Keeping up to date with the latest navigation technology can be prohibitive. Mike Reynolds shares how to get the latest electronics for your boat for a fraction of the cost
You will get efficient and thoughtful service from HUAZHONG.
Electronics technology is constantly improving, offering ever more impressive capabilities, writes Mike Reynolds.
It is making navigation easier, quicker and more accurate, and useful information easier to access.
It&#;s making recording and displaying historical data possible, supplementing the real-time (now) data we&#;re used to.
It costs, but only if substantial replacement of hardware is necessary.
We decided we wanted the best of both worlds &#; standard hardware with longevity, and software with the flexibility to take advantage of emerging trends.
We are electronics enthusiasts and configuring electronics isn&#;t everyone&#;s cup of tea.
But a little effort can deliver the very latest capabilities, tailored to your boat, for minimal additional cost.
For those not inclined to experiment, this article illustrates capabilities coming to future &#;plug and play&#; systems.
Our boat Zen Again is a s 34ft 3/4 tonner which we purchased 10 years ago.
She is fitted with a robust cruising navigation and communications system, with built-in redundancy.
For some years we&#;ve used standard NMEA- sensors for position, speeds, depth and AIS.
The data is sent via WiFi to a laptop at the chart table and waterproof tablets on deck.
Recently we&#;ve added a NMEA- weather station which added wind, temperature, atmospheric pressure and 3D attitude.
This required new SignalK interface technology to replace the old NMEA- traditionally used over WiFi.
SignalK became a springboard into some really useful capabilities.
I will describe what we&#;ve done, and what it cost.
You can stop anywhere along the process but the further you go the better the capabilities, and the value of the investment!
When contemplating upgrades we keep in mind our prioritised data list:
The autopilot is important enough for us to have two fully installed and calibrated units.
Radar is last since AIS pushed it down the list.
We had radar but it failed years ago.
A replacement hasn&#;t made the cut yet and we&#;ll ignore it here.
We&#;ll also ignore SSB and satphones.
Recognising that AIS transceivers integrate GPS we can translate the data list into a list of system elements:
It&#;s interesting that 3D attitude is appearing in so many sensors.
The technology is now very cheap and easy to integrate into products.
Our research revealed the availability of NMEA- weather stations.
These integrate high-speed GPS and measure apparent wind, ground wind, air temperature, atmospheric pressure, 3D attitude and more.
No moving parts. It gave us all the environmental data we wanted and addressed a desire for GPS redundancy.
So our list became:
All of these system elements are readily available with NMEA- interfaces.
The total cost is under £5,000 for tiller and £6,000 for wheel auto-pilots including cabling and mounting gear.
To save £1,200 the weather station could be replaced with a wind sensor (about £300).
We valued GPS redundancy and environment data highly so installed the weather station.
Marine MFDs (Multi-Function Displays) and chartplotters are nice.
Many boats have two. But they&#;re not cheap, and nor are charts for them.
We fitted a small one soon after purchasing Zen Again, and carried a spare.
As time passed one failed and the other was relegated to data display only.
Five years ago we started chartplotting and displaying data on laptops and tablets.
This change was enabled by the WiFi access point on our AIS transceiver.
This, together with the integrated GPS, makes the AIS the heart of the system.
Continues below&#;
It broadcasts its own data plus other data from the NMEA- network.
We&#;ve crossed three oceans and circumnavigated the UK using only laptops and tablets for chartplotting and data display.
They&#;ve survived storms and a lightning near-miss which destroyed a marine-standard interface unit and damaged one of our autopilots.
We carry fully configured spares.
With thunderstorms nearby we disconnect all their cables to minimise risk.
The apps we use are OpenCPN on the laptops and iNavX on the tablets.
OpenCPN is a free, open-source, full-featured chartplotter.
On OpenCPN we use ooSENC charts supplemented by satellite imagery.
iNavX is also an excellent chartplotter and uses Navionics charts.
We like the redundancy of multiple chart sources.
Both apps support display of real-time instrument data.
Most marine WiFi access points broadcast data as a NMEA- datastream.
This limits the data to that supported by NMEA-. This was a serious problem in our latest upgrade which added the weather station.
Much of the new data is unsupported by NMEA-.
More research suggested SignalK was the answer.
SignalK is a free, open source marine data exchange format.
It provides a means of sharing marine data in a future-proof manner friendly to WiFi, mobile networks and the internet.
The heart of SignalK is a software server which inputs and outputs NMEA-, NMEA- and other data streams.
The software translates the data streams to and from SignalK format and makes the SignalK data available to client apps.
Clients can be on the same computer or on other connected computers.
Each client gets only the data it requests.
Client apps can be on phones, tablets or laptops, aboard or elsewhere.
The only additional hardware required is a NMEA- USB gateway for about £150. An example use of SignalK is the open source system OpenPlotter.
OpenPlotter uses a £50 Raspberry Pi computer to run SignalK and OpenCPN, providing a full onboard MFD solution, albeit not to &#;marine standard&#;.
SignalK supports more than described below, including monitoring and controlling devices, and generating alarms.
On Zen Again we already had several BeagleBone computers aboard.
They&#;re less capable computers than the latest Raspberry Pis but consume less power.
We decided to try SignalK on one of them.
We purchased an Actisense NGT-1 NMEA- USB gateway and set to work installing the SignalK software on the BeagleBone.
Installation wasn&#;t simple but it&#;s now documented on our blog.
OpenPlotter comes with the software pre-installed for a Raspberry Pi. Our experiment has worked out very well.
