user – Page 2 – Pocket Mariner

SeaNav and an autonomous boat

We have downsized the Pocket Mariner test boat from a catamaran cruiser to a catamaran dinghy (Dart 18) and are doing our bit for Net Zero and our ears with an electric outboard.

We chose the Torqeedo 1103C which has slightly more power than an e-Propulsion and also had the benefit of being available rather than on a 6 month back order. It is a revolution compared to a petrol outboard. Totally silent apart from the sound of water flowing past the hull, instant start, no oil or smelly petrol and fumes. A real joy, here is it in action on the river Wye:-

As well as using the test boat for testing our marine navigation apps we got inspired to take the boat to the next level and see if we could automate it and ultimately use SeaNav to control it to follow a SeaNav route.

Two steps:-

A bluetooth LE enabled autohelm attachment to control the outboard direction
Add the bluetooth driver capability to SeaNav and get it to maintain course and change course at Waypoints.

A possible 3rd step is to add a remote throttle control too so we can go fully autonomous!

This article covers step 1.

Step 1. Bluetooth iOS remote for Navico TP5000

Autohelm units are very expensive ( over £400) and none offer remote bluetooth control. We couldn’t find one that supported remote NMEA0183 control either. So we bought a second hand Navico TP5000 unit off eBay and adapted it to support Bluetooth using an Arduino BLE nano33 board and 3 relays attached inside the housing to the switches. The project design, instructions and code is here https://github.com/electricpocket/autopilot. This could also be adapted to control a Raymarine Autohelm unit.

Here is the Navico TP5000 in manual mode attached to the boat and Torqeedo outboard:-

and here is the TP50000 controlled with our iPhone autopilot app:-

Next is to test this on the water and then move on to Step 2…..

Please contact help@pocketmariner.com if you have any questions or suggestions.

How to setup Boat Beacon AIS Sharing to OpenCPN

Get live AIS ship positions around you in the OpenCPN app on Windows, Mac, Android and RPi without the need for an AIS receiver. Boat Beacon can now share its real time AIS feed from our global AIS aerial network via NMEA with OpenCPN on the same device or on the same Wifi Network. Boat Beacon acts as a “Virtual AIS Receiver” and is the first and currently only app out there that offers this . The Boat Beacon AIS Share feature is free to try. If you find it useful you can use it any time when you are out boating for a small monthly or annual subscription via IAP. You can get the latest version of Boat Beacon from the Apple App Store here and Google PlayStore here. This is a step by step guide on how to configure Boat Beacon AIS Sharing on iOS (Android guide here) with OpenCPN running on a Windows PC or Mac. Boat Beacon and OpenCPN must be running on the same Wifi network or device. The guide uses Boat Beacon’s demo mode so you can try for free at home away from the coast and without having to purchase an AIS sharing subscription.

1. Launch Boat Beacon and go into Boat Beacon settings and turn on “Demo Mode”, then turn on AIS Sharing. It will show the IP address (192.168.7.111 in this case) and default TCP port number to use 5353 and will be orange ( not connected). Remember the IP address for use later in OpenCPN. N.B. If you are not in the UK the demo mode will be centred on San Francisco bay in the US.

2. Tap Done top left and go back to the chart view. This will position the map on a virtual boat in the Solent ( or San Francisco Bay). All the other boats in view are real and live. Tap the sailboat icon bottom left to start sailing the demo route.

3. Now switch to the OpenCPN app on your PC ( or Mac) and position the map on the same demo location as Boat Beacon, Solent ( or San Francisco Bay).

On windows click the Spanner icon to open the Options Dialog which has 6 tabs, as seen below. On Mac click Preferences under OpenCPN top left in the toolbar.

Tap Connections, Add Connection

Select Network, select TPC for the protocol, enter the Address (192.168.7.111) and DataPort number (5353) from Boat Beacon. You can enter a User Comment (e.g. Boat Beacon AIS) so you can distinguish this connection from any other connections you add. Leave everything else as default for now.

Tap Apply to save and create the new connection and you should see this with the new Boat Beacon connection enabled:-

The Settings are persistent, meaning that settings entered in one session will still be there on restart. The live AIS data from Boat Beacon will then display in OpenCPN.

Please note Boat Beacon will use your GPS position ( in non demo mode) to fetch and share the AIS data from (not the displayed map position) so OpenCPN will need to be centred on your GPS location too.

