The Marine iPad . . .

[mblowes]

Awesome. I knew you'd be lurking there somewhere. INavx is one very cool app.

[mblowes]

Got the inavx update today. It is indeed very good

[mblowes]

When I load the wave forecast into iNavx could someone confirm that the numbers on the contours are in feet? Have researched and researched and all the NOAA doc suggests meters but I can't believe that for the area I am looking at.

[pteron]

I've just looked at the info for iNavX and whilst I can see it is possibly fantastic for US users, it is a huge outlay to try out for UK users. The charts from X-traverse are a minimum of $60 plus the $10 x-traverse lock in tax, which added to the £30 for inavx makes it an expensive punt.

Add that to the fact that you cannot use the ipad charts on the iphone (the excuse is different pricing for different resolutions - but this should mean that you can use the higher priced higher resolution charts on the lower resolution devices without having to buy them again) and it's looking like I'll be giving this one a miss.

If it is apple's official policy not to allow trials, then Talking Tom (one of the most popular apps for the iphone) and all of the 'lite' versions of apps have somehow got around it.

Basically, without a money back guarantee, I think you are missing out on a huge potential market.

[GPSNavX]

The wave contours will be in feet, unless the "Units" for "Distance" are set to Km. The "Units" setup can be reached either from the Chart view "Setup" or from the main menu "Preferences".

Navionics does have different pricing for each platform. The other option is to to buy the Navionics app(s) - different one for iPad and iPhone and each region. A "lite" version is very different than a "trial" version. Apple has no provisions for "trial" versions and recently update the SDK agreement to prevent "lite" versions that later enable functionality through an additional purchase. Typically when Apple changes their policies they don't purge the app store of offending apps.

[raymill2]

Originally Posted by PeregrineSea

I have a IPad2 that I am just starting to work with. It is wifi only. I have been thinking about connecting it to my onboard GPS and that can be done through a serial wifi adapter - pretty pricey at more than $200 -but it does work with iNavX. I am wondering about another option - connecting via bluetooth using BTSTACK GPS. Don't know if it will work with iNavX, but if it does I may try to get a GPS signal off the Spot connect I am also thinking about.

This is one of many comments about non 3G (Wi-Fi) only iPad use offshore. You can use a bluetooth receiver (Dual XGPS is a good one) but the use of bluetooth and running a Nav app on the iPad will suck power quite fast so have some charging options handy. A better solution if you are an iPhone user is to use the new "Personal Hotspot" function in your settings menu (settings>personal hotspot>tab 'ON') it makes you phone a Wi-Fi hotspot which you can then connect to on your iPad when you 'search' for available networks. Its real simple to use and means you have no need to spend extra cash for a 3G iPad2, or take out a separate data-plan for that iPad.

iPads are probably not good ondeck anyway except when truly protected from the elements or in fine weather, even then it needs to be mounted or it will slide and break easily. With the personal hotspot you can keep the pad downstairs in your luggage and stick your iPhone in your weatherproof pocket, you become a moving hotpsot, not bad eh?

[millsource]

Just back from St Martin to Grenada cruise. Used my ipad2 (with internal gps) with navionics app and sim card removed. Flawless performance. Have a pilot house so keeping dry is easy. Never turned on nobletech pc-based or stand-alone chart plotter systems the entire three week trip. Last year we sailed from NC to Guadeloupe with navionics/iphone4 as sole navigation tool due to failed solar panels. No problem. No bells and whistles in navionics, but the charts are priced right and it is really all you need for creating and following routes.

[timj]

I too have an iPad2 which I use on our trawler style motor yacht. I am running both Navionics and Memory Map. Vector and Raster charts respectively.

Generally I use Memory map (here in NZ) perhaps because I am more familiar with it's raster charts the waypoint and route features .But both are excellent and I use the dedicated chart plotter,a JRC, only as a depth finder.

It is hard to fault the iPad2 and cost wise it is amazingly cheap. Plus it does practically everything else you need on board. Internet web searching,email are just the beginning.

I have installed and use frequently:

Day Tides
MetService NZ
Wind alert
The weather channel
Quake watch - with Christchurch in mind
Fish cal
Anchor watch
Knot time
Yacht weather
Nav lights
Google earth
Skype
Compass HD
Alarm clock
iTunes
iBooks
Kindle
Zinio
Numerous news sites

The iPad2 is in the wheelhouse so there are no concerns about weather or sunlight.

The charts are much clearer brighter and a fraction the price on my older C Map charts on the plotter.

I am using a RAM iPad mount and a car charger and a connector cord to our stereo system for music.

And yes you can watch video

No doubt serious overkill but it is an amazing onboard tool

I even found a sound meter app which I am using to determine where best to add noise insulation around the engine.

Now if i could just find a depth sounder app !

