Bluetooth GPS
Has anyone tried Bluetooth GPS on your boat? I have been looking at
several import brands on Ebay and there are several under $100. If you
have, how was the Bluetooth reception when moving from below to bridge?
I was thinking of mounting an external antenna and putting the Bluetooth
device in the cabin with 12v attached permanently. Another thing I would
like to do is get the GPS feed from this receiver to both VHF radios.
Not sure how this is going to work, at least one has USB as well as
Bluetooth. How do you get NEMA from the USB port to the radios? Anyone
with any ideas or experience?
Joe Benson
I have done this frequently on various trips and boats, while using
my Palm Treo as a chart plotter device (thank you Jeff Siegal). I'll
typically put the antenna on the lower helm dash somewhere near the
front glass; so on a 40 -50 footer, you have coverage throughout most
of the vessel. I tend to spend most of my time up on the flybridge,
so on a typical fibreglass trawler, this arrangement is quite
satisfactory. There are now various Bluetooth hubs/multiplexers which
can address your issues; Jeff will hopefully weigh in with the
details as he has done a lot of work on this.
George
On Nov 17, 2006, at 9:13 PM, Benson,Joe wrote:
Has anyone tried Bluetooth GPS on your boat? I have been looking at
several import brands on Ebay and there are several under $100. If
you
have, how was the Bluetooth reception when moving from below to
bridge?
I was thinking of mounting an external antenna and putting the
Bluetooth
device in the cabin with 12v attached permanently. Another thing I
would
like to do is get the GPS feed from this receiver to both VHF radios.
Not sure how this is going to work, at least one has USB as well as
Bluetooth. How do you get NEMA from the USB port to the radios?
Anyone
with any ideas or experience?
Joe Benson
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Has anyone tried Bluetooth GPS on your boat?
Bluetooth has a range of about 30 feet. As long as you keep the GPS in
about the middle of the boat and your boat is under 60' long, it'll work
well. I've messed around with 10 or more Bluetooth GPS's onboard. I have a
new gizmo under my helm that multiplexes all NMEA and SeaTalk (converted to
NMEA) and re-transmits that over Bluetooth (ShipModul MiniPlex-41BT -
http://www.shipmodul.com/en/miniplex-41bt.html). With that, I now have
access to wind, depth, heading, etc. from anywhere on the boat too.
I also use Bluetooth from my mobile phone to give my PC access to the
internet. Works great. Eliminates wires.
I've been working on an anchor watch display that runs on a mobile phone
with a Bluetooth GPS. The phone will start making a lot of loud noises if
you drift outside the boundaries that you set. It's a way more complex
problem than it seems especially if the GPS is far away from the bow (common
on many sailboats where they are often mounted at the stern). There is a 2X
distance error so a 45' sailboat can have the anchor distance calculation
off by 90' even when the anchor hasn't dragged. This makes regular dumb
anchor alarms go off more often as you swing. As a result, most people set
their anchor alarm to a larger value or else reset it when they swing
around. Since mobile phones can often last more than about 12 hours using
an active Bluetooth connection on a single charge, it is the perfect thing
to have next to you while sleeping. I slept much better on the nasty nights
we encountered last month because of this. See the October 21st entry of
www.mvacappella.blogspot.com
Bottom line...Bluetooth works great on a boat.
================
Jeffrey Siegel
M/V aCappella
DeFever 53PH
W1ACA/WDB4350
Castine, Maine