Notes:

Boat Beacon must be in Sailing mode to maintain the AIS feed when it is in the background ( e.g. when you are viewing the Navionics Boating app) on your device.
Make sure you have Location sharing for Boat Beacon set to “Always” in your device Privacy/Location settings. Please note Boat Beacon will only use your location when it is running ( foreground) or in Sailing mode. It will not “Always” use your location – it’s just an unfortunate terminology from Apple.
You must have an internet connection though (e.g. Cellular/Mobile) for Boat Beacon to receive the AIS data.
iOS14 has introduced a new privacy permission if apps want to use local network resources which both Boat Beacon and Navionics need to have set to yes. The OS will prompt you the first time either app tries to use a connection. You can manually set/change the permission in your device’s Settings/Privacy/Local network. See screenshot below for how we have it set.

Might sound obvious, but it has caught a couple of people out. You need to subscribe to the monthly or yearly AIS Sharing feature via IAP ( tap the AIS Sharing row in Settings to bring up the IAP screen) to use Boat Beacon with Navionics when not in demo mode.
If you have any questions or problems getting it working please email us at help@pocketmariner.com

Setting up club race courses with SeaNav

You can use SeaNav to enter and edit race courses, share these with others and navigate the course. Typically a club will have several race marker buoys and on any particular day set up a course using a subset of them plus possibly other fixed buoys in a particular order to best suit the conditions. This article shows you how easy and useful it is to do this using SeaNav in three easy steps:-

Ready. Enter all the race markers as POIs ( and use the SeaNav yellow flag race marker style). Typically you only need to do this once a year or less.
Set. Create a route from the ones you want to use as the course.
Go. Start racing the course.

First step – Ready. Set up all the club’s race markers as POIs in SeaNav. For this example we will have 5 race marker buoys labelled A through E. Create each one by long pressing on the chart and tapping “Add POI here”

You can enter the buoy name in the edit screen that pops up and also choose the marker type (icon on left above the name field) e.g a yellow flag for a race marker). You can edit the Position Lat/Long if you want to make it more precise/accurate. You can also import the markers from kmz files.

After adding all the race markers, which you typically only need to do once a season, the next step is to set up the course for the day.

Second Step – Set: Enter the course as a New Route.

Tap the route/poi symbol on the bottom toolbar and then tap “New route”

Enter a race start Waypoint or tap the POI race marker you want to be the start of the race and select “Add Waypoint for POI”. “A” in this example. Cycle through the rest of the markers in the order you want them adding them as waypoints . Here we are adding C and D and then ending back up at A.

You can end back at the start or at a different marker. You can set a race start/end line using a start and end waypoint markers. Enter a name for the course/route now or later in Manage Routes. Tap Done when you have finished. You can now share the route with others via email or dropbox and also send it to your own email as a back up. In Route details you can see the overall route length and distances between waypoints.

Final Step – Go: To start sailing the course just tap the Sailboat icon bottom left. It will mark the first course mark of the race with a star and show you the distance, bearing and ETA to it. When you reach it, SeaNav will automatically set the next race waypoint for you. You can manually choose the next waypoint in the route using the forward and back tab arrows in the navigation HUD at the top of the screen.

Get racing and good luck!

AIS coverage additions for Spring 2021

We are constantly working to increase our real time AIS coverage for our apps and services. Over the last month we have added over 30 new areas adding an additional 5000 live AIS targets to our global total of over 75,000 per hour.

Number of Ships	Area
30	Firth of Clyde, UK
50	Faroes, UK
50	Dublin
20	SE Ireland
20	SW Ireland
80	N.Holland
100	Aegean Sea, Greece
100	Valencia, Spain
200	Gibraltar and Southern Spain
50	Malta
100	Antwerp, Belgium
40	Beirut
200	Caspian Sea
300	Persian Gulf
200	Fujairah
30	Djibouti
20	Bangka
600	Japan, multiple areas.
200	River Plate, S.America
150	Sao Paulo, S.America
20	Salvador, S.America
31	SE Australia
30	Avalon Beach,Australia
27	Sutherland, Australia
21	Gulf of Mexico – Matamoros

Tidal Streams for SeaNav

You can now view the current and predicted tidal flow rates and directions live on SeaNav’s UK and IE vector charts.

We use the official chart Tidal diamond symbol, rotating it to point in the flow direction. Blue means the rate is decreasing, red and its increasing. The diamonds update in real time on the chart. For planning tap on a tidal diamond to see the rate and direction, tap i for more information and see the rate and direction for the next 3 days on a graph at the bottom of the screen. Slide the time cursor ( or just tap at the time you want ) and all the tidal diamonds in view on the chart update as you adjust it (not just the one you have selected). You can zoom in and out of the graph timeline using pinch gestures. The Tidal Stream information is cached for up to 7 days so will work when you are out. of internet coverage as well.

