

The PC can broadcast any of the instrument data provided to it over the wifi, enabling you to use your tablet/phone/PC/Mac whatever with any software you prefer.

Here is a pic of it sharing data with OpenCPN on the main PC, the Wireless Netbook, and the Andriod Nexus 7.

Intranet Andriod and PC.jpg

Cool!

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Yep, you can use any AIS, including the vesper with this system. The AIS does not need to be WiFi, but if it is not, it will need to be connected to the primary PC. Either with NMEA0183 or NMEA2000. The PC will then broadcast the AIS info to any device on the Intranet.

A Vesper wireless ais can simply joint the intranet.....

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The PC is not waterproof, but otherwise is solid state, incl two 64GB SSDs. It is very small footprint, 220x190x60. I'm waiting on some high res pics so i can list it on my website, but here are the best I have now. This is the NMEA0183 version..

PC.jpg

Comments welcome.

Matt

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No reason not to have bigger drives if you want. But 64GB is heaps for the programs, and all the worlds charts, all your boat documentation,  etc. I use a couple of external 1TB drives for Movies when I want them. The PC can be ordered with any size drives you want....

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Nothing wrong with SOTP sailing - it's sure how you learn the most about boat handling! :-).

 

However, given a rough night, with crap visibility and a bit of traffic around, approaching an unfamiliar coast,  it's just safer and less stressful than DR. Emphasis on the "D"! Yes, you can heave too and wait for daylight, but you can still be run down! It is not a substitute for good seamanship!

I'm sure not saying that every vessel needs this stuff - be pretty difficult on a PT!!

 

The idea of this stuff is to give you information. Information to make better decisions. That's all.

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Yeap me too, what has happened to SOTP sailing?

 

Don't worry, SOTP still works. Like when  all the crew in in the back of the boat while doing 15-20 kn. Water everywhere !.  No time for tablets and wouldn't last long anyway plus havn't got room for the mahogany table. Come to think of it no table at all ;-)  

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Nothing wrong with SOTP sailing - it's sure how you learn the most about boat handling! :-).

 

 

 

The idea of this stuff is to give you information. Information to make better decisions. That's all.

 

Yeah the 'stuff' is good. Have bought a tablet just for the boat ( Navionics ) because my eye sight is getting so bad I require bigger charts. Will do what I can to water proof it.

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Hey Beau, very soon I'll show you all some more "Stuff" - new to the market, a small (7"), low (ish) cost plotter, can be immersed to 3 m for 30 mins, sunlight view-able, good charting, and Sailsteer - shows you lay-lines allowing for set and drift, so has polars, and will have a startline feature as well. Designed for small - medium race boats, and local sailors that don't require radar etc etc... It's pretty cool and should prove popular.

 

I don't like tablets as primary navigation devices. They are too vulnerable, get dropped, sat on stood on, wet, flat, etc, and most are no good in direct sunlight. But I know many boats, especially small ones, use them. Mostly due to price and convenience IMO.

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Yeap me too, what has happened to SOTP sailing?

We still sail that way locally sloopy, the instruments we have are pretty 'orrible, but a plotter is a real boon locally and AIS plus some redundancy ( ipad / tablet etc ), plus some forecasting ability is important to me for offshore.( in a year or two)

Full internet coverage for better than gribs can't be far away ( in a realistic financial sense)

windy ty backed up with situation maps and some local forecasts and you could passage plan and go anywhere.

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Looks real nice island time. Is it using ARM?

 

I've been using an eee netbook (running navigatrix) to do something similar but it would be awesome to have something like this hardwired in and bolted down somewhere nice and safe. The netbook also seems to use a surprising amount of power running openCPN too...

 

It looks like this is running windows? I've tried to keep away from anything Microsoft for the past while after some bad experiences, are the latest windows OS's a lot more stable than they used to be? My last windows machine was windows xp and it certainly wouldn't like to be left running for days at a time!

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It's running windows 7. But it can be linux or mac as well, whatever OpenCPN supports, so  Whatever you prefer. Windows 7 is pretty stable, I've run it for a week without an issue.  Intel Atom D2800 dual core....

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