If you have a self steering vane or in my case sheet to tiller, the boat can wander off course as it stays true to the wind angle.
Is there an app where you set your course and an alarm will warn you when you are 15 degrees or so off course?
That is the only function that I am looking for.

Gary

G'day Gary,
Do you want it to reference magnetic, or GPS? Or both?

The standard IPhone compass gives you a visible alarm indicator (red bar showing severity of drift) , but not audible sadly.
I wish NavMonPc was a phone app, as it does it.

Opencpn Watchdog, never tried on a Android used like a app though. Can use VNCviewer to iOS however I presume the alarm would be on pc inside.

G'day Gary,
Do you want it to reference magnetic, or GPS? Or both?

HI Shaggy
Either GPS or both.
I want to set a desired course line on my CMap navigator on a tablet.
Set up my sheet to tiller and get it running as close to the course line as I can and then be able to go about other tasks.
Not sleeping, but not sitting in the cockpit with an eye on the compass,
Then if she wanders an alarm will let me know.
This is for 10 to 20 mile runs.

Have tried a couple of compass app which promise something vaguely along those lines but they didn't deliver.

Gary

Select to expand quote

Cabron said..
Opencpn Watchdog, never tried on a Android used like a app though. Can use VNCviewer to iOS however I presume the alarm would be on pc inside.

Thanks for that. I was playing around with OpenCPN this morning on my yacht and thought there would have to be a plugin for this. Just set an off course alarm.

Select to expand quote

garymalmgren said..
G'day Gary,
Do you want it to reference magnetic, or GPS? Or both?

HI Shaggy
Either GPS or both.
I want to set a desired course line on my CMap navigator on a tablet.
Set up my sheet to tiller and get it running as close to the course line as I can and then be able to go about other tasks.
Not sleeping, but not sitting in the cockpit with an eye on the compass,
Then if she wanders an alarm will let me know.
This is for 10 to 20 mile runs.

Have tried a couple of compass app which promise something vaguely along those lines but they didn't deliver.

Gary

Makes a lot of sense. Can I ask a couple more dumb questions?
- What is CMap navigator?
- is the tablet android or apple?
- What sort of alarm, ie: audible or visual?
- any bus or network on board, ie: Nmea 0183 or such?

Select to expand quote

garymalmgren said..
If you have a self steering vane or in my case sheet to tiller, the boat can wander off course as it stays true to the wind angle.
Is there an app where you set your course and an alarm will warn you when you are 15 degrees or so off course?
That is the only function that I am looking for.

Gary

Hi Gary,
I have a Raymarine C80 MFD with a separate Autopilot module. My understanding of Autopilot mode (ie. GoTo a waypoint), based on observation, is as follows:
The separate Autopilot module, when switched to 'Auto', picks up the required course from the NMEA0183 bus and steers that course using its own compass.
Course calculations, distance to waypoint, cross-track error and alarms, etc, are all handled by the MFD - so if you set GoTo a waypoint without engaging the Autopilot, my system has the behaviour you're looking for.
Maybe you have a similar setup that will do the same?

regards,
Allan

Hi Shaggy

- What is CMap navigator?
- is the tablet android or apple?

Nobody here has heard of Navionics. Market penetration?

Cmaps are the to purchase digital charts that run on the Plan2nav software for IPhone or Android.
www.bing.com/videos/search?q=plan2nav&view=detail&mid=22C29BA0B094098F0E0522C29BA0B094098F0E05&FORM=VIRE
I use it because it is the standard in Japan. Fishers, merchants and boaties use it.
Charts are a one off purchase and cheap and I think they cover the really small (2 metre depth) fishing villages.
I have it on phone and tablet.
But it doesn't have the off course alarm that I am after. Some hiking/adventure compasses have it but it is really for taking a wrong turn/path in the mountains.

- What sort of alarm, ie: audible or visual?
I am after an audible alarm, like on a standard car nav system, Or the off course beeper on my tiller pilot.
Actually I though of setting up my tillerpilot and not connecting it to the tiller. It would let me know if I veered of course.
Seems a bit of a silly idea though.

- any bus or network on board, ie: Nmea 0183 or such?
Nothing like that at all.
Telltaile for wind direction.
Wet finger for wind speed.
Fishfinder for depth
Boat Speed app for boat speed
And CMap for nav ( I do have charts aboard. LOL)
And like 90% of sailboats, No radio (VHF that is)

That last bit should answer your question Datawiz.

Gary

''I am after an audible alarm, like on a standard car nav system, Or the off course beeper on my tiller pilot.
Actually I though of setting up my tillerpilot and not connecting it to the tiller. It would let me know if I veered of course.
Seems a bit of a silly idea though"

I don't think it's silly at all Gary, that's what I'd do.....assuming you can set an acceptable range of course deviation before the alarm triggers.

I use my Off track XTE alarm on my Raymarine MFD when the wind vane is steering.
You can set it between 0 and 10 nautical miles

No use with a real windvane, but Raymarine has effectively what you want when you set up the autopilot in Windvane mode, that is it steers to maintain a set angle against Apparent or True wind. If True wind changes by more than, I think, 10 degrees since you set it, you get an audible alarm on the MFD.

I make use of this all the time when cruising. I point us in the right direction, set the AP in Windvane mode, then take a bit of time fiddling with the sails to optimise the trim. Then don't have to touch the sails again unless the wind changes enough to force a re-set.

G'day Gary,
I see your point, it's not as easy as I thought.
The closest I can think of was this French chap that was a lovely guy, he had developed his own free app and I remember was after ideas on how he could add more features. It is an android os though, unsure what you are using.

If it isn't already there and you tracked him down , I am sure he could add it for you, as it seems like a logical and simple 'must-have'.
Have a look at his app mate, and drop him a email, you might be pleasantly surprised.

Edit: Seabreeze kept rejecting the html link, so you might have to google it , it's called SailFreeGPS.

HIya Gary,
Did you see Dachopper's thread on the Garmin app?
He might have a solution for you.
Cheers,
SB