Names to wifi

[azazzera]

Not at all engine related but respect opinions on this sight. I have a simrad 32 tiller pilot on a pearson30. Would like to use iNavX with it. Having very limited knowledge about electronics I am asking advise about how to connect the two. I will be using an iPad with the iNavX. I get that some sort of nmea wifi connector must be used. As always trying to keep price as low as possible and quality maximum. I found a device from encoded solutions. Possibly open a big door with this next statement: would love any and all advice and comments. Thanks.

[Mo]

Hi,
I'll give you my opinion for whats it's worth. I have a Raymarine Auto Pilot and A78 Chartplotter, raymarine radar... My boat is a C&C 30 and I don't have the autopilot and chartplotter working together. The reason is that any course change would normally require a sail set change. I keep both separate...no course change on my boat unless I know about it and the sails and course change happen in unison. Not quite sure if this is what you were thinking, but I don't have the autopilot and and chartplotter play together.

[Administrator]

As originally installed in 1990, after arriving at a waypoint in a route in track mode, my Autohelm autopilot would happily jump to the next one, without any human action required. Shortly thereafter, a firmware update was issued. With this new version, an arrival alarm was sounded when you got to the waypoint, and it wouldn’t shut up until you either canceled the track or pushed the “Track” button one more time to head towards the next waypoint. The display would show the heading to the next waypoint but not alter course to head for it without human intervention. Typically, we read the new heading, manually turn towards it, reset the sails and then push the "Track" button.

The story eventually surfaced that the firmware update was initiated because someone got thrown overboard by an unexpected course change.

Bill

[ndutton]

I have my GPS interfaced with my autopilot but I don’t use it to steer a track. Instead it repeats GPS information on the autopilot display at the helm (my GPS is below at the chart table) such as speed over ground (SOG), course over ground (COG),distance to waypoint (DTW) and bearing to waypoint (BTW). For example, if I’m out for a day sail and want to evacuate my holding tank I’ll call up the LA Lighthouse waypoint and when DTW reads the distance I need to be offshore, I’m legal to dump. If transiting to Catalina for a weekend I’ll set the waypoint to Isthmus Cove and the display will tell me how far I have yet to go, how fast I’m going and what course I should be steering without taking control of the autopilot. Course steering by the autopilot is by its own flux gate compass.

It has worked well for me. I use the features I want without surrendering complete control.

[Al Schober]

Never tried connecting stuff onboard using wifi. Even at home, wifi is iffy with range issues. Bluetooth is worse with both range and lag issues.
One onboard connectivity attempt may be informative. I tried connect my chartplotter to my VHF to a) send GPS data to the VHF and b) send AIS data to the chartplotter. Chartplotter was VERY unhappy until I disconnected the leads for AIS data. I think the chartplotter was getting feedback/crosstalk on the wires, probably because they were just plain 4 conductor phone wire, not twisted pair.
Good luck!

[Aj@yknot]

I'll be honest, I'm kinda new to the boating world, *but* I do have 30+ years in the IT world. I'll note that the single biggest issue I would have using wifi on my 28' with an A4 in it would be the noise (I can measure it with my laptop) from the coil/distributor. I regularly worked from the boat on Fridays last summer, simply because it gave me the chance to do little things on the boat when my work was done. One of those things was after a top off, discovering that my fuel tank sending unit seal was dead. I sat on the boat and ran the engine for about 2 hours, in gear at about 1100 rpm to burn off the top of the tank. I discovered that the noise from the coil/distributor (or I suppose possibly the alternator but I'd rather it wasn't) was enough to cut my wifi connection to the marina completely while I was sitting in the cockpit. Not so bad on the bow though, although it was still cutting throughput down about 30/40%.

One of the *other* reasons I'd like to overhaul the engine compartment/cockpit sole.

It would of course be relative, the wifi emitter for the marina end of things was at least 100 to 120 feet away at the base of the pier. Your talking about entirely inside the cockpit, but the additional point is that your Ipad has nowhere near the xmit power that the commercial wifi AP would have.

[ndutton]

I use on board wifi to transmit AIS data to iNavX on an Apple iPad. No noise or connectivity problems so far (I have electronic ignition).

[Aj@yknot]

Point taken Neil,
Perhaps something else I should add to my list for the summer.

[Administrator]

I use onboard wifi to transmit AIS data to iNavX on an Apple iPad.

+1

Bill

[msmith10]

Personally, I wouldn't be without a chartplotter-autopilot connection. You don't have to cede total control to the electronics in order to benefit from its utility.
I'm not familiar with the inputs/outputs of the Simrad, but the I/O of the iPad is quite limited.
I believe you would need a multiplexer to connect the two, and the cost of that is a good ways toward the purchase of a dedicated chartplotter which is already designed to connect to your pilot.
You're looking at maybe $600 for a new Garmin which is ready to go, or look on eBay for a used unit at about 1/2 that.

[joe_db]

http://yakbitz.com/YakBak.aspx

This will do NMEA both ways over wifi. I have the one-way version of this.
I also prefer this app over iNavX. The AIS integration is WAY better.

http://globalaquamaps.com/

[msmith10]

Azazzera- I don't have any experience with Joe's recommended device but this appears to be a real bargain compared to other units I've seen and is sure worth a try. All gadgets require some fiddling to get them to do what you want but this looks like a good start.

[joe_db]

Mine works OK. It can have issues with numerous devices connected to it. I would really think twice before using any kind of wifi to control an autopilot. I like GPS steering in airplanes, I am sitting right there if it goes nuts, but on boats you generally aren't sitting at the helm or you wouldn't need the autopilot.