Thursday, January 28, 2010

iPad On Board

Panbo was excited about Apple tablet product before he knew what it was. Now that it's been shown as iPad, sailors have a lot to be excited about. My iPhone is so useful onboard as a phone, browser, charterplotter, image feeder, and so on. One drawback is that it has a small screen when at times a larger one gives more perspective or a larger view. The iPad settles that and the applications will only get better.

What I want is for the iPad to be the multi-display for Speakeasy's network which can be viewed at the nav station, helm, and bunk. Not just viewed, but used to interact with network systems. That requires an onboard network that casts NMEA over WiFi (Bluetooth, Wireless USB, etc.).

As Brian puts it "The plan is to support NMEA-2000 over TCP/IP via MacENC to iNavX just as now is done with NMEA-0183. The Actisense Gateway will be interfaced to the Mac and MacENC will broadcast the NMEA info. And of course iNavX will support the larger iPad touch screen."

I have some network updates to make before I can test my iPhone or the iPad when it ships.

2 comments:

RBoos said...

Hi, have you considered the iAIS Wireless receiver, it receives AIS info, and relays it to the ipad thru wifi... But the awesome is that it relays nmea data collected thru the same wifi signal, so our ipads can show AIS and all other nmea data without wires... Check http://www.digitalyacht.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=11657 ... Best wishes from Rod, Brazil, Waverunner 42"

Unknown said...

The iAIS is an interesting product that I have not seen or tested. I am looking for information about how to get N2K information to an iAIS and onto iNavX. Panbo asked a similar question.