The new Tidal Stream feature requires SeaNav 5.3 or later and uses official data from the UK Hydrographic Office, updated annually. A current UK & IE chart subscription is required to view the data. We hope to add Tidal Streams for other areas where available if they prove popular ( FR, NL & BE, DE… ). Please email us and let us know.

School Amateur Radio clubs building AIS receivers

The School Amateur Radio Club Network (www.sarcnet.org) got in contact with us to let us know about their work promoting radio clubs in Schools. They are a neat way to get in an extra shot of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) while exercising on-air conversational skills and tuning up enquiring minds. Amongst the many very interesting projects they help schools with ranging from high Altitude Balloon Telemetry to Robotics one is an AIS receiver which shares its data with our network and others. They provide details of the free DIY AIS Receiver project based on a Raspberry Pi Zero and an RTL-SDR dongle at https://www.sarcnet.org/ais-receiver.html and they say many AIS enthusiasts around the world have built their project and share their data with us.

Having taken a look at their excellent tutorial we hope schools and science teachers will pick up on it. We have also suggested they might want to include an easier aerial to build based on our experience with the simple dipole aerial which we made for the cost of a length of coax cable and got over 30NM range with – see https://pocketmariner.com/simple-3db-dipole-vhf-ais-marine-aerial-co-ax-cable/

Setup Boat Beacon Android AIS Sharing to Navionics Boating

Get live AIS ship positions around you on the Navionics Boating app without the need for an AIS receiver.

Boat Beacon can now share its real time AIS feed from our global AIS aerial network via NMEA with Navionics on the same device or on the same Wifi Network. Boat Beacon acts as a “Virtual AIS Receiver” and is the first and currently only app out there that offers this .

Navionics have worked closely with us on this with their Boating app AIS feature and recommend Boat Beacon in its own category in their Boating app – AIS Devices Compatibility Guide.

The new Boat Beacon AIS Share feature is free to try. If you find it useful you can use it any time when you are out boating for a small monthly or annual subscription via IAP.

You can get the latest version of Boat Beacon from the Apple App Store here and Google PlayStore here.

This is a step by step guide on how to configure Boat Beacon AIS Sharing with Navionics on Android (there is an iOS guide here). The AIS Sharing feature includes a free no obligation 3 day trial so you can try before you buy.

1. Launch Boat Beacon and go into Boat Beacon settings and tap “Share AIS to other Apps”. You will be offered a free three day trial with one of the two subscription period options. There is no charge if you want to cancel before the end of the trial period. Next set ‘Share AIS’ on.

You will see this prompt advising the settings to use in Navionics.

Also make sure that Collision and SART alarms is enabled in Boat Beacon Gerenral settings ( it is by default) so that Boat Beacon will continue refreshing ship positions when in the background.

Tap OK, go back to the map view and set sailing mode on (Sailboat icon bottom left). This will position Boat Beacon on your current GPS location. Here I am positioned in the Solent in the UK aboard the Red Kestrel. (*N.B. See notes below if there are no ships within 30 miles of your GPS location and you need to pan the map to a location away from your GPS position to see ships).

2. Now switch to the Navionics Boating app (on the same device) and position the Navionics map on your GPS position and then tap Menu so you can configure AIS.

Scroll down to “Paired Devices”

You should then see this screen*, tap “Add Device” at the bottom.

(* If you already have a device set up you can add another by tapping the + at the top right on the device list screen.)

Fill out the Name as “Boat Beacon” ( or whatever you want to call the connection), the Host as 127.0.0.1 and the Port Number as 5353 and make sure the protocol is set as TCP.

Tap “Save” top right and go back to the map view. You should now see live AIS boat and ship icons on the Navionics map. You need to have “Display AIS targets” enabled in the Map Options in Navionics.

Now every time you run Boat Beacon in Sailing mode Navionics will automatically connect and receive the live AIS data from around your GPS location out to 30NM.

If you check back in Menu/Paired devices you will see Boat Beacon as Connected and AIS: Receiving data

Notes:

*If you are trying this at home far from the sea and live vessel positions you can still see AIS ship positions from Boat Beacon in Navionics but they will not get automatically updated. Pan the Boat Beacon map to a location where there are live AIS targets. Set AIS sharing on and launch Navionics and pan its map to the same location. You will see the ships’ last positions from Boat Beacon. However they will not get automatically updated. The targets in Navionics will start showing red crosses as their AIS data gets old. This is because when Boat Beacon is running in the background it can only automatically update ship positions around your GPS location. If you re-visit Boat Beacon, refresh the map and then go back to Navionics the AIS targets will all be updated again.
Boat Beacon must be in Sailing mode and Collision and SART alarms must be enabled to maintain the AIS feed when it is in the background ( e.g. when you are viewing the Navionics Boating app) on your device.
Boat Beacon will automatically update AIS targets around your GPS location when it is running in the background.
You do not need to have a WiFi connection to your device to use Boat Beacon and Navionics on the same device. You must have an internet connection though (e.g. Cellular/Mobile).
You can share to Navionics on other devices too if they are on the same local WiFi network using the IP address shown in Boat Beacon’s AIS Sharing setting instead of 127.0.0.1 in the Navionics Devices setting.
If you have any questions or problems getting it working please email us at help@pocketmariner.com

