AIS...all in one radio or computer/opencpn

[DeepFrz]

Not an AIS issue at all.

Of course its an AIS issue. The law says these boats need AIS and it is supposed to be transmitting. They were not keeping watch the same as the Vendee Globe skippers were not keeping watch however had the fisher's boats been transmitting the alarm on the racer's boats would have gone off.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

Of course its an AIS issue. The law says these boats need AIS and it is supposed to be transmitting.

Only the largest fishing boats are required to have AIS - most of those work offshore. The vast majority of commercial fishing boats working coastal in the world are not required to have it (yet).

Mark

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

It's exactly for commercial shipping where that precise crossing solution, achievable only with AIS (or a big-ass open array radar set with ARPA, which none of us has), can save your life.

I guess I find commercial shipping to be easier - I can see them visually and on radar from such a long distance, and easily work out a bearing, that I can make a couple of degrees of course change and simply avoid them by a large margin.

Even going in and out and around the Panama Canal zone with literally hundreds of commercial ships on the move, it is easy to avoid them because they don't really change speed and direction much, or very quickly - and it is easy to deduce where they are going.

I also find our ARPA works almost as well as AIS for this. Where ARPA fails more (lags in response) is with ships changing direction and speed frequently - like those pesky fishing boats.

Mark

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

Of course its an AIS issue. The law says these boats need AIS and it is supposed to be transmitting. They were not keeping watch the same as the Vendee Globe skippers were not keeping watch however had the fisher's boats been transmitting the alarm on the racer's boats would have gone off.

IFA, WOULDA, COULDA

VG skippers did not keep watch and they crashed into fishing vessels.

End of story. (In my book).

Not an AIS issue at all.

Poor seamanship, realities of extreme single-handed racing, you name it.

There was also that pink girl who tried to sail across that Chinese cargo. It did not seem to work at all. Are we blaming the Chinese cargo vessel?

Keep watch, take adequate action, stop blaming technology for human failures.

b.

[DeepFrz]

barnakiel, you are right. It isn't a fault of AIS but a fault of depending on it and a fault of turning it off when on the fishing grounds. Bad seamanship I suppose on both sides.

Mark, I don't know the exact details because as far as I know they were not published but it sounded from the report on the Vendee Globe website that they were trawlers that should have been equipped with AIS transponders. But they could have been any size for all I know.

[PaulSommers]

People seem to get hung up on the idea that the Std Horizon 2200 has a very small screen. That seems almost irrelevant to me as both the Std. Horizon and my Garmin chartplotter display AIS targets but to get detailed information about a particular target you go to a list screen, pick the target you want and then you get a screen with all of the details like CPA and TCPA, vessel heading and speed, vessel name, etc. I just went through the Panama Canal relying on the 2200 to get me safely past the dozens of ships near the entrance on the Atlantic side. Very hard to tell which ones are anchored and which are underway without the AIS, and I have never had to steer through so much traffic. Elsewhere on a 2000 mile cruise from Rio Dulce to S Mexico on the Pacific side, I encountered so few vessels that AIS, radar and anything but my eyes was relatively useless - there just was not any traffic to worry about. I'm very happy with the AIS receive function on the 2200.

Some people on this forum also strongly advocate transceiver units - they are great but I have to say that the one occasion when I really needed the receive function (Panama Canal approach) I don't think the transmit option would have been of much use - the big guys aren't going to change course for a small sailboat - I have to stay out of their way, and for that AIS receive is a great navigational aid.

[PaulSommers]

Originally Posted by colemj

Only the largest fishing boats are required to have AIS - most of those work offshore. The vast majority of commercial fishing boats working coastal in the world are not required to have it (yet).

Mark

In Central America, I have yet to see a fishing vessel WITH AIS. There can be dozens of pangas as well as yachtie sport fishermen on the offshore banks, at night as well as day. In some places such as Guatemala, net fishing is popular among the 20 foot panga set of fishermen, posing additional hazards. One needs radar, good eyes, and a constant watch. AIS is no help at this point since these guys don't have it.

[goboatingnow]

Given the costs, I can see no justification for receive only AIS today. It's a half solution


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[conachair]

Originally Posted by colemj

Only the largest fishing boats are required to have AIS - most of those work offshore. The vast majority of commercial fishing boats working coastal in the world are not required to have it (yet).

Mark

In Europe it's becoming much more common to see fishing boats transmitting as time goes by. Not just the big ones. Very useful. And interesting to see just what they get up to

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by conachair

In Europe it's becoming much more common to see fishing boats transmitting as time goes by. Not just the big ones. Very useful. And interesting to see just what they get up to

Under EU rules all fishing vessels over 15m must now be fitted with class a or B AIS , this is as much to do with vessel monitoring as with collusion detection


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[colemj]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

collusion detection

In this context, that spelling mistake is funny!

Mark

[conachair]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Under EU rules all fishing vessels over 15m must now be fitted with class a or B AIS , this is as much to do with vessel monitoring as with collusion detection

Last year it came in, wasn't it?

