SynchroSystems has a design concept for a low-cost, very low-power
electronic tide predictor that we are considering dusting off for a
design competition. Although we don't have any plans to market it as a
product at this time, I'd like to get some feedback about how such a
device might actually be used. It would be pocket-sized and should be
able to run for a year on a pair of AA batteries. If it were to be
manufactured, it would probably retail for around $100.

My market research indicates that there are basically two types of tide
clocks on the market: a simple diurnal clock that rotates the hand every
sidereal day and chartplotters with "real-time tide & current data".
The diurnal clock is a reasonable analog indication of when high & low
tide occur, but provides no depth prediction. I'm not sure what the
chartplotters are doing, but they should be capable of doing a proper
harmonic prediction, including depth. Can anyone tell me about the tide
prediction the chartplotters offer? Are there less expensive electronic
predictors that I missed?

Assuming expensive chartplotters offer acceptable tidal prediction, the
"market" for our device would be limited to boats without a
chartplotter. What kind of tidal prediction accuracy does such a boater
need? From my experience, I would be happy with +- 10 minutes and +- 1
foot of accuracy, but I'd be interested in what you would consider
acceptable. The less resolution we can tolerate, the more coastline we
can stuff into the chip. I'd also be interested in how far into the
future you would like to predict. I'm usually only interested in the
next 2 tides, but I'd be interested in your requirements. We can
predict far into the future, but unnecessary calculations waste battery
power and clutter the user interface.

There are three ways we could determine which reference point to use:
manual selection, direct serial connection to a GPS unit or listen on an
NMEA network with a GPS talker on it. I'd be interested in your
preferences.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

--
Chuck Cox - SynchroSystems - Synchro.com
,
my email is politician-proof, just remove the PORK

Chuck Cox wrote:
SynchroSystems has a design concept for a low-cost, very low-power
electronic tide predictor that we are considering dusting off for a
design competition. Although we don't have any plans to market it as
a product at this time, I'd like to get some feedback about how such a
device might actually be used. It would be pocket-sized and should be
able to run for a year on a pair of AA batteries. If it were to be
manufactured, it would probably retail for around $100.

My market research indicates that there are basically two types of
tide clocks on the market: a simple diurnal clock that rotates the
hand every sidereal day and chartplotters with "real-time tide &
current data". The diurnal clock is a reasonable analog indication of
when high & low tide occur, but provides no depth prediction. I'm
not sure what the chartplotters are doing, but they should be capable
of doing a proper harmonic prediction, including depth. Can anyone
tell me about the tide prediction the chartplotters offer? Are there
less expensive electronic predictors that I missed?

Assuming expensive chartplotters offer acceptable tidal prediction,
the "market" for our device would be limited to boats without a
chartplotter. What kind of tidal prediction accuracy does such a
boater need? From my experience, I would be happy with +- 10 minutes
and +- 1 foot of accuracy, but I'd be interested in what you would
consider acceptable. The less resolution we can tolerate, the more
coastline we can stuff into the chip. I'd also be interested in how
far into the future you would like to predict. I'm usually only
interested in the next 2 tides, but I'd be interested in your
requirements. We can predict far into the future, but unnecessary
calculations waste battery power and clutter the user interface.

There are three ways we could determine which reference point to use:
manual selection, direct serial connection to a GPS unit or listen on
an NMEA network with a GPS talker on it. I'd be interested in your
preferences.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Mapsource tidal predictions show the date and time now, the harmonic "wave"
in graphic form, showing predicted heights and times of HW and LW. There is
also the facility to change the date and time to any desired data. The
facility is available for all tide stations within the boundaries of the
particular Bluechart area you are running.

A similar program, with perhaps slighly more functions, can be used by any
boat with a laptop or PC without the need for a chartplotter. This is
WXTIDE32.exe, and as far as I am aware this program is available for free
download for most areas of the world except the UK, where the UKHO claim
Crown Copyright on all tidal data, presumably because the Sovereign can
alter the tides at will.

Dennis.

