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I had presented in May 2015 the excellent raster charts NV Charts by the German Publisher NV Verlag. In 2016, the previous cutting in 4 areas for France - Channel and Atlantic coasts - has been split into 8 areas for 49,90$ apiece. It should be noted that each year a new edition replaces the previous one, there is no update.
Bounderies in 2015
The major update 5.0 of iNavX, issued late August, was unfortunately a long and painful labor for new developers, and a succession of whirlpools and reefs for users. Among the many bugs and regressions laboriously fixed by successive builds, the worst part was the total loss of charts for almost all of us. This is, repeatedly. To top it all off the recent migration, this month, of charting server X-Traverse to a new website Fugawi much more user-friendly, didn't make things easy. Some explanations are necessary. Read more …
ShipModul manufacturer comes to provide on his website two major updates to dowload for its multiplexer Miniplex-3 :
The two update files, featured with a procedure (in English), are packaged in a single folder WiFi V1.5.0.3. Download. The implementation can only be done with the configuration utility MPX-Config V.2.1.0 minimum, available in PC and Mac versions. Read more …
No developer vacations ! I talked about testing the new features to come during our Long journey from Corsica to Normandy last May. After several weeks of finalization, and mainly to adapt early to future iOS 10 Available this fall, here is the delivery of the new version 2.0.15 in Weather4D 2.0. An addition of long-awaited new features.
Delivered in AppStore this morning after two weeks of revisions and contre-revisions of Apple services, Always more picky, The new version is finally available. On the menu and in bulk : AIS via internet with AISHub, direct access to Geogarage and cache memory chart management, new model of GRIB weather forecast from Meteo-France AROME HD for inshore races, Full-screen mode, advanced distance calculations, the most visible. Under the hood also a lot of optimization for routing and power consumption. Detailed review to follow… Read more …
Weather4D Routage & Navigation offers a choice of raster charts from many international hydrographic services . Charts folders are available for application on the French web server Geogarage. Charts are subject to an annual subscription by Publisher directly on Geogarage website after creating an account there. After subscribing to a publisher, the entry in Weather4D 2.0 credentials created in Geogarage activate display of subscribed folder , ready to download. Procedure step-by-step :
Weather4D 2.0 is available sur Apple AppStore (*). After the success of the first two versions, APP4NAV company just revisit chart navigation on iPad and iPhone by integrating the timing dimension. With simulations and weather routing, navigation becomes predictive, allowing a constant anticipation of future weather conditions and sea state. This “navigation into the future”, relied on the quality of meteorological and oceanographic predictions today available, was designed in order to bring a new dimension to the safety of boaters. Read more …
In recent years, websites allowing the visualization of maritime traffic have developed on the web.. They continuously transmit via the internet the positions received from the ships' AIS transmitters, received by reception bases on land, all along the coasts. Two of them caught my attention because they present very different options : Marine Traffic et SiiTech. Read more …
You will soon hear about Signal K, a marine data communication standard, developed in open source, which aims to replace NMEA standards (0183 and 2000) technically overwhelmed by the exponential development of connected objects. The designers intend to provide an open and free protocol to developers and manufacturers alike., allowing to get over the constraints linked to the NMEA : license costs, flow limits, limit the number and type of devices, unsuitability for complex environments, to wireless communications, therefore incompatible with the Internet of Things and the Internet itself.
With the progressive generalization of the AIS (transceivers) aboard our pleasure boats (¹), and their obligatory presence on board a large proportion of commercial ships, capacities for display and processing of targets (surrounding vessels equipped with a transceiver) have significantly improved our security. Still need to know how to interpret this information that, in high-traffic areas, can quickly become a real headache.
In such a situation, better have a quick diagnosis of the risk of collision ! (Weather4D 2.0)