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14-05-2016, 03:24
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 24
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PanPan - a virtual lifeline on your smartphone
He all,
For the past view months I've been hard at work to solve a problem my father in law had.
He was going on a sailing trip with his son that would require them to sail in shifts. Day and night.
The alternating shifts meant there is always a risk to fall overboard without the other knowing.
So he asked me to make something simple and affordable that would work with his phone since he already used that for navigation.
A view months later, PanPan was born and I'm very curious to learn what you think of it!
You can checkout the website bellow or/and ask me any questions on this forum.
Here's a quick summary:
PanPan is a smart crew watcher that constantly checks if all crew members are still on board.
If someone were to go overboard, it will automatically sound the alarm.
Not only that, it will provide everything needed for a swift recovery and rescue;
Coordinates of the point of loss, time of the event as well as a constantly updating rescue heading.
http://crewwatcher.com
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14-05-2016, 04:06
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#3
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Senior Cruiser
Join Date: Nov 2013
Location: Port Moresby,Papua New Guinea
Boat: FP Belize Maestro 43 and OPBs
Posts: 12,888
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Re: PanPan - a virtual lifeline on your smartphone
Quote:
Originally Posted by boatman61
The phones presumably need to be waterproof.. also is this dependent on commercial cellphone coverage.. ie up to 10-15miles offshore.. or is it independent.. mid ocean..?
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Based on the website, the phone doesn't need to be waterproof. It's just the monitor for a bunch of wifi beacons that the crew wear.
Presumably you could do the same thing with any wifi device such as a navigation laptop.
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14-05-2016, 04:13
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#4
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Senior Cruiser
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Thunder Bay, Ontario - 48-29N x 89-20W
Boat: (Cruiser Living On Dirt)
Posts: 49,083
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Re: PanPan - a virtual lifeline on your smartphone
Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Jason.
Neat!
__________________
Gord May
"If you didn't have the time or money to do it right in the first place, when will you get the time/$ to fix it?"
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14-05-2016, 04:18
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#5
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Senior Cruiser
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: PORTUGAL
Posts: 30,561
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Re: PanPan - a virtual lifeline on your smartphone
Quote:
Originally Posted by StuM
Based on the website, the phone doesn't need to be waterproof. It's just the monitor for a bunch of wifi beacons that the crew wear.
Presumably you could do the same thing with any wifi device such as a navigation laptop.
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Thanks Stu.. thought I'd ask others input before stumbling around the site..
Lose a 'Logged' signal and the alarm sounds I presume tied into Bluetooth.?
Right.. Okay..!! I'll go read it..
__________________
It was a dark and stormy night and the captain of the ship said.. "Hey Jim, spin us a yarn." and the yarn began like this.. "It was a dark and stormy night.."
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14-05-2016, 04:21
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#6
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S/V rubber ducky
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: heading "south"
Boat: Hunter 410
Posts: 20,362
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Re: PanPan - a virtual lifeline on your smartphone
since this is basically an ad thread how about some pricing
__________________
Don't ask a bunch of unknown forum people if it is OK to do something on YOUR boat. It is your boat, do what you want!
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14-05-2016, 04:29
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 24
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Re: PanPan - a virtual lifeline on your smartphone
Thanks for the warm welcome and great to see feedback this quickly!
I will try to answer you all of your questions.
Quote:
Originally Posted by boatman61
The phones presumably need to be waterproof.. also is this dependent on commercial cellphone coverage.. ie up to 10-15miles offshore.. or is it independent.. mid ocean..?
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StuM is right, the phone acts as a monitor and can be kept inside the cabin.
It's an independent system and does not require cellphone coverage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by StuM
Based on the website, the phone doesn't need to be waterproof. It's just the monitor for a bunch of wifi beacons that the crew wear.
Presumably you could do the same thing with any wifi device such as a navigation laptop.
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It actually uses a specialised long range bluetooth 4 antenna. This is great because the protocol is much more energy efficient with an expected operational battery life of three years for the beacon.
I can appreciate the "jump right in" enthusiasm!
The lost signal is just part of the equation. The beacon carries a water sensor that will activate automatically when submerged but ignore rain or splashing waves. The sensitivity and interval is configurable in the app.
http://crewwatcher.com
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14-05-2016, 04:33
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#9
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 24
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Re: PanPan - a virtual lifeline on your smartphone
In regards to all the pricing questions:
Pricing isn't final yet but it will be around € 80 retail or 90 USD with the current conversion rates. I should have included this in the first post but I can't figure out how to edit.
