I'm taking a graduate-level web programming course this semester and
am looking for sailing-related ideas for my final project. I could do
something academic, but I'm going to put about 100 hours into it, so
it would be nice to do something that would be useful in the real
world.

This would be a dynamic website, based on XHTML, PHP, SQL &
Javascript. Specifically, we are using the LAMP (Linux, Apache,
MySQL, PHP) system. I am a professional firmware programmer and
expect to produce a fairly significant system for this project. This
is not a web design class, so I won't put much time into aesthetics.

I'm not looking to start a business or charge for usage, so the ideal
project would be low-cost and low-maintenance. If it requires
external resources, they should be freely available, such as Google
maps or government databases.

Some ideas I've been kicking around so far include: An interactive
cruise planner, a 'real-time' online cruise log, a shared-boat
management system and a marine weather browser that would overlay
(free) graphical weather data on (free) marine charts. I volunteered
to implement an online reservation system for my sailing club, but
they already have someone working on that. I don't normally have a
computer onboard, so I'm very interested in services for cellphone
browsers.

I'd not only appreciate any new ideas you might have, but also let me
know if someone else has already done any of these ideas, I don't want
to re-invent the wheel. I'd also appreciate any pointers to free
online resources that might be useful.

Thanks.
Chuck Cox
SynchroSystems - embedded computer design - http://synchro.com

my email is politician-proof, just remove the PORK

Chuck Cox wrote in
:

I'd not only appreciate any new ideas you might have, but also let me
know if someone else has already done any of these ideas, I don't want
to re-invent the wheel. I'd also appreciate any pointers to free
online resources that might be useful.



A webpage-based location system so family and friends can find a
cruiser's location with either a simple manual entry from the cruiser,
or an automated GPS system such as APRS we hams use to find out buddies
and their conditions.

The manual system would be simple, open the main webpage, click UPDATE,
username/PW to prevent mischief, fill out a webpage form.

Software for the cruiser's laptop would read his GPS data off his
interconnected GPS and do the update automatically as soon as he is in
range of any internet connection, wifi or cellphone. Let it boot in
background so's not to disturb him after initial installation and setup
at startup. Don't hound him if the net is not available, but store his
TRACK from his GPS to a database that will upload to the website so his
friends can see his track on the webpage once he gets in range of the
net, again, then dump his track data to the server for updating his trip
log, speed log, etc.

Here's what the hams have been doing for years.....

Bob Bruninga initially designed the system to track Naval Academy boats
up and down the coast. He's WB4APR on ham radio and on the staff of
USNA. See the system at:
http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/aprs.html
Many famous satellites have had APRS on board.

Other hams provide the online servers from:
http://findu.com/

Cruising has needed this for years. There's an expensive commercial
system used by some of the offshore racing organizations, but nothing
for the common cruisers except APRS on 10.151 Mhz on HF, where the hams
swap data over long ranges just fine, 24/7.

Users would merely open the webpage, enter the boat name and the Google
Maps/Earth or Virtual Earth/maps interface would place them.

Some places have AIS websites where AIS equipped boats in range of these
shore stations can do this kind of thing, notably:
http://www.shipais.com/index.php
His system has grown to be enormous around the whole of the UK, now. It
started out just doing Liverpool, but great support and wide acceptance
of his OPEN SOURCE, free system has helped make it great.

On Mar 17, 8:24 am, Chuck Cox wrote:
... a marine weather browser that would overlay
(free) graphical weather data on (free) marine charts. ...

Having "helped" a number of cruisers with wx routing I think you could
be onto something. Individual users can use MaxSea or similar but
there are some limitations: 1) it's brutally expensive 2) it will not
show some wx info from gribs particularly 6hr precipitation rate which
is quite useful 3) it's not on the web. Adding calculations for the
sailings (code was recently posted here as the aviation fomulary)
would be nice. On the wx side you should be able to choose the global
model (GFS and NOGAPS are available world wide), and at the very least
show 10 meter winds, isobars and 6hr precip. rate. Other model data
that's available but not as critical includes: wave height and
direction, surface temperature (weekly), surface current (weekly) and
quicksat wind. Actual routing is very hard to get right, but some
kind of DR advance along the GC and RL would make interpretation
easier.

-- Tom.

Larry wrote:
A webpage-based location system so family and friends can find a
cruiser's location with either a simple manual entry from the cruiser,
or an automated GPS system such as APRS we hams use to find out buddies
and their conditions.
....

Thanks for the feedback.

Interfacing with external GPS or RF devices is probably outside the scope of
the project, but the rest of what you describe is similar to what I was
thinking of as a 'real-time' cruising log. Functionally, it could be
implemented as a special-purpose web log, optimized for low-bandwidth,
low-resolution access. The mariner could enter text and upload pictures and
GPS track files from a browser. Visitors could then browse the log entries. I
assume some mariners would want to be able to control who can browse their log.

Do you think something like this would be useful without directly interfacing
with external devices? I believe most modern GPS units can upload their track
data to a file using off-the-shelf cables and software, so I could just deal
with uploading and parsing those files. Do you think anyone would need to
update a log without a browser, e.g. via email or touch-tone? Do many mariners
have mobile phone browsers?

Implementing yet another blog probably won't get me an A, but implementing one
with a good GPS track browser could be a decent project. It could be done by
creating a graphical representation of the track and overlaying it on chart and
weather graphics.

--
Chuck Cox
SynchroSystems - embedded computer design - http://synchro.com

my email is politician-proof, just remove the PORK

On Mar 19, 11:46 am, Chuck Cox wrote:
Do you think something like this would be useful without directly interfacing
with external devices? I believe most modern GPS units can upload their track
data to a file using off-the-shelf cables and software, so I could just deal
with uploading and parsing those files. Do you think anyone would need to
update a log without a browser, e.g. via email or touch-tone? Do many mariners
have mobile phone browsers?

This site (http://www.shiptrak.org/) is updated strictly by text e-
mails or voice reports and is very useful. Reports for hams come from
these (http://pacsea.org/) folks among others. So, yes, it could be
done and the current state of the art is pretty primitive so you might
well be able to make it better. The ability to update it while not on
passage and add a note or two would be very cool. I'd say at this
point virtually everyone would need to update without browser access
which is still quite rare on small cruising boats.

-- Tom.

On Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:01:49 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

This site (http://www.shiptrak.org/) is updated strictly by text e-
mails or voice reports and is very useful.

Are you aware that it can also be updated via SSB radio with Winlink
and Airmail position reports?

On Mar 19, 2:39 pm, Wayne.B wrote:
On Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:01:49 -0700 (PDT), "

wrote:
This site (http://www.shiptrak.org/) is updated strictly by text e-
mails or voice reports and is very useful.

Are you aware that it can also be updated via SSB radio with Winlink
and Airmail position reports?

Very. That's what I meant by e-mail. I did a lot of batch updates
via sailmail when I ran a rump session of the seafarer's net from
Fanning for a few months. You just need to shoot a properly formed
message to pangolin. Winlink has a form you can fill out or you can
automate it but do confirm that the address is correct. If all goes
well the pangolin server just parses the text and puts it into the
database. Still, it's pretty primitive and pangolin does it mostly
for the wx reports. A more socially oriented version might be a nice
way to let people know where you are and a bit of what's up without
prompting a pile of e-mails that inevitably come in when you really
want to get a grib.

-- Tom.