Boats-Vitals now shows also Swell and Magnitude

[vasko]

Latest Boat-Vitals Advanced( 2019 model) now can also shows swell and magnitude/acceleration.



With this new sensor the users can also monitor the movement of the boat - when sailing, when at dock or when on the hard.

-  should be useful to know at what point the Admiral will start moaning and later screaming   or does you boat hits the quay/pontoon or how strong was the earthquake while your boat is at the hard and you are far far away

The free offer to all Jeaneau owners member of the forum still available

[vasko]

How Boat-Vitals calculate the swell and magnitude of boat movement.



-------------"Magnitude of boat movement" - is the most generic information which represent the boat movement from waves, wind, earthquake etc. The magnitude is in a scale from 0 to 10 - around 0 no movement 10 disaster looking at the magnitude value you can actually judge quite precisely what happens with your boat . The magnitude can answer to a very important question : is my boat OK or it is tilted from wind, crashed or has fallen from the cradle from a earthquake ?



The way to answer this important question is very simple - if your magnitude is for a long not around 0 and for example your boat is on the hard - then most likely something has happened and someone need to visit the boat and check. More detailed answer why this is a definite indication is that the sensor is calibrated when your boat is leveled and when your boat change angle or fall down or is titled- the the magnitude will never go around zero.



and of course you can also measure earthquake magnitude e.g. as bigger is the magnitude as stronger has been the earth quake - for some of us who keep their boats out of the water on the hard in proven earthquake grounds ( like Greece for example) this latest addition is quite important to keep us sleep well at night...



----------------"Swell" - swell is calculated based on the magnitude and as such it is not exact and interpolated but still gives you a generic feeling about the see state around. The math behind it is as following :



We calculate the spectrum of A ( A=sqrt(ax^2+ay^2+az^2)) , by standard FFT function. This will give us the acceleration spectrum, Sa(f), which is the function of wave frequency, f.



To convert it to the more conventional elevation spectrum, Sz(f), We need to divide it by (2pif)^4, because acceleration of the circular wave motion is A=Z*(2pif)^2, while the spectrum is the squared magnitude, Sz~Z^2.



and the final result is of course the wave height in meter as I said quite interpolated and from time to time can have non existing values but still good enough to get the sea state around ....

[vasko]

How Boat-Vitals communicate



The "Latest and Greatest" - Endpoint Advanced supports : LoRa (IoT), WiFi, GPRS/Mobile and BLE( Bluetooth Low Energy)



LoRa - is a IoT chip that can transport small amount of data (like boat-vitals) on great distances without expensive hardware and extremely low energy consumption on a open/free band. Using the www.i4things.com network or if your local marina supports Boat-Vitals (IoT) then you can benefit from this and never need any mobile network charges.



WiFi - well known - if you already have wifi on board ( e.g. mifi or something similar) Boat-Vitals will be able to use it and never need any mobile network charges.



GPRS/Mobile - any mobile network on EU bands full size SIM card can be used. The system transfer about 1KB per day e.g. the smallest possible data plan will do greatly. But be careful ! some network providers can actually charge not be per byte transferred but per connection made and minimum 1MB e.g. some malicious providers can charge for 200MB per day instead of 1KB - just because they design they charging plan on the way to abuse customers. - our suggestion for EU is to use Vodafone/UK pay-as-you-go data only SIM card - this will cost you about 5EUR every 90 days. Having mobile data on the device will benefit you greatly s the system will be able to generate automated ship log, you friends and family will be able to track you in real-time also. There is also a very useful anchor watch option that allows you to check your boat when on anchor and also calculate the drag in case your anchor eventually drags.



BLE Boat-Vitals - use BLE to deliver real-time data from the device and all gauges/sensors attached to it in real-time to any Android or iOS device in range.

[MalcolmP]

Most impressive Vasko, wishing you every success in 2019 getting this established in the boat monitoring marketplace.

[vasko]

Thank you