The Beaglebone now feeds SignalK over WiFi to OpenCPN on our laptops and to client apps iNavX and WilhelmSK on our laptop, tablets and phones.
It also transmits wired NMEA- to our old autopilots.
We also have all the software installed and configured on a spare BeagleBone.
Both hardware and software have proven to be very reliable after several months of 24/7 operation.
WilhelmSK is a £20 SignalK client app which runs on iOS and MacOS.
For more information, please visit marine navigation equipment.
It supports user-designed pages to suit your data and also your current situation.
For example we have sailing, anchoring and weather pages.
With SignalK proven aboard we looked at what more we could do with our data.
We like to record our passages, which previously amounted to written hourly logs and electronic GPX files of our tracks.
SignalK supports output to the free database software InfluxDB.
InfluxDB was simple to set up on the BeagleBone.
This records all of our NMEA- data, giving us a &#;black box&#; recorder.
To view recorded data we installed the free graphing software Grafana on our navigation laptop.
The laptop accesses the BeagleBone&#;s InfluxDB database over WiFi.
We created Grafana &#;dashboards&#; to display our data.
While sailing we can view trends like speed, wind, current, atmospheric pressure and so on.
After passages we can capture summaries and highlights.
WilhelmSK can display web pages, including Grafana dashboards.
SignalK has given us a lot of information and enjoyment for the £200 hardware cost of a BeagleBone and an Actisense NGT-1.
Most of the software for these programmes is free.
Installing the software wasn&#;t trivial but it put the future of marine electronics on our boat today.
Adding recorded data display to real-time data display is certainly a plus.
Buy it now on eBay (UK)
Buy it now on eBay (US)
www.actisense.com
Buy it now on Amazon (UK)
Buy it now on Amazon (US)
www.raspberrypi.org
Buy it now on eBay (UK)
Buy it now on eBay (US)
www.beagleboard.org
A subscription to Yachting Monthly magazine costs around 40% less than the cover price.
Print and digital editions are available through Magazines Direct &#; where you can also find the latest deals.
YM is packed with information to help you get the most from your time on the water.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
__
One of our visitors approached me recently wanting to offer up some tips for people who are perhaps new to the world of boating, or just looking for some tips on how to save a buck. Vanessa&#;s ten point on how to save a few dollars follows:
**Tips for Buying Boat Equipment & Parts**** **
Working to obtain your boating license in Ontario, Canada at Boat License Ontario ( www.boatinglicense.ca ) or California, or from wherever you may be located_,_ is only the start of your adventure. Buying and owning a boat however is big responsibility and can be quite expensive. There&#;s a lot of equipment to buy, and the boat will require frequent maintenance and sometimes, new parts. These costs are unavoidable, but you do have control over how you approach the purchases, and the right strategy can save you a considerable amount of money in the long-term.
Advertisement
Image Source:
1. Get the Big Purchases Right
If you haven&#;t made the big purchases, such as the boat and the trailer, slow down and make sure you get this right. Being a boater is expensive. This is your foundation. The more you get right now, the less you&#;ll pay in the long-term. Going partners isn&#;t a bad idea for first-timers, and don&#;t make the rookie mistake of buying a cheap trailer or tires that are too small.
Advertisement
2. Go to Boat Shows:
**Image Source: **
Make a point of going to a local boat show once a season, preferably more often. This keeps you apprised of new equipment and parts as well as the going rates. It&#;s also a great time to buy parts and supplies on the cheap that you know you&#;ll eventually need.
Advertisement
3. Perform Regular Maintenance
Most boaters overpay regularly because they procrastinate. If you maintain a rigorous maintenance schedule, you will save yourself a substantial amount of money in parts, long-term.
4. Shop Online
Advertisement
Unless you live near a flourishing marina, where competition between shops is very high, local boat shops are terrible. It&#;s not just the lack of competition. They typically lack the bulk-buying power, and their profit margins are extremely small. Online shops have much more competition, more customers and much less overhead.
5. Do Not Guess-Buy Parts or Equipment
A common rookie mistake is to take a shot by buying and replacing the cheapest part that may be the solution to their problem. This is an inefficient strategy long-term. If you&#;re not sure, hire a professional. You&#;ll still save money purchasing and possibly installing the part yourself.
6. Comparison Shop
Prices on boat equipment and especially parts fluctuate greatly based on a number of factors, including season, wholesaler overstock and retailer order size. Don&#;t become someone&#;s regular unless that someone is willing to price match. There&#;s a lot of money to save in comparison shopping.
7. Do Not Be Cheap
**Image Source: **
Don&#;t spend just to spend, but don&#;t be cheap either. Budget adequately, and buy the best boating equipment and replacement parts that you can reasonably afford.
8. Buy in Bulk Whenever Possible
Some boating equipment we buy once with the hope that it lasts a long time. Other supplies are consumable, such as oil and cleaners. If you buy what you need now for an entire season or even several seasons, then you can save a great deal due to the bulk discount. You can purchase non-consumables this way by combining buying power with fellow boaters.
9. Avoid Shipping Costs
Shipping costs can wipe out most of the savings you earn by shopping online. You can avoid shipping costs by targeting online stores that offer free shipping. Most that do this require you to purchase a certain amount, so try to make large infrequent order to maximize savings on shipping.
10. Avoid Sales Tax at Time of Purchase
We don&#;t condone or advise avoiding sales tax altogether but one of the beauties about shopping online is that typically, no sales tax will be charged. In the meantime, you can put that money aside in a low-risk money-earning endeavor to offset the cost.
All good stuff to know and do.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website marine navigational aids company.