Technology

People often ask what technology we have onboard to produce my blog and remain in contact with the world.

The Hardware

When we were fitting out Harnser I fitted an aerial from the Boaters Phone Company and used a Nokia 6310i on Vodafone, with this combination I am able to get a phone signal on most places on the canal network. I use to connect this to the laptop with a cable and that way I could connect to the internet with a dialup modem using my contract minutes. How times have moved on. This was followed by an inferred link and then a Bluetooth dongle. I still use the same phone and aerial for my voice communication with Vodafone which is usable from inside the boat 99% of the time, even Braunston.

Today I have two ways of connecting to the internet, one is a WiFi connection to a MiFi unit running on Three on a 5 MB per month contract, this allows me to connect up to 5 devices to the internet, far more than I need as I only have a Laptop PC and an I Pad tablet.

My second method of connecting to the internet is using a Solwise Rocket WiFi antenna connected by cable to the laptop. This lets me pick up WiFi Hotspots that are transmitting in the vicinity, many pubs now offer free WiFi and if they are near a canals they can often be used, likewise a majority of houses now use WiFi modems and these can also be picked up. When we are at home our internet provider is BT and my contract with them gives me access to BT Hotspots free of charge whilst away from home.

The main disadvantage of this is that I can only connect the laptop and not the I Pad but as I really use the I Pad on the internet while a way from home it is not a major problem

The other hardware question I get asked is what camera I use and its nothing fancy, just a Fuji Finpix S5500 Bridge camera which I use in its fully automatic mode and just point and shoot, the only manual adjustment being the zoom. I don’t have time for anything else, I see something pick up the camera, switch on, point and shoot before I am passed it.

The Software

The blog is actually written on the Laptop PC using Microsoft Live Writer and then published via Blogger which is a free Blog hosting company owned by Google. The map to the right of the screen is a Google map where each night I manually mark our position. The map at the bottom of the text showing the days travel is also a Google map but the rout is produced by “Motion X” GPS tracker running on the I Pad.

 

How its Done

At the start of the day I put my I Pad on the rear slide, this is running two GPS programs. In the background it is running the GPS Tracker program “Motion X” and when we set off I start the tracker running, this is then left to do its own thing until we stop for the night, unless we are mooring up part way through to go shopping or something, when its paused. At the end of the day the program is again opened and the tracker stopped and saved. It is also shared by email to my own email address so that it can be read on my laptop. This is the only way I have found of transferring the information from the I Pad to the laptop to include in the blog.

While this is running in the background I have a second GPS program running called memory Maps, the great advantage of this program is that unlike a lot of online mapping programs, it will happily run using  installed maps so does not require a data connection to keep the map displayed and therefore doesn’t use any of my 5 MB data allowance.
The map I run on Memory Maps is produced by Paul Balmer and sold through his web site WWW.Waterwayroutes.co.uk . The maps are a detail guide to the canal showing bridges with name or number, locks, moorings and the duration you are allowed to stay, Water Points and all other services, Marinas,Hire Bases and Boat Yards. The map is marked off in half hour markers from junctions on each canal and include miles and kilometres. There are some free maps available on the web site so you can see the type of thing you are buying.

Putting the Blog together

Using Microsoft Live Writer I write the blog inserting the photographs I have taken during the day . At the bottom of the Blog text I put in a map of the days travels and the miles covered etc. This is the information from Motion X that I had previously emailed to my self, it arrives as a short text and a link to open the map recorded that day and looks like this :-

Hello,
Brian uses MotionX-GPS on the iPhone and is sharing with you the following track:
17 May 2015 10:25 am

Name:    Track 155   
Date:    17 May 2015 10:25 am   
Map:
(valid until Nov 13, 2015)    <http://gps.motionx.com/maps/c391bf070bdf2bac80e47e9d353a9197> View on Map    
Distance:    5.84 miles   
Elapsed Time:    2:12:11   
Avg Speed:    2.6 mph   
Max Speed:    4.6 mph   
Avg Pace:    22' 38" per mile   
Min Altitude:    27 ft   
Max Altitude:    93 ft   
Start Time:    2015-05-17T09:25:04Z   
Start Location:        
     Latitude:    53º 15' 48" N   
     Longitude:    2º 33' 22" W   
End Location:        
     Latitude:    53º 13' 22" N   
     Longitude:    2º 31' 56" W   

By clicking the link the map of the days travels opens on a Google Map base which can be zoomed and shown as map or satellite image. With this on the screen I use Windows “Snipping Tool” to save the map as a jpg with my photographs for the day. As you can see the distance and time data is available in the email.

To the right hand side of the blog is a map that shows our mooring location for the night. This is a Google Map that I produced “My Maps” and each evening when I am moored up I manually “Add a Marker” at our location. These stay on the map until we do our next trip when I delete them all and start again.

I hope this helps, if you have any questions I will do my best to help you, just drop me a line to