You can connect your AIS device to Aqua Map using a WiFi Connection to show on the map all the received AIS targets and have all the possible collisions automatically detected.
NOTE: It is necessary to have an active Master subscription to enable the AIS integration.

AIS Settings

From the general Settings page you can open the AIS Settings page, where you have access to the list of all the received AIS targets, you can configure the AIS drawing and the AIS Collision detection.

At the top of this page you have the switch to enable the whole AIS functionality.

Then you have a small group with 2 items:

AIS targets list: to open a new page with the list of all the received AIS targets (see AIS targets info paragraph below).
AIS friends list: to open a new page with the list of all the AIS targets currently received and marked as friends. You can set a target as friend in the Target info page (see AIS targets info paragraph below). When an AIS target is marked as friend, each time that AIS target is received it is immediately recognized as friend.

Configure the AIS display

The first main group allows to select how to display the AIS targets on the map.

Show on Map: to enable the drawing of the AIS targets on the map.
Show AIS Class: to select which classes of AIS targets shall be shown on the map.
NOTE: AIS data is divided into two classes – classes A and B – depending on the AIS transponder transmitting the AIS information.
Show moored/lost boats: to enable the display on the map of the AIS targets that are currently Moored or Lost (not receiving data for more than 3 minutes).
Show ATONs: to enable the display of the targets that are ATONs (Aids TO Navigations), these can be real or virtual ones.
NOTE: available only on iOS.
Timestick: to select the length (in time) of the course line for all the AIS targets. If you select 5 min, the top of the course line will represent the position of the target after 5 min (if it follows the current bearing with the current speed). The timestick line has a big mark each 5 min and a small mark each 1 minute (these ones only for the first 10 minutes).

Collision avoidance

The next group allows to define all the parameters used for the automatic collisions calculation.

Collision avoidance: to enable the alarms related to the Collision avoidance (red flashing color for the colliding targets, AIS box red flashing, sound alarms, ...).
Minimum allowed CPA: to select the CPA (Closest Point of Approach = minimal distance 2 boats will be if following same direction and speed) below which a target is considered colliding. This calculation is done for the time specified in the "Time to CPA" field. In the example above this means that an alarm will be fired if any boat will be closer that 350 ft to our boat in the next 10 minutes.
NOTE: the collision is calculated considering the GPS position received and a hypotetical boat size (size of the boat in AIS data is frequently unknown or unreliable). So for big boats this could lead to undetected collisions.
Time to CPA: to define the maximum time in the future for which you would search a possible collision.
Alarm sound: to select the type of sound alarm you would receive each time a new collision is detected.
Volume: to select the volume for the alarm sound you selected.

AIS on the map

Once your AIS device is connected (see Wi-Fi Connection) with Aqua Map, if you enable the "Show on map" switch (see above AIS Settings paragraph), all the received AIS targets (boats, ATONs, SARTs) will be overlaid on the map.
NOTE: ATONs and SARTs are currently managed only by the iOS version.

The boat icon size is related to the AIS information received by each boat (larger icon, larger boat), whereas the color depends on the target status: brown = normal, green = friend, red = tracked target, red and flashing = collision detected.

Each boat shows a course line, the length of which can be selected (in minutes, so depending on its speed the course line lenght will grow or srink) in the above AIS setting page.

Each AIS icon has also a transparency depending on the distance from the current GPS position.

This is an example of the AIS targets representation on the map:

On the map it will be present also an AIS box, on the left, showing in realtime the CPA and TCPA for the AIS boat target with the smaller (and so more dangerous) CPA.
If the Collision avoidance is active, this box starts to flash (red flashing) when a collision is detected, accordingly to the setting you defined in the AIS Settings page.
NOTE: in case of a detected collision (or more), the info in this window refers to the target with a possible collision with the smaller TCPA.
NOTE: in case one or more SART targets are present, then this window shows the info for the SART target with the smaller TCPA, ignoring colliding targets.

Tapping on the AIS box, you will access directly to the list of all the AIS targets, same list you can get from the AIS Settings page.

AIS Target info

You can open the AIS target info page in 2 different ways:

tap on the AIS target icon on the map will open a pop-up window, then selecting the right button you will open the Target info page.
from the Target list page, tap on the specific target button and you will open the Target info page.

This is the AIS Target list.

Here you can order the targets by CPA (Closest Point of Approach), by Distance or by Name.

This is the AIS Target info page (it is green because this is a friend target).

In this page you have:

Target info: the list of the available target info plus the calculated CPA and TCPA.
My friend: the switch to set a target as friend.
NOTE: this info is stored in the app and once a target is set as friend will be always automatically recognized as friend when received.

From the bottom menu you can:

set the target as tracked: this will cause the target to be drawn on the map in red (and without any transparency due to the distance);
center on map the target: to close this page and to zoom on the map centered on the target.
delete the target.
NOTE: this will remove the target from the current DB but in case the target is received again, then it will reappear. So substantially you should only delete lost targets.