Way, Way Off-Topic Discussions - An Experiment

[rheaton]

I just purchased the ipad1 for my wife’s birthday. She didn’t want it, so I go it. She already has an iphone. I had been wanting my own lab top for myself for a while. So far I like the ipad. I have loaded movies, songs, and pictures on it. I am not really a cell phone person. I do wish it had a camera. I just loaded the Navonics software on it. Trying that out now.

[TomG]

Believing that a picture is worth a thousand words, here are just a few screen shots of my iPad running Navionics. The first is Kent Narrows here on the Chesapeake Bay, near my slip. All the little icons, like the purple sailboats, buoys, wrenches, bridges, etc, can be touched with your finger. When that happens, another window opens up giving great detail about the object.



For example, if I touch the blue diamond with the "C" in it, I get the current going through the Narrows (quite thrillling at times!) and the forecast out to forever. If you touch the purple sailboat, all the associated marina info pops up (fuel, berthing, phone numbers, etc). Touching a navaid reveals all the pertinent data there (R FL R 4S BELL Red Lateral Buoy (nun, i.e. conical shape) ""92"" having red flashing light with a period of 4 seconds and a bell as fog signal.) The red diamond with a "T" gives you all the tide data. The list goes on and on.



And for all my celestial navigators:


"I'd rather light a candle, than to curse your darkness" - Gale Snoats "Raising Arizona"

[hanleyclifford]

Have not been thru there in a while. Is Annie's still there?

[TomG]

Have not been thru there in a while. Is Annie's still there?

Oh yeah, Annie's is doing quite well. Harris' Crab House is doing well too. I'm just glad I work weekends so as not to hassle with the Knuckle-headed weekend warriors at Red Eyes Dock Bar. Those clowns give buffoons a bad name.

[roadnsky]

Way, Way, way Off-Topic! (But Bill started it!)

...iPad looks very useful for my lifestyle, but ...

Well, this sorta sums up what Tom was sayin'...

I'm currently stuck in a cold, dark ballroom working AT a MICROSOFT meeting.
Yesterday in the Keynote, two of the presenters spent the better part of their presentation discussing how "cool" (their word) the new version of iPAD is.
They were especially impressed with the genius of the "Smart Cover" for it.
One of them (a product developer) actually said, "We need to start thinking like Apple does!"
I could say a lot more but would be going against the Non-Disclosure that I signed.
(The funniest part is almost everything we do backstage to support their meeting is MAC based. Including how we're interfacing their PC's to the screens.)

Not selling anything. Just sayin'...

[lat 64]

Data, data, everywhere not a bit to think.

Tom,
What the application you have?

I bought Polarnavy for the old Mac. A good simple system for $35.00
It has GRIB data display. so I can make my own real observations about the bouy data. I don't know if they will make it for the iOS, but it will display NMEA data if it hooked up to a nav server on a boat. Imagine all those instruments right in my lap. I bought a used system last year and it has a little black box for the backbone of all of the different transponders(knots, temp, wind, compass, blah blah. I guess there's a way to link that to my old laptop ala usb.
So, wouldn't it be great to put a bluetooth dongle on the output of the Nav server(black box) and use an ipad for the display. I could put the ipad in an clear box and laugh at the rain.

Sometimes I wish I were a computer programer so I could just make all the things on my wish list. Oh well, at least can fix engines.

Ta,
Russ

[lat 64]

Oh,
Polarnavy is at :

http://www.polarnavy.com/index.php

For Windows and linux too

All this wishing of mine could be done on PCs too. I'm not branded, I just don't know how to fix computers, I just drive them. In fact the Mac iOS(ipad sys.) does not support OBDII-bluetooth apps. There are lots of Android apps for this.
So I have to use my old Mac powerbook to link to the bluetooth dongle that I have in my car's diagnostics data terminal. I actually fixed the check engine light the other day with just one finger!

Jerry give my ideas to the lab and send me a free test module.


Rus

[roadnsky]

Jerry give my ideas to the lab and send me a free test module.

Ohhhh, we're ALWAYS trying to give these guyz wish lists!
Trust me...

[TomG]

Tom,
What the application you have?

I bought Polarnavy for the old Mac. A good simple system for $35.00
It has GRIB data display. so I can make my own real observations about the bouy data. I don't know if they will make it for the iOS, but it will display NMEA data if it hooked up to a nav server on a boat. Imagine all those instruments right in my lap. I bought a used system last year and it has a little black box for the backbone of all of the different transponders(knots, temp, wind, compass, blah blah. I guess there's a way to link that to my old laptop ala usb.
So, wouldn't it be great to put a bluetooth dongle on the output of the Nav server(black box) and use an ipad for the display. I could put the ipad in an clear box and laugh at the rain.

Sometimes I wish I were a computer programer so I could just make all the things on my wish list. Oh well, at least can fix engines.

Ta,
Russ

Russ,

Another confession: I am not especially tech saavy. That's probably why I like Apple stuff so much - they've done all the thinking for me. It's also why a lot of folks don't care for Apple. I am simply using off-the-shelf apps for the iPad. Nothing cosmic. No getting NMEA 0183 to translate to SeaTalk or any of that higher level operation. I'm simply using the Navionics East Coast HD software running on a completely stock iPad 3G/WiFi. When I bought the Navionics app, it was selling for $9.99. I kid you not. This software is more robust and easier to use than my dedicated Standard Horizon Chartplotter. At a fraction of the cost. I think Navionics has raised the price to $30, but it's still a steal if you already have the iPad.