How to setup Boat Beacon AIS Sharing to Navionics Boating app

Get live AIS ship positions around you on the Navionics Boating app without the need for an AIS receiver.

Navionics have worked closely with us on this with their Boating app AIS feature and recommend Boat Beacon in its own category in their Boating app – AIS Devices Compatibility Guide.

The new Boat Beacon AIS Share feature is free to try. If you find it useful you can use it any time when you are out boating for a small monthly or annual subscription via IAP.

You can get the latest version of Boat Beacon from the Apple App Store here and Google PlayStore here.

This is a step by step guide on how to configure Boat Beacon AIS Sharing with Navionics on iOS (Android guide here). The guide uses Boat Beacon’s demo mode so you can try for free at home away from the coast and without having to purchase an AIS sharing subscription.

1. Launch Boat Beacon and go into Boat Beacon settings and turn on “Demo Mode”, then turn on AIS Sharing. It will show the default TCP port number to use 5353 and will be orange ( not connected). N.B. If you are not in the UK the demo mode will be centred on San Francisco bay in the US.

3. Now switch to the Navionics Boating app (on the same device) and position the Navionics map on the Solent ( or San Francisco Bay) and then tap Menu so you can configure AIS.

Scroll down to “Paired Devices”

You should then see this screen*, tap “Add Device” at the bottom.

(* If you already have a device set up you can add another by tapping the + at the top right on the device list screen.)

Fill out the Name as “Boat Beacon” ( or whatever you want to call the connection), the Host as 127.0.0.1 and the Port Number as 5353 and make sure the protocol is set as TCP.

Tap “Save” top right and go back to the map view. You should now see live AIS boat and ship icons on the Navionics map. (You need to have “Display AIS targets” enabled in the Map Options in Navionics. )

Now every time you run Boat Beacon in Sailing mode Navionics will automatically connect and receive the live AIS data from around your GPS location out to 30NM.

If you check back in Menu/Paired devices you will see Boat Beacon as Connected and AIS: Receiving data

Notes:

Boat Beacon must be in Sailing mode to maintain the AIS feed when it is in the background ( e.g. when you are viewing the Navionics Boating app) on your device.
Make sure you have Location sharing for Boat Beacon set to “While using” in your device Privacy/Location settings. Please note Boat Beacon will only use your location when it is running ( foreground) or in the background when in Sailing mode.
You do not need to have a WiFi connection to your device to use Boat Beacon and Navionics on the same device. You must have an internet connection though (e.g. Cellular/Mobile).
You can share to Navionics on other devices too if they are on the same local WiFi network using the IP address shown in Boat Beacon’s AIS Sharing setting instead of 127.0.0.1 in the Navionics Devices setting.
iOS14 has introduced a new privacy permission if apps want to use local network resources which both Boat Beacon and Navionics need to have set to yes. The OS will prompt you the first time either app tries to use a connection. You can manually set/change the permission in your device’s Settings/Privacy/Local network. See screenshot below for how we have it set.

Might sound obvious, but it has caught a couple of people out. You need to subscribe to the monthly or yearly AIS Sharing feature via IAP ( tap the AIS Sharing row in Settings to bring up the IAP screen) to use Boat Beacon with Navionics when not in demo mode.
If you have any questions or problems getting it working please email us at help@pocketmariner.com

Relocating our Portsmouth Harbour AIS aerial

For several years we have been successfully running one of our network of AIS stations in the house of Digital Yacht’s CTO, Paul Sumpner, up on Portsdown Hill overlooking Portsmouth Harbour. All of the AIS equipped vessels operating out of Portsmouth and the central Solent were picked up and transmitted over a 4G data connection to our AIS servers. The aerial position was especially important for picking up vessels in the Northern reaches of Portsmouth Harbour.

Many users of our Boat Beacon and SeaNav apps and Portsmouth International Port benefit from this data. Paul has decided to move house and area and the pressure was on to find an alternative location in time. Fortunately, following Paul’s suggestion the wonderful people at WicorMarine volunteered to become the new custodians and yesterday we went down to help them install the system.

