Galileo completes his constellation [Update]

On September 5 th 2024, the last two satellites launched during the 12th launch of Galileo the 28 th, were officially integrated into the Galileo constellation, thus ensuring the sustainability of all services in orbit.

Now Galileo has 25 operational satellites out of 30 satellites placed in orbit. 5 satellites being currently considered unusable for some or unavailable for others (¹). Read more …

Starlink Mini : a stone into the sea [Update-2]

Since the launch of Starlink in 2020, the hardware and service offerings were particularly versatile (¹). If the first recreational boaters were able to benefit from a navigation service far superior to the official conditions of use, it seemed obvious that this somewhat chaotic launch period would eventually be regularized, and offers stabilized. Despite still a strong disparity in equipment and subscription pricing from one continent to another, or even from one country to another, we are starting to see more clearly.

This is the case for France with the arrival of Starlink Mini. [Update of 11-12 th 2024] Read more …

GNS 3000 Bluetooth GPS receiver for mobiles [Update]

On September GNS 3000 to Global Navigation Systems has been available since November 2022 (¹). It replaces the GNS 2000 Plus. Now equipped with a Bluetooth transmitter 5.0, it has an SD Card connector to record position data continuously.

Compatible with Apple products, it is mainly aimed at devices not equipped with GPS : iPod Touch and iPad WiFi all models. It can also be used with all PDAs, Bluetooth-enabled laptops and tablets. It has a Li-Ion battery offering a battery life of 10 hours continuously.

[Update 15 May 2024] Warning : from iOS/iPadOS 17.x, a update of the device is essential. But it can only be done from an Android device.

Read more …

iTabNav.fr always listening to browsers

14 mars 201114 mars 2024, a birthday (¹) which does not fall round, but a performance worth saluting ! What was just a startup in the early days of the use of tablets and smartphones in navigation is now a company with a long history (²). Dominique Gauthier, its founder and manager, has participated for more than ten years in securing our iPads by becoming the exclusive importer for France of the famous cases aiShell (Originally “iPad Case”). Designed and manufactured in Germany, waterproofness and robustness that no longer need to be demonstrated, benefiting from a range of supports and accessories meeting all needs at sea. Read more …

Weather4D R&N and distance calculations

Since the arrival of ARM-based Mac (M1… M3…) and the system macOS 11 Big Sur, Weather4D Routing & Navigation works natively on our favorite computers (¹). But this happy event did not go, since then, without some small restrictions. The most annoying for users was, until this day, loss of distance calculation. This is carried out on touch devices by a two-finger long press, no function allowed the translation of this gesture on Mac. The mouse only has one pointer, not two ! Read more …

NMEA OneNet® : a new high-end communication standard

20 years after NMEA 2000 and more than 40 years after NMEA0183, OneNet® is the third generation NMEA standard for marine data interfacing and networking.

In development since 2010 by NMEA members (1), to be published in late 2021, the OneNet standard is based on the IP Internet Protocol (2) version 6 (IPv6) and works on the IEEE Ethernet local network 802.3. This new standard aims to combine the three NMEA data standards — OneNet, NMEA 2000, NMEA0183 — on a single local network (LAN). Read more …

Nomad AIS transponder is back

Appeared in spring 2017, the Nomad to Digital Yacht was the first, and the only one, portable AIS transponder. I carried out a detailed test the following summer, reported on this blog (¹). We feared that this excellent device would be abandoned, because it has been unavailable for several months, but not at all ! Right now it is reborn in a new and improved version : Nomad-2. Read more …