Now what is truly interesting is a link that Moderator Bill posted about Chetco Digital Instruments and their foray into not only navigation, but digital engine instrumentation via a dedicated WiFi hub using HTTP rather than NMEA 2000 or 0183. This allows the user to read a tremendous amount of data by simply opening a web brouser on any WiFi capable device (phone, laptop, iPad, etc). The possibilites are eye-watering. Here is a link to that article: http://www.panbo.com/archives/2011/0...rnet.html#more
I think this is kinda wher you're coming from with the bluetooth link. This chetco deal seems to take some of the mystery out of it and the potential appears extraordinary. Of course, the same was said for Betamax!

BTW, I just noticed you were from Fairbanks. Where do you keep your boat? I was extremely lucky to have lived on Kodiak Island from '97 to 2000 when I was flying for the Coast Guard. Do you keep her on Cook Inlet towards Anchorage or maybe down toward Seward? Days are getting longer up there! I know you are happy about that.

[ndutton]

This caveat is not borne of personal experience but IMHO still bears some merit:

Saltwater and electrics boyz, saltwater and electrics.

Be prepared, have a backup ready.
Contrary to this policy is the following story:

I was on a dive vacation in Hawaii in the 80's when dive computers were first emerging into the marketplace. All instrumentation to that point was mechanical for reliability, after all we were talking life support systems and the charter operators were extremely safety conscious due to liability exposure.

A vacationing dive instructor was on board showing off his new dive computer that tracked his dive profile history and did all the repetitive dive calculations using a different algorithm (Haldane I think) rather than the tried and true U.S. Navy dive tables.

The charter operation divemaster asked why not just send the computer on the dive and stay on the boat himself? He could read about it when the computer returned!

That was the 80's. It's interesting to note I dove with the same charter 5 years ago and they now require dive computers. You don't have one, you can rent one from them but nobody leaves the boat without a computer.

[lat 64]

Ok tom,
I think we hijacked this thread for a bit, but it is now back to engine instrumentation anyway.
I learned wifi apps will work for the iphone/ipod/ipad. there are some out there.
of course at 600 bucks for the thingy, I might buy some new rigging first.
I do have no less than four separate displays that came with the nexus system I bought.
I am really just blowing smoke here, but I like to learn what's possible.

The boat is in Homer. I'm sure you probably did approaches to the airport there. I see the Coast Guard doing touch-n-gos all the time.
Two C.G. ships, the Sedge and the Roanoke Island were stationed there back then. A new one, the Hickory was built and replaced the Sedge a few years ago. The Roanoke I. sits sentinel over two of the scruffiest leaky tugs in the world. I think those boats need to get made into artificial reefs. A couple of TV stars over there too. You know, those loud crabbers.

Days are getting much longer now

R.

[smaarch]

interesting conversation
i've been playing with some gadgets and here's some of what i found

spent last year with a laptop on board trying out some things to see what the reality of leaving for a summer and still being able to work as needed.
loaded a dry cell backup battery for medical equipment on board strictly for use with the laptop. could run it several hours every day for about a week before it needed a charge.

all work related programs installed
and a wireless card (sprint no longer supports using blackberry as a modem)
all data files in my office are backed up to a web based data file storage system. i can access them anywhere an internet connection exists.

working is a problem while anchored out. looking at a screen on a rocking boat for any length of time effects me.

downloaded several free nav software programs and free charts from NOAA - and plugged in a $50 garmin gps puck. this is the ticket. works brilliantly.

the chart plotter is great with one exception - it has to stay down below.
and the anchor alarm lets me sleep well

so while the working part is still a problem (heck i go sailing to get away from it!) for what i need the laptop still gives the most flexibility and with the current price of a netbook its a pretty good deal.

oh yeah - and streaming music from Pandora on blackberry or the laptop- through the boats stereo got all the cd's off the boat. really great when hanging out at the end of the day with a crisp bottle of wine and some food on the grille.

so yes it works if you want to work
all said and done, i just want to go sailing.

[rigspelt]

Believing that a picture is worth a thousand words, here are just a few screen shots of my iPad running Navionics.

For me, the iPad is about serving up information, and Tom's post neatly demonstrates why I have decided to get one. This thread actually is very on-topic, because the iPad (for some of us) fits a handy niche working with our boats as well as living on them. It's lighter than my laptop, so I will have it with me doing maintenance, on day sails and in the cockpit, cabin or engine space as needed. It's bigger than my smartphone, so it is more useful for serving up information.

Some uses:

1. Maintenance on the boat: photographing parts, making and using lists, displaying reference notes, images and PDFs, email to order parts.
2. Under way: GPS and electronic charts (supplement to stationary chartplotter, which is out at the helm), email, second cellphone, reference material.
3. Lifestyle: basic photographs, storing images off my camera, music.

I was an "early adopter" when PCs came out, and like Tom I've struggled with Windows systems for a long time. Now the family is old enough that I find myself administering a home network, and MS has just orphaned Windows Home Server. We're shifting to Apple for the integration and simplicity. It took a while for Apple to develop to the point where I could be comfortable with that decision, and I hope they maintain their focus for many years to come.

[rheaton]

I picked up the ipad2. Also purchased navonics hd. I like both so far. Does anyone know if the ipad2 requires one to have their 3GS enabled for it to work while on the boat. I thought I read somewhere that the ipad2 had an internal gps, in addition to the cell tower triangulation. It would be nice not to have to burn 3GS minutes while navigating. Take care, Russ

[tenders]

iPads GPS, but only in the 3G version. The Wi-Fi-only versions don't have GPS. This is true of the iPad 1 and the iPad 2.

http://gps.about.com/b/2011/03/20/apple-ipad-2-gps-quick-guide-and-capabilities.htm