WicorMarine Yacht Haven is located at the top of Portsmouth Harbour, with clear line of sight across the whole harbour and we hoped that the AIS reception would be as good as before.

Between the rain showers, the WicorMarine team mounted the VHF antenna on top of their weather sensor mast, while we powered up the Digital Yacht AISNet and 4GConnect router and tested that the AIS data was being received and forwarded to the internet web server.

The results were much better than we had expected and if anything we were actually getting better all round range, than previously. As you can see from the image below, 175 targets all the way up Southampton water, as far West as Lymington and way out in to the Channel beyond Nab Tower.

Everyone at Pocket Mariner, Digital Yacht and WicorMarine are very pleased with the new installation and we hope it will continue to give perfect service for many years to come.

A big thank you to Scott Waddington and his team at WicorMarine for the use of their facilities and the professional and efficient manner in which they handled this new project.

Real-time internet AIS Sharing to Navionics, iNavX, AquaMap, OpenCPN, etc. with Boat Beacon

Boat Beacon can now share its real time AIS feed from our global AIS aerial network via NMEA with other apps on the same device or on the same Wifi Network. Boat Beacon acts as a “Virtual AIS Receiver” with over the horizon coverage and is the first and currently only app out there that offers this.

Boat Beacon’s global realtime AIS coverage.

We hope this will prove popular with folks who already have other Marine Navigation apps/charts like Navionics, iNavX, Aqua Map and OpenCPN etc. which support an external NMEA AIS feed but don’t have their own Internet based AIS network or feed available.

Navionics have worked closely with us on this with their Boating app AIS feature and recommend Boat Beacon in its own category in their Boating app – AIS Devices Compatibility Guide.

The new Boat Beacon AIS Share feature is free to trial. If you find it useful you can use it any time when you are out boating for a small monthly or annual subscription via IAP.

You can get the latest version of Boat Beacon from the Apple App Store here and Google PlayStore here.

By the way, our own top selling marine charts navigation app SeaNav already has AIS built in as standard and if you haven’t tried SeaNav why don’t you give it a spin for free first, you can download it from here now https://apps.apple.com/app/seanav/id857841271 .

Here are some screenshots from Navionics, iNavX and OpenCPN using it.

Navionics connected to Boat Beacon on 127.0.0.1 TCP port 5353

On iOS

On Android

iNavX on same device ( using TCP 127.0.0.1 port 5353 )

AquaMap

OpenCPN running on a Mac via Wifi to Boat Beacon running on an iPhone ( TCP to 192.168.1.106 port 5353).

There are some simple step by step instructions on how to set up Boat Beacon AIS Sharing with the Navionics Boating app here:- https://pocketmariner.com/setup-boat-beacon-share-ais-navionics/

and here is the description in our user guide:-

AIS Sharing

Share Boat Beacon’s real time internet AIS feed via NMEA with other apps on your device and on the same Wifi network, like Navionics, OpenCPN on your Mac, iNavX , AquaMap etc. so you can see live ship positions around you on their charts as well. Pocket Mariner’s AIS service is fed by one of the largest network of AIS shore receivers world-wide covering most major ports, harbours and popular coastal areas with over 60,000 live ship positions at any time. Boat Beacon acts like a virtual AIS receiver and can also share your live position via Internet AIS with other users and internet based AIS services like MarineTraffic. After purchasing the Boat Beacon AIS Sharing IAP (monthly or yearly subscriptions available) just set your other apps NMEA TCP settings to connect to the IP address and TCP port (default is 5353) shown in Boat Beacon’s AIS Share setting. If you are sharing with an app on the same device you should use 127.0.0.1 as the IP address to connect to instead of the actual device IP address so you never have to change the setting when you are on a different network. Boat Beacon must be in sailing mode when sharing with other apps on the same device so it can track your position and continually update the live AIS data around you in the background. Tap the SailBoat icon bottom left to enable Sailing mode. In the unlikely event that you need to change the TCP port number in Boat Beacon to another number, tap on the AIS Share setting row and enter it.

On iOS you can try it out at home when there are no boats around your location by putting Boat Beacon into Demo mode ( Settings/Demo mode) first and then set sailing mode. Make sure the other app is showing the same map location as the demo mode is. Make sure to turn sailing and demo mode off when you are done. If Boat Beacon is not displaying any ships around your location then no ships will appear in the other apps either.

On Android get a 3 day free trial to try it out when you sign up for one of the subscription options. You can cancel the subscription at any time and will not be charged anything if you cancel before the end of free trial period.

Get the latest version of Boat Beacon from the App Store from here now and Google PlayStore here.