Aqua Map is capable to connect to external boat devices (AIS, Depth, Wind, Compass, GPS) and use their data into the app.
To be able to do it, you need to have on the same WiFi: your device with Aqua Map and a Wi-Fi gateway or a boat device able to connect via Wi-Fi and to transmit NMEA0183 or Signal-K (only for iOS) data.
There are many gateway/devices with this capability, at the bottom of the page you can find a list of them that have been specifically tested with Aqua Map.
NOTE: It is necessary to have an active Master subscription to enable the Wifi connections.

Setup a connection

From the general Settings page you can open the Wi-Fi connections Settings page.
Pressing the upper right "+" button in this page, it will allow to add a new connection.
Tapping an existing connection name will allow to modify the existing parameters.

Connection settings page

This will open the Connection Settings page, where you can select your connection parameters from a list of pre-defined devices/manufacturers and the app will automatically set the default parameters for the selected devices and will start the conenction.

If your device is not in the list or in case you did some manual setup on your device (so not using the default connection parameters), tap on the "Enter manually" row and insert the requested info:

protocol to be used (TCP, UDP),
the IP address (if needed)
the Port number,
if your connection uses the NMEA checksum.

Press the button (top right of the page) when you have completed the manual settings.

When the connection is established you will see an "Active - Receiving" label on green background (see image above), instead in case of problems you will see an error label with red background.

In any case, tapping on the colored Status box, you will access to the Log page where you can see a set of row containing the received sentences (if working fine) or the report of the errors in case of problems. You can send an email with the log in attach to our support, tapping on the "Send log to support" button at the bottom of the page.

When the connection is active, if you receive depth data from this NMEA connection, you have some additional settings:

enter the transducer offset (this value will be added to the depth data received to calculate the depth value from the water surface);
select if and how you will receive a depth alarm if the received depth is lower than the boat draft (see MyBoat page) or any desired value;
select if you want to hear the depth reading every 5 seconds..

To modify the settings you shall press the button (top right of the page).

In the bottom menu you can:

start or stop the connection,
delete the connection .

Connections list page

On the Connections list page you have the list of created connections (you can connect multiple devices to Aqua Map) and for each connection (in the image below only one device "VesperMarine" is connected) the list of data received.

In case you have multiple devices sending the same type of info you can select which device to use using the blue switch present in each type of data. You can also simply decide to disable some data setting OFF the corresponding switch.

Tapping on the connection name row (in the example above "VesperMarine") you can access the Connection settings page (see above).

External data in the app

When you connect to an external device, the boat sensors data will be used by the app and each "type" of data has its own use and behaviour.

GPS: when receiving an external GPS, the app will use it for all the GPS related info (position, speed, direction, signal quality) and for all the app functionalities (map display, anchor alarm, track recording, ...).
NOTE: when using the external GPS a special icon appears overlaid to the GPS button and the "External" string is added in the GPS Box (bottom part of the map screen).
NOTE: if using the NMEA0183 protocol the sentences used are: RMC, GGA and GLL.
Compass: the compass data will be used to substitute the internal compass sensor when needed (eg map display in Heading-up mode).
In addition a new box will appear on the left of the map screen.
NOTE: if using the NMEA0183 protocol the sentences used are: HDG, HDT and HDM.
Depth: the depth data is first of all shown in a dedicated box on the left part of the map screen. Then (if you setup the boat draft in the My boat page) a voice alarm ("Low water alarm") is raised when the depth is lower than your boat draft (+20% margin), at the same time the Depth box will become red.
If you are recording a track, the depth info will be recorded inside the track so that you will get a depth graph when accessing the Track info page.
NOTE: if using the NMEA0183 protocol the sentences used are: DPT, DBK and DBT.
Wind: the wind data is shown in a dedicated box on the left part of the map screen.
NOTE: the app will always try to display the True Wind Direction. If it is not received it will calculate it if possible (GPS data availble).
NOTE: if using the NMEA0183 protocol the sentences used are: MWV and MWD.
AIS: will show the AIS targets on the map, check the dedicated AIS page for more details

This is the map screen with (on the left side) all the external data boxes (except AIS).

Units tested with Aqua Map