Boat wifi interference with wireless radar

Looking for thoughts and suggestions on eliminating boat wifi interference with wireless radar signal. (Raymarine Quantum 2 Doppler) and (Raymarine Axiom Pro MFD.)

A dLink wifi router set up to enhance wifi for iPhone CE works great, but its signal can often interfere with a weak radar-MFD signal. When that happens radar display and MFD control of radar are suddenly lost.

The immediate response is to disconnect power to the router and restart the radar. I can then proceed with Raymarine MFD charts and reliable radar, but without iPhone CE (bummer).

I have tried setting the wifi channel used between the MFD and radar and the channel used by the wifi router to separate channels (1 and 6), but that does not reliably solve the issue. Would other channel settings be better? What else might be tried?

My boat is a sailboat with full canvas cockpit enclosure and associated stainless steel support structure. That creates a Faraday cage effect which inhibits external radio signal strength including the radar signal to and from the mast located radar. For the most secure resolution for my problem I plan to install the wired radar data cable between the radar and mfd.

However, given the increasing use of wireless radar and general MFD wireless connectivity for other purposes and for the benefit of future users of iPad/iPhone CE I thought some discussion here might be worthwhile.

A Faraday cage would need to have openings smaller than the wavelength of the 2.4 GHZ WiFi signal which is 12.5 centimeters. Doubtful your cockpit s.s. structure meets that criteria. For maximum separation of the two WiFi signals set one to channel 1 and the other to channel 11. Actually, channels 1 and 6 should not overlap either although 1 and 11 are twice as far apart. Look for some other interference such as a USB type power adapter or other electrical device. (I found one I had on a camera created extreme interference on VHF channel 16.)

Thanks tw.

Radar data cables for mast arrive today so hoping the problem will be fixed when I install them. Radar network data line was already pulled through the boat. Just have to complete the section up the mast.

Using your great comments and suggestions I’ll continue to investigate the wireless connection issue for whatever value that might have here.

CE is functional on my iPad. However, o my iPhone it only displays my position. Is there something I am not doing to enable the functions that are available on my iPad?

Pat Harman

Pat,

I haven’t setup an iPad with CE. I can only tell you what works on my iPhoneX. Rose Point is the authority and I yield to them for the best info.

I apologize in advance for mentioning things you already know and have tried.

I assume you connect with the iPad using wifi and are not using wired serial communications / usb / lightning connector or other communications connection.

You write you only see position on your iPhone. GPS position data might be coming from your iPhone location services instead of the boat NMEA network. There was a way to turn that off in older versions of iCE. I turned it off in the past and now I can’t find the setting switch to do that on the latest version (v.53.2 from the Test flight beta app). I may just be missing it or Rose Point may have chosen to remove the setting switch and place that important decision into the CE system software logic.

iCE works on your iPad so that indicates that the boat NMEA network and associated instruments are working as they should. That pretty much leaves the problem with your NMEA wifi connection and/or with the CE Electronics Device setup.

My iphone connects with the NMEA network through a wireless router. which communicates with a wireless NMEA gateway.

Check the wifi network connection settings on your iPad and connect your iPhone to the same wifi connection. On my iPhone the cellular data connection works independently and does not interfere with boat wifi for iCE or windows CE.

Your iPad may use a browser and webpage to communicate and administer settings on your boat wireless router / NMEA gateway so once your iPhone wifi setting is the same as your iPad and after it looks like it is connected to the boat wifi see if you can connect to the same admin site with it. You don’t need to change anything you just need to verify the wifi connection and capability at this point.

A browser may use either an ip address or a webpage url to get to the router admin site. The Safari browser on the iPhone can do the same thing.

For security reasons wifi networks are sometimes configured to allow connections only from specific computers or devices based on device mac addresses, network location or other network name, port, or address. If you can’t connect with your iPhone, this might be a reason. That security is administered on the router / gateway.

If wireless network connection to the iPhone is working then check CE Settings_Electronics_Devices on your iPad and set your iPhone to the same settings.

You will use either NMEA 0183 over TCP or UDP. Use the same ip address and port for TCP or just the same port for UDP that you see on your iPad.

The NMEA 0183 over TCP should indicate it is a listener.

A recent communication from Rose Point said that the NMEA 0183 talker is available only with the NEMO device but not with other wireless devices. You don’t need talker capability to see basic instrument, heading, weather and AIS data. There are only a few instrument displays available in the current version of iCE.

I don’t have a NEMO device. My understanding is it communicates to iCE with an ethernet connection to a wifi router.

Your iPad CE works and that it suggests NEMO function via wifi is good. But perhaps NEMO has a special port setting or security feature which controls what network devices might connect to it. I’d have to ask Rose Point about that.

Hope this helps.

Harmon Rogers
sv Salish Breeze

Your way ahead of me on the technical issues. My goal is to use my iPhone in my skiff with only cellphone coverage. I would like to get weather, tides & currents, AIS. I will not be using any connections on the big boat. My iPad does this. My iPhone doesn’t.

Thank you for responding. It reinforces that there is something I am not doing.

Pat

I got it working. I don’t know what I did. Anyway I am a happy camper.

Pat

Really happy it is working for you.

Weather, currents, and AIS are coming to your phone over the phone’s internet data connection. That can be from either a local area network connection or from cellular data service.

GPS location and heading require that location services be enabled in 1) iPhone settings for the CE app and 2) within CE itself at Settings_Electronics.

If you go to settings on your iPhone and then scroll down to Coastal Explorer you find the spot where you can turn the iPhone location services on or off for the CE app and where you can turn cellular data on and off. Perhaps this is what you activated to see data in CE now.

The switch to enable/disable location services within CE itself is found in Coastal Explorer Settings_Electronics.

AIS info is from an internet feed from Rose Point. That feed is started and stopped in Settings_Electronics. You see in the info box that the AIS info maybe incomplete and or delayed. It is for evaluation / entertainment. Rose Point says do not use it while underway.

Interestingly, when you expand the online raster chart to a very wide view you see Rose Point is providing internet source AIS info on ships in north central Puget Sound, West entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Anchorage, and the lower Columbia River.

Cheers, HR