2016 Year of GALILEO

Since my first post on GALILEO end 2011 (¹), space Europe has made significant progress. Despite economic uncertainties and numerous budgetary restrictions, Course and schedule have been maintained thanks to a community political flawless. This is to be welcomed because many other areas of European action didn't have the scoop.

The year 2016 has already been dubbed "the year of GALILEO".. This was the clear message of the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit (²) early March. The Munich summit covered all GNSS systems, but the focus this year was squarely on Galileo. Read more …

Weather4D 2.0.11 A bunch of new features and improvements

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 …

The Miniplex-3Wi-N2K is finally available

We had been waiting for it for almost two years, hoped more, we despaired… but here it is in my hands. Alleluia ! Multiplexer Wi-Fi NMEA0183, gateway NMEA2000 and translator SeaTalk1 is available in France (¹).

The same size and light as its little brother, Miniplex-2Wi (²), its plug terminal is significantly neater : No need for screwdrivers, Connectors have spring clamps. The signage is also much more legible in color, and 4 LED lights allow at a glance to check the operation : strings scrolling NMEA2000 and/or NMEA0183, connection to a Wi-Fi device, and overflow if applicable.

But the apparent simplicity is misleading and the thing hides a real potential.

Read more …

C-Map back to Europe

Yachtmen my friends, do you know Altor ? Of course not, don't look for, me either until this morning. Altor is an investor from northern Europe who presents himself as follows :

"Altor is a family of Private Equity Funds focused on investing in and developing and medium sized companies with’a Nordic origin. We want to create Sustainable values and make a real difference as a a valuable partner For Owners and managers in buiding to world class companies. We work with a Nordic team with extensive international experience in fields such as private equity, consulting, investment banking and various industrial sectors."

But why talk about it ? Read more …

Garmin and gadgets for geeks

In 2013 the world leader in leisure GPS has designed the Quatix®, a GPS watch waterproof allowing boaters to display on their wrist all data of their navigation devices, Garmin of course, equipped with Wi-Fi/Bluetooth owner hot-spot. This nice thing, provided with a 3-axis compass, a barometer and an altimeter, was particularly innovative. I do not know if it is all the rage among users of the brand devices, but the fact is that the concept was precursor - it was a time before the arrival of the Apple Watch - and that walk on his wrist in all location of the boat data from the instruments, with a neat graphic display and vibration alerts, can be reassuring. And more, the Quatix® gives the time !

Always stronger, Garmin is back in the range of connected objects by announcing the display Nautix™ In-view Display, comes featured a pair of glasses to display data on the edge of the glass. Not yet augmented reality, but we are getting closer.

Read more …

Navily makes stopovers easier in just a few taps

In recent years, French startups have flourished in the world of recreational boating. Their common denominator is to use digital technology to implement an idea which intends to provide a unique service to boaters.. How many will survive ? Hard to say, but they all have the merit of dusting off dad's boating by addressing the younger generation of water sports enthusiasts.. Community sharing of information, co-location, « bla-bla-boat », so many responses to new attitudes in the practice of pleasure boating.

Among them, one particularly appealed to me, Deviated.

Read more …

Buy nautical charts on Geogarage

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 :

Read more …

Weather4D 2.0 revisits navigation on iPad [Update]

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 …

AIS reception on the web [Update]

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 …

Signal K Project, universal open source marine data sharing

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.

Read more …