"Dennis Pogson" wrote in message
...
Chuck Cox wrote:
SynchroSystems has a design concept for a low-cost, very low-power
electronic tide predictor that we are considering dusting off for a
design competition. Although we don't have any plans to market it as
a product at this time, I'd like to get some feedback about how such a
device might actually be used. It would be pocket-sized and should be
able to run for a year on a pair of AA batteries. If it were to be
manufactured, it would probably retail for around $100.

My market research indicates that there are basically two types of
tide clocks on the market: a simple diurnal clock that rotates the
hand every sidereal day and chartplotters with "real-time tide &
current data". The diurnal clock is a reasonable analog indication of
when high & low tide occur, but provides no depth prediction. I'm
not sure what the chartplotters are doing, but they should be capable
of doing a proper harmonic prediction, including depth. Can anyone
tell me about the tide prediction the chartplotters offer? Are there
less expensive electronic predictors that I missed?

Assuming expensive chartplotters offer acceptable tidal prediction,
the "market" for our device would be limited to boats without a
chartplotter. What kind of tidal prediction accuracy does such a
boater need? From my experience, I would be happy with +- 10 minutes
and +- 1 foot of accuracy, but I'd be interested in what you would
consider acceptable. The less resolution we can tolerate, the more
coastline we can stuff into the chip. I'd also be interested in how
far into the future you would like to predict. I'm usually only
interested in the next 2 tides, but I'd be interested in your
requirements. We can predict far into the future, but unnecessary
calculations waste battery power and clutter the user interface.

There are three ways we could determine which reference point to use:
manual selection, direct serial connection to a GPS unit or listen on
an NMEA network with a GPS talker on it. I'd be interested in your
preferences.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Mapsource tidal predictions show the date and time now, the harmonic
"wave"
in graphic form, showing predicted heights and times of HW and LW. There
is
also the facility to change the date and time to any desired data. The
facility is available for all tide stations within the boundaries of the
particular Bluechart area you are running.

A similar program, with perhaps slighly more functions, can be used by any
boat with a laptop or PC without the need for a chartplotter. This is
WXTIDE32.exe, and as far as I am aware this program is available for free
download for most areas of the world except the UK, where the UKHO claim
Crown Copyright on all tidal data, presumably because the Sovereign can
alter the tides at will.

Dennis.

Or, TideTool... http://www.toolworks.com/bilofsky/tidetool/

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Dennis Pogson" wrote in message
...
Chuck Cox wrote:
SynchroSystems has a design concept for a low-cost, very low-power
electronic tide predictor that we are considering dusting off for a
design competition. Although we don't have any plans to market it as
a product at this time, I'd like to get some feedback about how such a
device might actually be used. It would be pocket-sized and should be
able to run for a year on a pair of AA batteries. If it were to be
manufactured, it would probably retail for around $100.

My market research indicates that there are basically two types of
tide clocks on the market: a simple diurnal clock that rotates the
hand every sidereal day and chartplotters with "real-time tide &
current data". The diurnal clock is a reasonable analog indication of
when high & low tide occur, but provides no depth prediction. I'm
not sure what the chartplotters are doing, but they should be capable
of doing a proper harmonic prediction, including depth. Can anyone
tell me about the tide prediction the chartplotters offer? Are there
less expensive electronic predictors that I missed?

Assuming expensive chartplotters offer acceptable tidal prediction,
the "market" for our device would be limited to boats without a
chartplotter. What kind of tidal prediction accuracy does such a
boater need? From my experience, I would be happy with +- 10 minutes
and +- 1 foot of accuracy, but I'd be interested in what you would
consider acceptable. The less resolution we can tolerate, the more
coastline we can stuff into the chip. I'd also be interested in how
far into the future you would like to predict. I'm usually only
interested in the next 2 tides, but I'd be interested in your
requirements. We can predict far into the future, but unnecessary
calculations waste battery power and clutter the user interface.

