nke Marine Display

Application: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch. Requires iOS 5.0 or later.
Function: Display NMEA 0183 Marine data over WiFi
Rating:  *****
Cost: Free

NMEA data to WiFi is a hot topic these days. Every time I turn around I am hearing of a new WiFi multiplexer or a new data app display for NMEA 0183 or 2000 marine instrument data. Everyone wants marine data on their phones and tablets.

I ran across another data display app that I had not seen before. nke Marine Display is brought to you by a French company called nke Marine Electronics.  These guys have been around for almost 30 years in the marine electronics and instrument business. They too have understood that smart phones and tablets have changed the way sailors want to access data on their yachts.  Boaters now want the convenience to be able to use their hand held devices to view, monitor and control their onboard yacht systems.

This app is available in both iOS and Android versions. So you Android folks can feel the love too.

Features:

• Application offers 8 pages of data.
• In Navigation: speed, AWA, TWS, depth and HEADING.
• Navigation page 1: position, SOG and COG.
• Tactic: AWA, SPEED, HEADING and tendency of the wind.
• Reference has to be choosen by pressing REFERENCE-TENDENCY in the window.
• WEATHER FORECAST: AWA, AWS, Air T°, Water T° and atmospheric pressure.
• Navigation page 2: Bearing and Distance to the WPT, CMG and benefit in CMG, COG and SOG.
• Performance: Speed, Targets Speed, TWA, optimal Angle, % Speed surface /Target speed.
• Wind Chart Graphic: TWD and TWS
• Weather Chart Graphic: Air T°, Water T° and Atmospheric Pressure
• A double click anywhere on any of the screens to display the settings page
• Source: 4 pre-recorded: nke-WLN10-iMux and Seamate. It's possible to use the simulator which plays a file selected in Log menus.
• Units: Depth (m, ft, FM), Speed (kts, mph, km / h, m/s) Temperature (°C and °F), Distance (NM, mile, km, m).
• Ambiance: Day and Night.
• Logs: Allows to start logging and to send it by email, to choose a log for the replay.
• Graphs:  Choice ladder for Weather forecast and wind graph.
• Alarms:  Choice of the data time-out.

This app is packed with data on eight different data displays. Simply swipe your finger from right to left to move between the displays.

It can display all your yachts data including location, speed over ground, course over ground, wind speed, wind angle, depth, heading, air and water temp, barometric pressure, bearing to waypoint, distance to waypoint.

The display is of a nice size so it is easily readable from a distance.

The Settings menu can be accessed by tapping twice on any of the displays. Settings include Sources, Units, Themes, Logs, Graphics and Alarms

The display colors can be changed under the Themes setting.
Select NKE, daytime or night time viewing. The NKE theme is the vibrant yellow display. Day has the gray background color and Night has the red night vision display.

NKE has options to connect to several Marine WiFi router through TCP/IP or UDP protocols. You will need to purchase a WiFi multiplexer and connect it to your yachts marine instrument network.   The settings to connect to the WiFi router are accessed under the Sources selection in the settings menu.  There are several preset WiFi sources including the WLN10k, NKE, iMUX a Simulator and the SeaMate WiFI routers. Simply select one of these and define the IP address of the server, port and protocol and you should be receiving NMEA data from your WiFi device.

If you have your marine instruments connected to an onboard PC you should be able to set up an ad hoc connection from your PC to your phone or tablet running the NKE app. Create a source in the NKE app settings with the IP address, port and protocol from ad hoc PC connection.

One nice added feature would be to be able to select the locational services of the iPad or the iPhone as a source for basic display of data for location, SOG and COG.

Select Units to change setting of the English or Metric setting for the displays. Units can be set for Range, Depth, Speed and Temperature.

The Log settings allow the start and stop of logging and the ability to email the log if desired. Graphiques(Graphics) has settings to adjust the time scale of how much data is shown on the graph displays. Alarms has one setting for a time out alarm.

The app has a lot of nice displays and features and it appears to be compatible with quite a few WiFi multiplexers on the market. The free price makes it an easy choice so I will definitely be adding it to my display apps folder on both my iPhone an iPad.  Other apps like NMEA Remote and MID+WiFI(Marine Information Display) offer additional features but are both priced at $18.99.  If your looking for a basic display that is more economical, nke Marine Display is for you!

~~~ Sail On ~~~ /)
Mark