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14-05-2016, 04:49
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#10
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Senior Cruiser
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: PORTUGAL
Posts: 30,561
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Re: PanPan - a virtual lifeline on your smartphone
Quote:
Originally Posted by jason-panpan
In regards to all the pricing questions:
Pricing isn't final yet but it will be around € 80 retail or 90 USD with the current conversion rates. I should have included this in the first post but I can't figure out how to edit.
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Is that just for the App.. transmitters separate..?
__________________
It was a dark and stormy night and the captain of the ship said.. "Hey Jim, spin us a yarn." and the yarn began like this.. "It was a dark and stormy night.."
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14-05-2016, 04:57
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#11
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 24
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Re: PanPan - a virtual lifeline on your smartphone
That's for one beacon transmitter.
The app wil be free to download for android and iOS.
There will be discounts when purchasing multiple beacons at once.
http://crewwatcher.com
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14-05-2016, 06:18
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#12
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Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Hobart
Boat: Alloy Peterson 40
Posts: 3,919
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Re: PanPan - a virtual lifeline on your smartphone
Sounds like a smart system. At first it occured to me that a Mobile Phone could be configured to act as the beacon/tag. Loose signal and the monitoring smart phone triggers the alarm? If the phone is in range of cell coverage and still running, lifting it out of the water would enable it to send its GPS position directly to the monitoring phone.
To me this sort of system as a reasonably priced app, with no extra hardware costs would be very attractive, with the option to buy a few smaller compatible improved tags rather than a phone if I like the system.
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14-05-2016, 09:22
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#13
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Retired musician & 50T master
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Ct
Boat: Pisces 21
Posts: 692
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Re: PanPan - a virtual lifeline on your smartphone
nice idea for a worrisome problem, but you might consider a superior competitor on the horizon: Crew all fitted with mini AIS transmitters. these are almost on the market.
a MOB goes outside the AIS geo-fence, alarm sounds, MOB appears on plotter screen, autopilot drives boat to within 20 feet of MOB and holds.
__________________
"In my experience travelers generally exaggerate the difficulties of the way." - Thoreau
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14-05-2016, 09:44
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#14
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 24
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Re: PanPan - a virtual lifeline on your smartphone
Quote:
Originally Posted by Snowpetrel
Sounds like a smart system. At first it occured to me that a Mobile Phone could be configured to act as the beacon/tag. Loose signal and the monitoring smart phone triggers the alarm? If the phone is in range of cell coverage and still running, lifting it out of the water would enable it to send its GPS position directly to the monitoring phone.
To me this sort of system as a reasonably priced app, with no extra hardware costs would be very attractive, with the option to buy a few smaller compatible improved tags rather than a phone if I like the system.
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He Snowpetrel,
We have actually experimented with this approach.
(would have saved us a lot of hardware headaches)
Unfortunately there's 2 problems:
1. The bluetooth signal of a smartphone is often to weak to cover the entire boat, this would lead to many false alarms during regular sailing.
2. If you phone is in the water it's probably toast. Even if you kept it in a water proof bag, it would be out the bluetooth range in seconds, unable to send the GPS signal.
http://crewwatcher.com
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14-05-2016, 09:48
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#15
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Netherlands
Posts: 24
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Re: PanPan - a virtual lifeline on your smartphone
Quote:
Originally Posted by Symphony
nice idea for a worrisome problem, but you might consider a superior competitor on the horizon: Crew all fitted with mini AIS transmitters. these are almost on the market.
a MOB goes outside the AIS geo-fence, alarm sounds, MOB appears on plotter screen, autopilot drives boat to within 20 feet of MOB and holds.
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He Symphony,
Thanks for pointing this out, would you have a link for me where I can read up on this?
I can think of a couple of advantages PanPan would still have;
First I recon price, current solutions are often 300~400USD or more.
Second, PanPan has a water sensor, which means you react instantly. We try to be the fastest way to rescue. If you have geo-fence you will always lose precious time since you're waiting to pass "the fence"
We are looking into integrating with wifi enabled plotters to do the same. The idea is to use seatalk to communicate with the onboard equipment. However this is very early stages and would be pushed as a software update later.
http://crewwatcher.com
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