There are three ways we could determine which reference point to use:
manual selection, direct serial connection to a GPS unit or listen on
an NMEA network with a GPS talker on it. I'd be interested in your
preferences.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Mapsource tidal predictions show the date and time now, the harmonic
"wave"
in graphic form, showing predicted heights and times of HW and LW. There
is
also the facility to change the date and time to any desired data. The
facility is available for all tide stations within the boundaries of the
particular Bluechart area you are running.

A similar program, with perhaps slighly more functions, can be used by any
boat with a laptop or PC without the need for a chartplotter. This is
WXTIDE32.exe, and as far as I am aware this program is available for free
download for most areas of the world except the UK, where the UKHO claim
Crown Copyright on all tidal data, presumably because the Sovereign can
alter the tides at will.

Dennis.


Here's another...

http://www.wtides.com/

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On Fri, 04 Aug 2006 13:14:05 -0400, Chuck Cox
wrote:

I'm not sure what the
chartplotters are doing, but they should be capable of doing a proper
harmonic prediction, including depth. Can anyone tell me about the tide
prediction the chartplotters offer? Are there less expensive electronic
predictors that I missed?

Both my Furuno chart plotter and my PC based Maptech Offshore
Navigator software do tide and current plotting, which show predicted
height/current speed by day and hour for selected points (tide
stations). This is facilitated by the new, free NOAA charts.

There are a number of PC based systems free for the asking, don't know
about the handheld GPS units but I'd suspect they may be getting into
tide prediction also.

A similar program, with perhaps slighly more functions, can be used by any
boat with a laptop or PC without the need for a chartplotter. This is
WXTIDE32.exe, and as far as I am aware this program is available for free
download for most areas of the world except the UK, where the UKHO claim
Crown Copyright on all tidal data, presumably because the Sovereign can
alter the tides at will.

Dennis.


Just downloaded the latest(?) WXtides a few days ago. It does have some
station in the UK. Have no idea what it's using for harmonics nor how
accurate they may be. I have no reason to believe that one in the UK can't
download the same.
BF

Chuck Cox wrote in news:I7-
:

Are there less expensive electronic
predictors that I missed?


www.toolworks.com/bilofsky/tidetool

Tide Tool 2.2 for the any Palm PDA or Handspring or any other Palm-powered
cellphone PDA. Check out the webpage. First class predictions and GRAPHS
for over 7000 locations, worldwide, including Magnolia Gardens on the
Ashley River in Charleston, SC, about 100 yards from my little seawall...
(c; Predictions are very accurate unless, of course, there is some kind of
storm surge it cannot predict. Even the simplest old discarded Palm III
accurately displays it. Mine cost $5 at a thrift shop (one of the AAA
batteries was in backwards..(c.

Tide Tool 2.2 is FREEWARE. It's coder is into boats and wanted to pay
boating back for his pleasure....



--
Sea Ray Boats gave my email to Channel Blade to spam me.
phone 865-522-4181
Sea Ray Boats, Inc.
2600 Sea Ray Blvd.
Knoxville, TN 37914

One ****ty Sea Ray boat was enough....

Chuck Cox wrote:
SynchroSystems has a design concept for a low-cost, very low-power
electronic tide predictor that we are considering dusting off for a
design competition. Although we don't have any plans to market it as a
product at this time, I'd like to get some feedback about how such a
device might actually be used. It would be pocket-sized and should be
able to run for a year on a pair of AA batteries. If it were to be
manufactured, it would probably retail for around $100.

My market research indicates that there are basically two types of tide
clocks on the market: a simple diurnal clock that rotates the hand every
sidereal day and chartplotters with "real-time tide & current data".
The diurnal clock is a reasonable analog indication of when high & low
tide occur, but provides no depth prediction. I'm not sure what the
chartplotters are doing, but they should be capable of doing a proper
harmonic prediction, including depth. Can anyone tell me about the tide
prediction the chartplotters offer? Are there less expensive electronic
predictors that I missed?

