I Did a Thing!

 Finally did something new on the boat, rather than reacting to stuff.

I've started fitting the electronics that I had on the conservatory table. 

Yesterday I fitted this little doohickey:

It's a Quark QK-A024 AIS receiver. But it doesn't just receive AIS signals and output the data using NMEA0183, it also takes any data input by NMEA0183 and broadcasts it in WiFi. So you can receive NMEA data on a mobile device.

It can also be used stand-alone, it doesn't need anything else other than an antenna to receive AIS signals. That's the mode I'm running in at the moment. It receives AIS data via WiFi. 

I log onto the unit's WiFi hotspot and then Navionics on my phone gets access to AIS data and displays AIS-equipped vessels on the Navionics map screen, including a pointer showing their current course:

You can interrogate the vessel data by putting the Navionics crosshairs over the vessel, as you can see here:

Hovering over the vessel will show their name, but in this case their MMSI was displayed.

Tapping the questionmark then shows more detail as it does with navigation marks.

Pretty neat.

One major downside of the Quark unit is the inability to run off a 12v supply directly. It is normally powered from the USB port you use to change software settings. Of course I wasn't happy buying Quark's special low-noise USB power supply (dodgy mobile phone supplies can create Radio Frequency noise and drown out the AIS signal). 

Instead I did a bit of electronic bodgery and fitted a 5V voltage regulator into the case of the Quark and fitted a power plug to the outside, hence the handwritten sticker on the case. NOW it runs directly from 12V! 

So, step one done. I now need to look at routing the multicore wiring for the Garmin Chart Plotter up to the radio and Quark unit. I think the trunking for the current wiring needs to be replaced for something bigger when i do that, so I need to get the trunking from Toolstation first.