MacSailing.net

http://brookhouseonline.com/imux.htm

What's more important in this link, I think, is the lengthy discussion of the potential of an iPad on a boat. A very good article!

Scot

Looks like a winner.
Only drawback I can see is that if you are using WiFi to broadcast your NMEA stream, any connected clients will not be able to access other WiFi networks and thus the internet or other machines. I've had good luck with my Bluetooth mux to put my NMEA stream on the air and any connected devices still have access to the WiFi network on the boat.

How iNavX TCP/IP has to be set with iMux Wifi?

We will add an iMux configuration to the iNavX Guide in the next couple weeks. The iMux is going to allow iNavX to do something not possible before - send the NMEA-0183 data required to navigate to a waypoint to an AP. This will be in the next iNavX release.

iMux Guide here ..

http://www.gpsnavx.com/iNavX/help/imux.htm

The iMux is great for providing NMEA-0183 data to iNavX via a WiFi connection, but it can also be used at the same time for GPSNavX/MacENC by connecting it to a Mac via this cable ..

http://www.gpsnavx.com/html/datacable.html

iNavX 3.2.0 is now available as a free update in the iTunes app store. It supports repeating the active waypoint information to the iMux which in turn will send the data out to what ever it's output port is connected to. For example an Autopilot. 3.2.0 also adds chart and route printing.

Got this report from Tom MacNeil

Quote:This morning we got to do sea trials on the boat. I was very interested how the Furuno Autopilot would react with the iMux-iNavX. I plotted a simple course and engaged the AP, then realized that my bow was pointing 180 degrees away from the course. I put the boat in gear and nudged up the throttle. The boat made a moderate 180 degree turn, found the waypoint and locked right on. As we neared the waypoint an alarm went off on the Furuno AP, stating the wp had been reached. I advanced the next wp in en route on InavX and the boat gently swung off to the new course. I ran the entire route in the same fashion... marveling on how tight the course keeping was. I tried it with a couple of "GoTo" WP's and found the tracking to work great. I went into an area of knowingly strong currents and it was fun to watch the system crab hitting the wp dead on.

As we were tying the boat back up the customer walked down the dock. He informed me that after seeing e pictures, he was so excited that he flew into Seattle and drove up to Anacortes (80 miles). I demonstrated the entire system to him. He was like a kid in a candy store. He had brought his friend with him, and I think he was just as excited as my customer. When I showed him how well iNavX handled all the navigation and the ease of sending routes to the iPad, he was absolutely incredulous. This was an incredible reward for all the hard work on this project. It's great when customers are happy with their job, but it is rare for them to fly in to see it!

This customer is a Kiwi so of course I had to tell him that the iMux came from NZ. I informed him how hard you had worked with Rich, to make iNavX as great as it is.
He is moving to southern California and taking the boat down the notorious Pacific Coast. He says he will not be using his computer and relying on the IPad as his main source of navigation.

Best,
Tom

Got this report from Tom MacNeil

Quote:This morning we got to do sea trials on the boat. I was very interested how the Furuno Autopilot would react with the iMux-iNavX. I plotted a simple course and engaged the AP, then realized that my bow was pointing 180 degrees away from the course. I put the boat in gear and nudged up the throttle. The boat made a moderate 180 degree turn, found the waypoint and locked right on. As we neared the waypoint an alarm went off on the Furuno AP, stating the wp had been reached. I advanced the next wp in en route on InavX and the boat gently swung off to the new course. I ran the entire route in the same fashion... marveling on how tight the course keeping was. I tried it with a couple of "GoTo" WP's and found the tracking to work great. I went into an area of knowingly strong currents and it was fun to watch the system crab hitting the wp dead on.

As we were tying the boat back up the customer walked down the dock. He informed me that after seeing e pictures, he was so excited that he flew into Seattle and drove up to Anacortes (80 miles). I demonstrated the entire system to him. He was like a kid in a candy store. He had brought his friend with him, and I think he was just as excited as my customer. When I showed him how well iNavX handled all the navigation and the ease of sending routes to the iPad, he was absolutely incredulous. This was an incredible reward for all the hard work on this project. It's great when customers are happy with their job, but it is rare for them to fly in to see it!

This customer is a Kiwi so of course I had to tell him that the iMux came from NZ. I informed him how hard you had worked with Rich, to make iNavX as great as it is.
He is moving to southern California and taking the boat down the notorious Pacific Coast. He says he will not be using his computer and relying on the IPad as his main source of navigation.

Best,
Tom

Video ..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7POAPsK-SY

iMUX .... AWESOME product! This is exciting and will take IOS navigation products to the next level. Hooray!!!

GPSNavX Wrote:iMux Guide here ..
http://www.gpsnavx.com/iNavX/help/imux.htm

This looks like a really nice solution.

Just one thing, the iMux seems to work as a wifi base station creating an ad-hoc network on its own. Is there any way to make it act as a wifi client instead, using the boat's existing wifi network? Otherwise the iPad can't use the boat's internet connection but will have to use its own 3G instead.

I just signed up here to ask that very same question.

I'm interested in the iMux or a similar device, but want to integrate it with a system for internet access too. I'm trying to avoid having one network for boat data, and another for internet.

Are there any screen shots of of the iMux interface?

Cheers,

jason

I got this response from Brookhouse support:

Quote:In principle the iMux could be configured for your purpose, but there is only a small number of people who understand and can confidently configure Wifi networks. We have decided to keep it simple and to pre-configure the iMux for an ad-hoc network called Brookhouse_iMux, as a "cable replacement" for communication with an i-device. This suits 95% of users and is to avoid that we have to spend a lot of time on wireless networking support.

This makes iMux in its current form a no-go for me. I asked them to note a feature request to make this configurable.

Also, using iMux with an iPad isolates the iPad from internet completely since it can't use both wifi and 3G at the same time (contrary to my reasoning above).

Do you know of anything that goes NMEA to ethernet, or SeaTalk to ethernet, without having to use a computer?

Quote:Also, using iMux with an iPad isolates the iPad from internet completely since it can't use both wifi and 3G at the same time (contrary to my reasoning above).

Not true. I use an iMux (AdHoc network) and still receive email, browse web, etc using a 3G connection. Also iNavX lets me decide if I want to use GPS from the iPad/iPhone ("Location Services") or from the NMEA from the iMux.

Screen shots? There is an iMux setup section in the iNavX help ..

http://www.gpsnavx.com/iNavX/help/imux.htm

Quote: Not true. I use an iMux (AdHoc network) and still receive email, browse web, etc using a 3G connection.

Thanks, good to know.

We just added the Brookhouse mulitplexer, and I have followed the configuration guides for the TCP/IP setup, but I keep getting a "timed out" message when trying to connect from Inavx. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Ray

Make sure you have selected the iMux in the "Settings" app "WiFi" section and that the WiFi status indicator shows in the status bar at the top.

Short of that contact Brookhouse for further assistance.