FAQ – SailTimer Wind Instrument™
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the wireless Wind Instrument vs. wired Ultrasonic wind sensor?
The biggest difference between the Ultrasonic and the wireless Wind Instrument is that the Ultrasonic needs a wire run down the inside of the mast. There some technical details that are different…
The wind cups on the Wind Instrument are designed to remain equally responsive when sailing along heeling over. So it is designed for sailboats, whereas the Ultrasonic may be a better fit on powerboats or anyone neeeding a compact wind sensor.
Also, the Ultrasonic transmits wind ANGLE, but the Wind Instrument contains a digital compass so measures wind DIRECTION. But both of them allow conversions between angle and direction, true north and magnetic north, and true and apparent wind.
Finally, the Wind Instrument can transmit directly to a smartphone on Bluetooth. But with either sensor, if you have a GPS chartplotter or multi-function display, you may want to add the Air Link. It can receive the transmissions from either sensor on the masthead (by Bluetooth or wire), and can connect on NMEA 2000 (or 0183) wiring to a chartplotter. The Air Link can also retransmit the wind data to smartphone apps.
Solar charging & battery care
Android questions?
How are True Wind and Wind Angle determined?
Should the RB battery connectors be under the nose cone or under the battery?
Why is the cover clear on the tail?
What mobile devices support Bluetooth 4?
Can Bluetooth 4 transmit from my mast height?
Can I still use my boat's wifi network?
Should the Wind Instrument be visible under Bluetooth devices in Settings?
If my mobile device is connected to the Wind Instrument on Bluetooth LE (4), can I connect to other Bluetooth 4 accessories at the same time?
How can I receive the wind data on several phones/tablets/watches simultaneously?
If any of your crew are using smartwatches, those are typically receive data from the the phone/tablet. So one person could have the phone/tablet in the cockpit, and another person could be wearing the watch up on the front deck. Some of the apps that can display wind data (https://wi-rb.com/apps/) do have watch apps. It is a function of each app though, so you would need to check a particular app to verify.
Then as another alternative, we also do have the accessory called the Air Link (https://wi-rb.com/sailtimer-air-link-features/) that can receive the Bluetooth data and retransmit it on wifi, for any number of devices to receive (using apps that can receive NMEA data on wifi).
So there should be several ways to accomplish this. :-)
Could I accidentally receive wind data from a neighbouring boat?
Will the VHF antenna on my masthead affect the digital compass in the wind direction arrow?
How much space does the Wind Instrument need, for rotating?
Can I maintain the Bluetooth 4 connection when my tablet/smartphone goes to sleep?
My wind cups have started making sound when spinning; what can I do?
Are there privacy or security issues if I crowdsource wind data?
The tail looks much bigger than the nose cone; do they balance?
Is there a smoothing function for the Wind Instrument?
Do I need to protect the digital compass in the tail from magnets?
Does the digital compass work worldwide for wind direction?
What is the Cloud Server Activation on the order page, and why is it necessary?
How can my multiplexer or Raspberry Pi get data from the Wind Instrument?
Is Audio Navigation speaking with magnetic north or true north?
What are the optimal settings for accurate conversions to True Wind?
If smoothing is increased to average across 4 seconds, TWS is unaffected by boat speed and everything is very stable. However you may not want to do this because it makes the wind gauge respond more slowly. Smoothing over 3 seconds works mostly, but some spikes still sneak through. In our testing, that does not happen at 4 seconds.
In the API to get 4 seconds, consider the transmission rate and the smoothing over X transmissions. For example, if you have transmissions set at 5 Hz (5 per second), smoothing over 20 transmissions would give 4 seconds.
We haven’t changed this in the API, since users will usually want quick reactions — but we plan to do this when sending crowdsourced data for True wind speed and direction to the SailTimer cloud server. You have the option to set it in the Smoothing settings in the API if needed.