Headed down this weekend with grandiose plans, as always. Had a head cold, so ended up doing pretty much nothing on Saturday. Watched movies on our new flat panel TV.

Today, though, I made progress – not on anything I’d had planned, but on a completely different project. I have had all the parts to upgrade my navigation system. I’ve navigated on a laptop for years now, and wanted to put something more permanent aboard Nereus. It all started with the TV, as I brought along my Mac Mini, which I’ve hooked up to the TV to use as a monitor.

I used an Actisense DST-2 to convert all my old transducers (Depth, Speed, Water Temp) over to NMEA 0183 marine network. I had previously installed my wind vane/sensor, a LCJCapteurs CV-7, on the masthead, so all that was left was to install the Garmin 17x HVS GPS unit (which I’ve had long enough that is been discontinued). I ran it all to the Actisense NDC-4 network multiplexor and plugged it into the Mac Mini via USB. Bam! Works like a champ. I had mentioned this all before in Navigation Pieces Parts, except it’s is all functional now — no longer laying around my living room.

Of course, this all feeds into my wireless network and the data is viewable on my iPhone/iPad via a nifty little app called NMEARemote, available on the App Store here.

Of course installing the GPS was a bit of a challenge. I decided to install it in a safe, out of the way place, behind the dresser. It was a bit of a pain to get in there and I didn’t have Bing with me, who can fit in small places. Ultimately, all it took was a couple of beers and some sweat. It’s all done.

the GPS is back in there

back in behind the closet

It all works like a charm. Nice thing is I eliminated all those little boxes that have held all these parts for forever. Cleaned up the cabin nicely.