A quick look at marine traffic just now shows maybe 20% of the fishing boats transmitting in the channel are under that. Very handy

[ancor]

Originally Posted by Capt.Don

Over the years I've done a couple of things. We have a SeaTalk NMEA interface converter. This produces NMEA 0183 serial data at 4800 baud (usually connected to a laptop). I connected the output of that to a serial to wifi device I bought on eBay. Configuration was a bit of a challenge as all the instructions were in Chinese. This involved making a serial DB9 cable and configuration the wireless network. Once configured, it worked well. Although this finally worked perfectly, dealing with serial cables, setting up an ad-hoc network, setting IP addresses, was tricky. Unless you are technically inclined and have a lot of patience, I wouldn't recommend this approach.

After I added the GX2200 with AIS, I had a decision - stream the boat's NMEA data at 4800 baud or the radio's AIS data at 38400 baud, but not both. The problem is the two data streams are different speeds and require a device to combine and output a single stream. I decided to stream the AIS. It was really cool to show the AIS targets on the iPad, but I was disappointed that I couldn't get both.

I looked around for a multiplexer so I could continue to use the serial to wifi device. I finally decided to purchase the vyacht multiplexer and wireless router and replace the serial to wifi device. This little box is amazing - essentially a small linux computer with either 2 NMEA 0183 inputs or 1 NMEA 0183 and 1 SeaTalk inputs. The iPad finds the network and connects. Configuration is super easy via a webpage. Multiple devices can connect to the router (think wireless router). I haven't finished the installation yet - there's some sort of hardware problem and I'm waiting for a replacement board. And at 1/2 the price of other typical units, this is a good deal. vyacht is a cross between a DIY project and a commercial offering. Definitely worth a look.

As far as software on the iPad - iNavX and SEAiq both do a good job of displaying AIS targets. iSailor also can display the NMEA data, but you have purchase the respective wireless modules ($5-$10 each). I prefer SEAiq over iNavX, but that's personal preference. If you are sailing outside the US, iNavX might be a better choice with more chart support. I also like iRegatta Pro for displaying the boat's performance data. That's why I wanted both streams. If you are fooling around with this, you also could use NMEALogger to test/diagnose the wifi NMEA data stream.

Once I get vyacht working, I'll be really happy with having both NMEA boat data and AIS data on the iPad. To me,this is ultimately what I was aiming for. A final note - I do not believe the iPad should be used as a primary navigation tool or replaces a dedicated chartplotter. For me, the iPad supports the primary navigation system and is an amazing reference tool. It definitely has a place onboard, but I won't be replacing my marine quality electronics with an iPad in a waterproof case.

I hope this helps,
Don

Hey Don, please let me know how your install goes. I have the GX2200 and just ordered the V-yacht seatalk/NMEA 0183 multiplexer. They seem a great and cheap addition.
I'm looking to get GPS signal out from the GX2200 unit, but it doesn't seem to be possible?! Was hoping to use the GPS function and stream to a wifi only tablet and/or laptop (non GPS units). Do you know if the GPS information gets streamed with the AIS info via the NMEA 0183? For the seatalk I only receive wind direction/speed, log and depth information.
Looking to run openCPN.
Any info is very much appreciated.

Jens

[Don C L]

Not sure if it helps much now, you probably have your answer, but where I cruise I am crossing shipping lanes frequently. Since I can see AIS equipped shipping on my cell phone (shipping lanes pass close to shore around here,) I opted to save my pennies for the Vesper 850 (transponder) so that I too will be a clear blip on everyone's screen.

[Capt.Don]

Originally Posted by ancor

Hey Don, please let me know how your install goes. I have the GX2200 and just ordered the V-yacht seatalk/NMEA 0183 multiplexer. They seem a great and cheap addition.
I'm looking to get GPS signal out from the GX2200 unit, but it doesn't seem to be possible?! Was hoping to use the GPS function and stream to a wifi only tablet and/or laptop (non GPS units). Do you know if the GPS information gets streamed with the AIS info via the NMEA 0183? For the seatalk I only receive wind direction/speed, log and depth information.
Looking to run openCPN.
Any info is very much appreciated.

Jens

Jens,
You have two outputs from the GX2200's GPS data. Gray/Brown wires output NMEA DSC data at either 4800 or 38400 baud and the Yellow/White wires output AIS data at 38400 baud. Only the AIS VDM data is output on the Yellow/White wires. The GSA, GSV, GLL, GGA and RMC data can be selected for output on Gray/Brown wires through the radio setup. To get all the GPS and AIS data on the Gray/Brown wires, select 38400 baud output and turn on the GPS output values.

I would connect the Gray/Brown wires to vYacht, set the baud rate to 38400 on both the radio and vYacht, and turn on the GPS output NMEA data on the radio.

I found iNavX or NMEA Logger (iPad) useful to verify the output NMEA data. Under iNavX, Settings, TCP/IP, you can enable wifi, set IP address, login/password... and you start seeing the NMEA data sentences $AIGSA, $AIVDM....

I had a weird data chirping sound caused by the radio's AIS ground and SeaTalk ground wires are common on the vYacht device. The solution was to disconnect the radio's AIS ground wire and use the boat's ground from SeaTalk/NMEA output.

I hope this helps,
Don