jn1 said..Tested GNDALERT at Stansbury last Wednesday. The intention for this device was LG. But I don't know when I will sail LG again. I know Stansbury's inside sandbar very well. So, this device is a bit useless at this spot. Also, LG is not tidal, and Stansbury is. With a bit more development, I could make GNDALERT cater for tides, but at the moment, it does not. So, I was manually switching between maps on the water based on the time.
There is one scenario at Stansbury that this device would be useful. When the sun is low late arv, the water turns into a mirror. The inside sandbar has two main steps. Once the water fills in over all of it (it does this quickly - 1 run it's there, the next it isn't), and the wind kicks in to +25kt, the step can go from 30cm to 5cm. You won't know, until you hit it. I've been caught out once on an 18cm fin. Hurt myself and put a hole in my sail. It's something you only do once, but then you get scared, and stay away from that flat area with +25kt blowing across it, and miss out on the best bear aways for the session.
This device 100% needs blue tooth ear buds. The wired ear plugs were giving me the ****s with the wires blowing in my face. But, audio was nice and loud over the wind noise. The alerts were occurring exactly where they were expected. The "last run" reading was very useful (ie: after a gybe, it told me me my max 2sec speed, current distance, and local time). I was a bit worried that my own voice would start to get into my head, but it was just the right amount of talking and silence.
Another idea (which I think would be more useful for Stansbury), is a box alert feature that identifies speed strips. So, when you are approaching a speed strip, it tells you that. It then tells you when you're on it, it continually tells you. When you're about to leave it, it tells you that etc. Tidal specific boxes. So, different speed strips will become active at a given tide, like they do at Stansbury. But, the important one being, is as mentioned above: when the sun is low.
I'm very happy with it. It's definitely useful. Next winter (or next few winters), I'll progress this prototype to maybe a 3D printed shoulder mount device with Blue Tooth support, and tide aware profiles for Stansbury.
