Following my post of 8 December iOS 5 can delete your Navionics charts without warning, Richard Ray will place charts downloaded from X-Traverse server in reserved unerasable folder. This hazard will be removed from the next update iNavX. Whew !
iOS 5 will not be able to delete your Navionics charts in iNavX
MOBA Man Overboard with iPhone
Stéphane Azzoni, French domiciled near Barcelona, sailing instructor and conveyor, owner of a Mini Transat, practicing hard regattas and offshore races in the Mediterranean, has developed the application MOBA (*) with the assistance of Swiss studio Hortis from Geneva.
Noting that no application on iPhone not intended to function "Man Overboard" as found on Marine GPS, he wanted to fill this gap. Excellent initiative ! (Read more…)
Simple and original mount for iPad
Serge Rousseau, a Canadian sailor, sent me some pictures of the installation of its iPad on his yacht. He wrote me :
« I send you some pictures of the mount. I fixed an industrial Velcro on the stainless steel tube and I maintain waterproof case (+or- 50 €) with reusable fasteners (tie wrap). You can also use a waterproof case used to protect charts in sea kayak and attach with Velcro ans reusable fasteners. »
For an economical solution, I find it simple, clever and aesthetic enough for my own opinion. You decide…
NMEA 2000, a network standard for the future
NMEA 2000 (¹) is a standard for electronic communication network specifically designed for pleasure boats, according to an industry standard published by the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA). It aims to meet many needs, arising from the considerable increase of electronic devices onboard, the spread of computers and MFDs (²) with control and navigation application more sophisticated. It also aims to interconnect equipment manufacturers and various brands, allowing boat builders and end users great freedom in their choice of navigational instruments. (Read more…)
Miniplex-2Wi, the new WiFi multiplexer for iPad and iPhone
Company ShipModul just presented on its website its new WiFi multiplexer, Miniplex-2Wi. This device comes in direct competition of’Brookhouse iMux, on which I wrote several posts on this blog, but penalized since early 2011 by delivery prohibitive for France.
The Miniples-2Wi only regards boats owners with NMEA 0183 and/or RAYMARINE SeaTalk instruments. For boats with NMEA 2000, network, refer to the excellent SeaSmart WiFi recently presented on this blog.
Search for charts information data with iNavX
Navionics vector charts contain a number of detailed information for each marina, and sometimes some moorings. These places are marked on charts by the symbol shown against.
These data are called in English "Navaids" when information concerning navigation, and "POIs" when dealing with practical and interesting information (Point Of Interest, call number « s » is the plural). (Read more…)
Iridium AxcessPoint : GRIB weather files on iPhone and iPad in open sea
Announced on this blog in September (¹), the AxcessPoint box by Iridium company allow now request and receive GRIB weather files from iPad or iPhone offshore, into the wild, anywhere on the world.
Having implemented and tested this solution on a long journey, I can say that it is fully operational.
Seasmart WiFi connects the NMEA 2000 on your iPhone
The SeaSmart WiFi, presented by iPadNav.fr at Nautic Paris Boat Show last week, allows a WiFi connection to iPad , iPhone or any other computer via WiFi to a NMEA 2000.
Designed by Chetco Digital Instruments, Brookings, Oregon (USA), SeaSmart is a wireless transmitter NMEA2000 and NMEA0183 compatible consists of an USB/serial gateway, WiFi transmitter 802.11 b/g and an embedded CGI/AJAX web server. Compatible with web browsers on most smartphones, like iPhone, iPad or Android, SeaSmart.Net translates NMEA 2000 (PGNs) messages through an open protocol in HTML pages updated in real time and sent streaming to web server. The transfer is bi-directional. More, NMEA 0183 connector allows to interface instruments that use this protocol, as an AIS, their data being multiplexed and added to the flow of data powered by SeaSmart.net. (Read more…)
iOS 5 can delete your Navionics charts without warning
Pleasant surprise in the ARC transatlantic 2011.
After transferring pictures from my camera to my iPad, for some reason the memory was saturated. I had yet to 9GB free and I have transferred the contents of an SD-Card 2GB. Mystery !
Still, after two or three system messages informing me of the next saturation, iOS 5 has simply deleted all my Navionics cartography used by iNavX !
When asked by e-mail, Rich Ray confirmed the fact possible :
« This is an unfortunate change in iOS5, the iOS will and can clear any apps downloaded data without notice if another app needs more space.. iOS does not give the app any notice if this occurs. ».
Olivier Bouyssou told me it was possible for developers to store application data in a folder reserved unerasable, but this was rarely allowed by Apple. It was a big problem because no one knew how IOS selected the applications they erased the data authority.
Friends yachtmen, take care : if you do not want to lose your charting during the cruise, far from any network you can download them again, watch the space available on your iPhone and iPad.
Navigation iPad : the integral solution
With Weather4D PRO and AxcessPoint, associated with a satellite phone Iridium, we now have a complete solution, reliable and low cost to receive, display and manage GRIB files in open seas with iPad.
iNavX and Navionics cartography also provide a complete navigation solution, supporting files transfers with Weather4D PRO : GRIB, routes, tracks, that allows simultaneous display in both applications.
These solutions, fully complementary and mutually consistent, were tested on more 2800 NM in the automn during a crossing from Canaria to the Caribbean, on board Catana 47 « Rafale », token place in ARC rally 2011. More, Olivier Bouyssou has improved « over water » his app Weather4D Pro, correcting, adding and optimizing daily development onboard. (Read more…)
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