Apr 9, 2017

The wireless, solar-powered SailTimer Wind Instrument™ can transmit to a range of apps on iOS and Android. This gives you a choice of wind gauges, tacking functions and chartplotter interfaces in different apps. Among the many innovations, the Wind Instrument has a digital compass right in the wind direction arrow. That makes it is the first masthead anemometer to work with rotating masts. It is submersible, and small enough for dinghy sailboats. It is the only masthead anemometer designed to work equally well when sailing along heeled over, because of the unique wind cup design. There are even two mounting options for raising the Wind Instrument after your boat is in the water, without having to lower or climb the mast.

The Android apps for the SailTimer Wind Instrument have had an upgrade. Both the SailTimer Wind Gauge™ and the SailTimer API™ are free apps that you can find in the Google Play store. Version 2 of the SailTimer Wind Gauge™ app includes a traditional wind angle display (True and Apparent). Also wind direction on a compass, with both Magnetic-North and True-North reference.

Audio interfaces are becoming more accessible in cars and at home such as Google Assistant, Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Bixby. Skipping the screen is also useful in sailing where your hands are busy and you may be watching the sails and the action up ahead. So a Voice Interface has been added to the SailTimer Wind Gauge™ app. Now you don’t have to squint to try to see your screen out in the bright sun; the Wind Gauge app can just tell you the wind conditions.

Faster Bluetooth connections with API update on Android
The SailTimer API™ is a free toolkit that receives Bluetooth transmissions from the SailTimer Wind Instrument, and hands off the data to different apps for viewing. One of the advantages of the wireless Wind Instrument is that there are a range of features and apps that can be used, depending on your preferences. There is a list of apps for both iOS and Android at www.SailTimerWind.com/OtherApps.html. Version 2.0 of the SailTimer API™ for Android is in the Google Play store now. The new version adds new Bluetooth technology for fast, reliable connections to the Wind Instrument across most Android devices.

Many controls have been automated in version 2, so the API uses a simple interface with most information on one panel. There is also a new advanced menu item for compass fine-tuning. The new version continues to transmit even if the screen is turned off to preserve battery power. If you lose the signal, the API will reconnect automatically if it is open. It also remembers your Wind Instrument and auto-connects when you come back to your boat.

Using a Wired Anemometer with Apps and The Cloud
As marine electronics continue to evolve, the SailTimer Wind Instrument is the first masthead anemometer with crowdsourcing, so that you can see wind conditions on your boat and from other boats around you on live wind maps. But what if you have a traditional wired anemometer? The SailTimer Mini-Server™ (www.SailTimerWind.com/Mini-Server) solves the problem of letting you get data from NMEA 0183 wiring into apps and online to cloud servers. Then you can also use the live wind maps to check live wind conditions on your boat from home or office. That has never been possible before.