vesper WatchMate app vswr display

[Ziggy]

The android app has a vswr meter that shows a series of green, yellow, and red bars. Does anyone know how to interpret this graphic? There are no numbers.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by Ziggy

The android app has a vswr meter that shows a series of green, yellow, and red bars. Does anyone know how to interpret this graphic? There are no numbers.

We have Vesper Watchmate 850. ??? Am I missing something here? What App>?

[Ziggy]

There is an app, for both 'droids and iThings. It works as a remote control for Vesper transponders with wifi.

[colemj]

The iPad app has values on that display that range from 1:1 all the way to the left (green) to 4:1 on the right (red). 2:1 starts the yellow and 3:1 starts the red.

I'm surprised that the Android app isn't the same as the iPad app - although the most recently released iPad version is so buggy as to be unusable.

Mark

[Ndavies]

The app is wonderful - if you don't have it, you are missing out on the best functions of the Watchmate (i.e., ability to grab NMEA data and send it wifi). On the Q about the VSWR readings, as long as you are in the green, you are good. I am not a radio expert, but if the VSWR reading is in the red, then you may have an antenna, antenna wire, or combination problem. VSWR is a measure of the impedance matching of the loads. I remember checking VSWR on CB radios and on some the antennas, the length could be slightly adjusted to get a better match.


Neil

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

We have Vesper Watchmate 850. ??? Am I missing something here? What App>?

Ziggy,

We also have a Vesper 850. Our models don't have the built-in WiFi like the newer XB-8000 also from Vesper.

Now for a slight bit of thread drift, but still on topic... mostly...:

We are considering an XB-8000 for this and the NMEA 2000 Gateway feature. The only downside we can see to this change is the newer unit doesn't have the same robust filtering capability [last time we checked...] that the 850 comes with. That would be an issue in crowded areas since we are spoiled by the 850 filters...

Since our 850 is integrated with our chart plotter, and our chart plotter has wireless remote capability, we already have AIS outputs [but no controls...] on our remote devices. Therefore, the differences are not compelling enough [yet...] to make us hurry this project along...

Cheers!

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by colemj

....
- although the most recently released iPad version is so buggy as to be unusable.

Mark

What are the bugs ?

Have you reported them to Vesper, so they can be fixed ?

[Ziggy]

Originally Posted by colemj

The iPad app has values on that display that range from 1:1 all the way to the left (green) to 4:1 on the right (red). 2:1 starts the yellow and 3:1 starts the red.

I'm surprised that the Android app isn't the same as the iPad app - although the most recently released iPad versionso buggy as to be unusable.

Mark

Mark,
Thank you. Clearly, I have a problem.

[Ziggy]

Originally Posted by Ndavies

The app is wonderful - if you don't have it, you are missing out on the best functions of the Watchmate (i.e., ability to grab NMEA data and send it wifi). On the Q about the VSWR readings, as long as you are in the green, you are good. I am not a radio expert, but if the VSWR reading is in the red, then you may have an antenna, antenna wire, or combination problem. VSWR is a measure of the impedance matching of the loads. I remember checking VSWR on CB radios and on some the antennas, the length could be slightly adjusted to get a better match.


Neil

Neil,
Thank you. I have tried two different antennas and two coax cables, all combination give me the same high vswr. I think the only thing left is the transponder itself.

[Ziggy]

Originally Posted by wrwakefield

Ziggy,

We also have a Vesper 850. Our models don't have the built-in WiFi like the newer XB-8000 also from Vesper.

Now for a slight bit of thread drift, but still on topic... mostly...:

We are considering an XB-8000 for this and the NMEA 2000 Gateway feature. The only downside we can see to this change is the newer unit doesn't have the same robust filtering capability [last time we checked...] that the 850 comes with. That would be an issue in crowded areas since we are spoiled by the 850 filters...

Since our 850 is integrated with our chart plotter, and our chart plotter has wireless remote capability, we already have AIS outputs [but no controls...] on our remote devices. Therefore, the differences are not compelling enough [yet...] to make us hurry this project along...

Cheers!

Bill,
The XB-8000 is a black box transponder, without any alarms or filters. If you'd like them, you need to get the watchmate vision.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by NahanniV

What are the bugs ?

Have you reported them to Vesper, so they can be fixed ?

There have been several bugs in previous iPad app versions that I have reported to Vesper and they have verified. Most were around how the VSWR reports and responds and were not really that important unless you did some very specific things to make them occur. They didn't effect the operation of the app or xb8000 at all.

The most recent version is basically unusable on our iPads. It crashes continually, often it will not recognize the XB8000 until the app is restarted (it sometimes needs to be relaunched several times before it recognizes the unit), if you put the app in the background, or the ipad to sleep, it often will not recognize the XB8000 again until relaunched, if you put it in night mode, then go back to daylight mode, several of the screen pages go blank and are not recoverable until relaunch - there are several more bugs like this.

I have reported these to Vesper and they also have confirmed them. Frankly, I don't know how the latest version even got out of testing, since none of these bugs are esoteric like in the previous version. I suspect that this newest version had some fundamental code changes and this is why these bugs suddenly appeared.

The length of time since reporting the bugs (April) and still no update leads me to believe that they had to go back deep to make fixes.

Sadly, the latest version of the app is so unreliable now that we have had to stop using it completely.

Luckily, SeaIQ does an even better job than Vesper with AIS reporting, display and functionality, so we have become very comfortable using it instead. However, the Vesper app is still needed for setup and monitoring of the XB8000.

Mark

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by colemj

There have been several bugs in previous iPad app versions that I have reported to Vesper and they have verified. Most were around how the VSWR reports and responds and were not really that important unless you did some very specific things to make them occur. They didn't effect the operation of the app or xb8000 at all.

The most recent version is basically unusable on our iPads. It crashes continually, often it will not recognize the XB8000 until the app is restarted (it sometimes needs to be relaunched several times before it recognizes the unit), if you put the app in the background, or the ipad to sleep, it often will not recognize the XB8000 again until relaunched, if you put it in night mode, then go back to daylight mode, several of the screen pages go blank and are not recoverable until relaunch - there are several more bugs like this.

I have reported these to Vesper and they also have confirmed them. Frankly, I don't know how the latest version even got out of testing, since none of these bugs are esoteric like in the previous version. I suspect that this newest version had some fundamental code changes and this is why these bugs suddenly appeared.

The length of time since reporting the bugs (April) and still no update leads me to believe that they had to go back deep to make fixes.

Sadly, the latest version of the app is so unreliable now that we have had to stop using it completely.

Luckily, SeaIQ does an even better job than Vesper with AIS reporting, display and functionality, so we have become very comfortable using it instead. However, the Vesper app is still needed for setup and monitoring of the XB8000.

Mark

Thanks,

Hopefully they are more careful with the firmware.

JM.