With Weather4D PRO and Iridium Mail, 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, perfectly complementary and consistent with each other, have been tested on more than 2800 NM in the automn during a crossing from Canaria to the Caribbean, on board Catana 47 "Burst", token place in ARC rally 2011. In addition, Olivier Bouyssou was able to improve his Weather4D Pro application "over time", correcting, adding and optimizing daily development onboard.
Intense work aboard "Rafale"
Christophe Mahé skipper, developer Olivier Bouyssou, and myself, have been able to implement the following devices and software on a daily basis:.
We had :
- Two Iridium phones (9505a and 9555)
- An external antenna connected to the 9505A
- A flat magnetic antenna for 9555
- An AxcessPoint Iridium router provided by GMN (*)
- An iPad 1 (wifi+3G)
- Two iPads 2 (wifi+3G)
- One iPhone 3GS
- One iPhone 4
And iPad/iPhone apps :
- iNavX
- Weather4D PRO (The first version was published on 22 November)
- Iridium Mail & Web app
- Files Connect (for files transfer between our touchpads, smartphones and MacBook onboard).
The hardware in order to work
Responsible for testing AxcessPoint for Global Marine Network (*), application designer of Iridium Mail iPad/iPhone on behalf of Iridium, Olivier was also able to test the quality and connection times, depending on the type of antenna used, and test the ergonomics of the application.
Luis Soltero, GMN Executive, sent us this email :
" You are getting amazing transfer rates over Iridium […] to 58 K in 3 minutes, that is a raw throughput speed of 3118 bps significantly higher than the 2400 bps.
Note that this is not the effective throughput which was 4700 BPS for this transaction, but the transfer of raw data. That is about the highest figure raw transfer rate I've ever seen over Iridium. Very impressive, if I may say so myself.
Luis Soltero, Ph.D., MCS
Director of Software Development, CTO
Global Marine Networks, LLC "
The implementation of these devices will be detailed in future articles on this blog.
We can already confirm that all the solutions work on both iPad and iPhone, including with my "old" 3GS.
Be patient and stay connected…
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(*) Pulsar
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We have just finished the same transatlantic race in St Lucia, and apart from the lack of wind at the end it was great. Things to do …
For the weather we used both the gribs via Iridium or received via SailMail.
On the other hand, for Synoptic files and forecasts by zones or meta-area, satellite images and others we only used the functions provided by Sailmail in weather fax or mail mode for the request of specific files.
How did you get the synoptic files at T0 and forecast them at 12, 24h and more?
Of course, the gribs are the must to go in search of the wind, but to know what is going to happen, they are not always enough.
I assume you loaded them via the Iridium by requests (NOAA or other specifices).
Are you still in St. Lucia?
The boat is on pontoon E2 (UFO 445 red), if you have time for a drink …
On the server Navimail from Meteo France, we were able to pick up Analye and PREISO frontology cards free of charge at 12, 24, 36 or 48 Hours. However, these cards weigh a lot of weight. 110 down to 130 KB, which is a lot (Too much) for an Iridium transmission.
Given the performance in terms of speed, can you give us the cost in terms of irridium communication
Or in the duration of use to communicate the files with Weather 4dpro
Thank you for all this info
I am unable to give you a precise cost, let's be serious ! What I can say, on the other hand, is that over two weeks we have practically halved the minutes of communication compared to traditional "blind" connections, without knowledge of the passage of satellites. The 25 euros of Weather4D PRO are quickly amortized !
can't wait for the next news, it looks promising.
Happy end of the year 2011 and thank you, Francis, for all this particularly clear and well-documented information.
The answer is in this article :
iPad , GPS and 3G+ network subscription
We were waiting for your arrival because since the exit of the AxcessPoint, Nobody really talks about it anywhere …
Can't wait for the rest of this article because many of us want to lighten up our computers.
A few questions to be answered though :
Is there a limit to the number of devices connected to the AxcessPoint? ?
Does it make a router at the same time (for transferring files between iDevice) ?
It looks like it's compatible with older iridium phone models, does it work as fast ?
And I have plenty more, but it will probably be answered in the next post …
By the way, Will you be back for the Nautic ?
Have a good end of the trip to you all and welcome back…
The AxcessPoint is a full featured wifi router. You can have any number of devices connected to it at any time. Since its a router you can use it to share data between computers. Just like you would at home or in the office. You do not have to have the satelite phone hooked up to use the router. The router uses DHCP to supply IP addresses to devices on the network.
When using the satellite link only one AxcessPoint mail session user at a time is allowed over the satellite link. However, all users can have access if they wait their turn.
One of the best things about the device is its built in firewall. The firewall is configured to block all traffic going over the satellite link except email and compresses web browsing. This is why the team was able to get such good performance. They were able to get their grib files in just a few minutes of connection time.
The AxcessPoint works with all iOS devices using v 4.0 or newer. It also works with Mac OS X 10.5 and newer and also with Windows PC XP or newer.
Take care.
–luis
Luis Soltero, Ph.D., MCS
Director of Software Development, CTO
Global Marine Networks, LLC
StarPilot, LLC
Tel: 865-379-8723
Fax: 865-681-5017
E-Mail: lsoltero@globalmarinenet.net
Web: http://www.globalmarinenet.net
Web: http://www.starpilotllc.com
–luis