The blog
Hear, hear, hardy boaters, new Weather4D applications come up !
I wrote “the” in the plural. The two historical applications of Sarl APP4NAV, Weather4D (th 2011) and Weather4D Pro (November 2011 ), change to the user interface of the now famous application Weather4D 2.0, which had been the subject of a complete review of its development published in December 2015. In order to make the range more coherent, the names of the three applications are harmonized :
In June 2012, I wrote a post about the future constellation of communications satellites Iridium NEXT. While intended for operational use in 2017, the calendar had been shifted by a few months. Indeed, the launch of the first ten satellites by the private company SpaceX, originally planned on 12 th 2016, was postponed for a few months by the explosion on September 1 of a Falcon rocket 9 rocket explosion during the fuel filling on its launch pad before a shot of engine test.
It saddens me to end the year with a critical article, but the subject deserves it. I wrote in December 2016 (*) a sincerely positive appreciation of the evolution of the application Guides Escales 2017 - Bloc Marine digital version by Figaro Nautisme editions - compared to 2016. But for edition 2018, is unfortunately go back, supply regress and severe rate increase.
Unlike the print edition you can keep several years in your boat library, the annual update of the application Guides Escales clears all purchased regions the previous year. It is therefore not a purchase but an annual subscription, nuance!. And that's not all…
[Update 2022] The Escales Guide has been withdrawn from sale.
For all browsers who are new to using an iPad, and who do not yet know the basics of manipulation. For everyone who asks me :
In April 2010 I published a ticket to locate the main actors of the electronic charting. Time passing, this information should be refreshed, due to recent business movements. Some have disappeared, as Maptech, more recently Fugawi, others have changed hands, an update is necessary.
Thunderbolt this 27 October 2017, Navionics charts was acquired by Garmin (¹) ! The last private publisher to remain independent, until today in the hand of the Italian founder Giuseppe Carnevali, passes into the portfolio of the multinational company Garmin, shortly after the purchase of the global database Active Captain. The cards are redistributed once again…
Ultrasonic anemometers-weathervanes for yachting came up just over 15 years old. Among the best known we can cite those of the American Airmar and French LCJ Sensors. Equipped with sophisticated electronics, these sensors without moving mechanical parts have the double advantage of being much more robust than traditional sensors, and provide much more precise data. They can also integrate other sensors as a barometer, gyroscope, electronic compass and sometimes even GPS.
The first ultrasonic sensors were equipped with a cable for power and data transfer. The manufacturer LCJ Sensors, building on the success of its CV3F sensor marketed since 2001, designed the CV7SF range, wireless models whose data is transmitted over a radio frequency to a receiver which converts it to NMEA (0183 or 2000). Power is supplied by solar cells on the sensor cap, and different output connection interfaces are offered depending on the models.
A new actor, Spanish Calypso Instruments, has just designed a completely new concept wireless sensor, the Calypso Ultrasonic Portable, whose characteristic is to be featured with a Bluetooth Low Energy Transmission Protocol (Bluetooth 4.1), which offers many advantages.
Our friend Guillaume Bolo, the first in France to have offered for many years a very elaborate web interface presenting SHOM predictions – tide.info – is also the developer of the excellent app marée info for iPad, iPhone and Apple Watch. Copied but never equaled by SHOM itself, who ended up giving up, he will soon offer us a superb evolution… Read more …
I introduced last May The Nomad, a portable AIS transceiver designed by Digital Yacht. I had to wait until the end of the summer to have the opportunity to test in real situation this device that had been entrusted to me by the manufacturer. I can already say that I was conquered.
I conducted the test in two phases. The first in my home port of St-Vaast-La-Hougue in my own boat, to the pontoon, and at low tide, the port doors closed - the context is important - for the commissioning of the reception only. The second at sea, in Roussillon, with setting the transmission service. Read more …
Among the many new features brought by iOS 11, I particularly appreciated the improvement in the multitasking functions. The addition of a retractable "Dock" in the MacOS way, the "SlideOver" function combined with the "SplitView" function already present in iOS 10. This will greatly improve the use of navigation apps. Read more …
Good news, a year after its appearance on the first smartphones (¹), Apple finally integrates a GNSS receiver chipset compatible GALILEO. The iPhone 8/8+ and soon iPhone X are now equipped with the Snapdragon X16 LTE modem MDM9655 from Qualcomm, which includes a multi-GNSS receiver : GPS (USA), GLONASS (Russia), GALILEO (Europe) and QZSS (Japan) (²).
[Update 15/12/2017] The iPhone 6S and 7 are now compatible with Galileo signals.