All in all a more than credible alternative IMO to much of the overpriced and dated dedicated marine electronics

[PeregrineSea]

If you keep the IPad off the deck, get iNavX and connect it to true GPS and AIS it is very worthwhile - beyond movies, magazines, and all the other good stuff. (Blue Water Sailing and Cruising World Are great on the IPad!!.) I like options, and one is using the IPad as remote the other is using Digi Wi-sp to connect the IPad to my Furuno FA-50 class B AIS. Just sorted out the installation which was complicated by the RS-422 output from the FA-50 - not RS-232 used by computers and the Wi-sp. Worth the trouble and I am finally happy with the thing. I can shut everything else down, saving lots of battery time, and still know what is going on. The Peregrine Sea: The Marine IPad: AIS RS-422 out to the IPad

[Bruce626]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Dream on.

How many boats are equipped with a depth sounder and GPS which have some modicum of excess storage and an internet connection - tens to hundreds of thousands? These boats are all collecting potential datapoints for free charts. All that seems to be needed is some free software which will collect the GPS coordinates with a time/date stamp along with the depth - likely a relatively small data element so many could be stored and transmitted easily - and this need not be done in real time. The time/date should be able to provide the means to back out tidal differences and get the water depth to the appropriate baseline. These data points could then be uploaded into a central public domain table via the internet and added to whatever base chart is not under copyright - GE, NASA, DoD, etc. In addition to the automatic stuff, cruisers take pictures and have handheld GPS units to collect datapoints of things that are important to cruisers (rocks, coral heads, landmarks of interest to sailors, lights, cell towers, etc.) - perhaps not government survey but certainly likely to be useful, especially if some redundancy develops (i.e., numerous boats are likely to anchor in the same places over time). Given an easy way to share information, it is likely that some substantial portion of the cruising community would participate - sort of like the SETI@home model, perhaps with a nautical themed screen saver?

[ActiveCaptain]

Originally Posted by Bruce626

These data points could then be uploaded into a central public domain table via the internet...

I'm currently working with 2 companies who have implemented exactly that - the crowdsourcing of sounding data along our waterways and anchorages.

There's more technology involved than meets the eye. You need to have very accurate models for tide and wind effects on water level in order to get normalized data. The data has to go through some statistical verification to make sure the reporting is legitimate. There are a variety of ways to use the information.

I doubt this will be open source for a long time - it currently takes too much back-end processing. Most likely, it'll be free/inexpensive if you collect and contribute data and more expensive if you're just a user of the data. That seems like a fair way to price something like this.

Here are the two companies working on it (no particular order). Real sample data displays are shown on both sites:
http://argus.survice.com/
http://www.teamsurv.eu/ - select Data/View; click Raw data and checkboxes

I personally believe this type of data is the future of cruising charts. As governments cut back on surveying except for large shipping ports, we need to collect the data ourselves. The data ends up being better too for coastal cruising because it's much fresher than what any organization can provide.

Quite obviously, ActiveCaptain will be an early place where data like this will be displayed. Our whole model of data collection embraces crowdsourcing and we'd be a natural place for distribution. That's why we've been talking with them all for a year or so.

[capngeo]

Now all you need is a sounder that speaks to your iPad!

[ActiveCaptain]

Originally Posted by capngeo

Now all you need is a sounder that speaks to your iPad!

That's not difficult - just need a WiFi gateway.

The iPad then can provide the full logging and live upload over it's internet connection too (or store and forward when a connection exists at a later time).

How great would it be for your chartplotter/iPad to be displaying soundings from boaters that went by the same path yesterday while you're collecting data and uploading it for the guy who's coming through tomorrow?

[kiltym]

Maybe someone addressed this before, but can we trust everyone else's sounder? You are relying on another person (not the government) to have calibrated everything correctly.

Is there a risk with this approach?

Just my initial thought when I read this.

[ActiveCaptain]

Originally Posted by kiltym

Is there a risk with this approach?

Definitely. But is it better that we know the data isn't right now? We have 700 shoaling hazard markers today where the water depths along common waterway paths isn't correct to the point where it's too shallow for many boats.

By collecting the data live, there's a fair amount of statistics that can be done. First, the sounding data has to be calibrated to the boat so it reports the same type of data for everyone. Then as you've moving along, there will be places where every boat is finding the same data. Those places can be used to calibrate other boats or check their accuracy.

If one boat then finds data X inches different from Y days ago, there are surely models for determining if the data should be thrown out or kept. If 10 people went by a location finding 10' of water and the next boat shows 6' in the same location the next day accounting for GPS accuracy, the back-end processing will probably log the 6' finding and throw it out of the calculation. If it sees 6 more 6' soundings, then it'll probably start to accept it. The back-end processing is substantial which is why the data will probably never be completely free.

The key to all crowdsourcing is getting enough of the crowd to contribute. When we show reviews for an anchorage, we show the number of people who contributed to those reviews. If you quickly see one that's 2 stars with 1 review, that isn't as meaningful as seeing a 2 star anchorage with 17 reviews. Both will make you notice. The 17 review one will make you totally avoid it without looking much more into it.