Assuming expensive chartplotters offer acceptable tidal prediction, the
"market" for our device would be limited to boats without a
chartplotter. What kind of tidal prediction accuracy does such a boater
need? From my experience, I would be happy with +- 10 minutes and +- 1
foot of accuracy, but I'd be interested in what you would consider
acceptable. The less resolution we can tolerate, the more coastline we
can stuff into the chip. I'd also be interested in how far into the
future you would like to predict. I'm usually only interested in the
next 2 tides, but I'd be interested in your requirements. We can
predict far into the future, but unnecessary calculations waste battery
power and clutter the user interface.

There are three ways we could determine which reference point to use:
manual selection, direct serial connection to a GPS unit or listen on an
NMEA network with a GPS talker on it. I'd be interested in your
preferences.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

--
Chuck Cox - SynchroSystems - Synchro.com
,
my email is politician-proof, just remove the PORK

I'd like having a small, inexpensive, specialized/stand-alone unit and
I'd be perfectly happy if it just gave me the times of the last and
next high tide wherever I am at the moment; that would be very helpful
to me for my pwc adventures even without any more detailed information
(current depth), and if that simplicity helped make it cheaper, that'd
be what I'd want. What I sometimes do is rip out of the newspaper
(Newsday), the half of the weather-forecast page that lists the day's
high and low tides in all the areas in the region and put it in a
little plastic baggie and put that in the glove compartment of my
waverunner....but sometimes I just forget to do that!

richforman

richforman wrote:

I'd like having a small, inexpensive, specialized/stand-alone unit and
I'd be perfectly happy if it just gave me the times of the last and
next high tide wherever I am at the moment; that would be very helpful
to me for my pwc adventures even without any more detailed information
(current depth), and if that simplicity helped make it cheaper, that'd
be what I'd want. What I sometimes do is rip out of the newspaper
(Newsday), the half of the weather-forecast page that lists the day's
high and low tides in all the areas in the region and put it in a
little plastic baggie and put that in the glove compartment of my
waverunner....but sometimes I just forget to do that!


Thanks for your input.

Based on the feedback we've received, we're now considering dropping GPS
communications and going for a very small wrist-wearable (i.e. oversized
sports watch) package. You would manually select the reference station
from a scrolling list.

You can see the display he http://www.synchro.com/SCLCD.html. It is
a small display, so we can only display one thing at a time. I'd be
interested in what sort of info potential users might want displayed on
such a device.

Some of the things we could display:
time & date
reference station
countdown to next tide
time(s) of previous tide(s)
time(s) of next tide(s)
height(s) of previous tide(s)
height(s) of next tide(s)
circular tide-clock graph

--
Chuck Cox - SynchroSystems - Synchro.com
,
my email is politician-proof, just remove the PORK

Chuck Cox wrote:
richforman wrote:


I'd like having a small, inexpensive, specialized/stand-alone unit and
I'd be perfectly happy if it just gave me the times of the last and
next high tide wherever I am at the moment; that would be very helpful
to me for my pwc adventures even without any more detailed information
(current depth), and if that simplicity helped make it cheaper, that'd
be what I'd want. What I sometimes do is rip out of the newspaper
(Newsday), the half of the weather-forecast page that lists the day's
high and low tides in all the areas in the region and put it in a
little plastic baggie and put that in the glove compartment of my
waverunner....but sometimes I just forget to do that!


Thanks for your input.

Based on the feedback we've received, we're now considering dropping GPS
communications and going for a very small wrist-wearable (i.e. oversized
sports watch) package. You would manually select the reference station
from a scrolling list.

You can see the display he http://www.synchro.com/SCLCD.html. It is
a small display, so we can only display one thing at a time. I'd be
interested in what sort of info potential users might want displayed on
such a device.

Some of the things we could display:
time & date
reference station
countdown to next tide
time(s) of previous tide(s)
time(s) of next tide(s)
height(s) of previous tide(s)
height(s) of next tide(s)
circular tide-clock graph


When I retired 2.5 years ago, my union local gave me a tide clock for my
years of service as treasurer & acting president.
Mine id similar to "the most popular" unit, but is inserted into the
block of teak and mounted just inside my front door at home.
I'm amazed how accurate it stays...month after month. Can't remember the
last time I set it (year ago?)
http://www.downeaster.com/content/tides.aspx