Nav Calculator For The iPhone

**john** · August 18th, 2008, 07:32 AM

At the request of our forum participants we have found a very talented and highly recommended developer who is going to help us build a Nav Calculator for the iPhone. Think Celesticomp for the new century!

Since this idea was born here on the forum, I'd like to give YOU the opportunity to help build it. Over the coming weeks we are going to post questions here on this thread and your answers will be incorporated in the new app. At the end of the process we are going to remove the thread and mail out prizes to active participants!

First Question:
What calculations do you want to be implemented?

**eThib** · August 18th, 2008, 07:40 AM

1. Crew change van arrival time 2. Amount of pay increase through company hopping 3. AB IQ measurement

**anchorman** · August 18th, 2008, 07:50 AM

1)Commercial Edition Nautical Almanac With DIP and Altitude corrections 2)Sailings...even Mercator with Meridional Parts 3)ETA calculator...Just put in Lat/Long of departure and arrival locations along with running time give correct date and time. 4)Sight Reduction Formulas

**anchorman** · August 18th, 2008, 07:55 AM

Just do them all...Formulae for the Mariner "Richard Plant"

**New3M** · August 18th, 2008, 08:16 AM

I'm glad to see that this caught on. -Tides and Current calculations - there is a program that does this for the iPhone already (called "Tides"), but it's clumsy to use, and wants to get your current location out of the Maps function. Would be better if you could pick the port that you were going to, put in date/time, etc. -Like anchorman said, ALL of the sailings - Great Circle's with an option to pick the longitude width that you want to use, Mercators, parallel, all of them -An ETA calculator that can work both ways - departure time and speed known, arrival time known and speed required, etc. -If you could fit the whole Nautical Almanac in there, that would be AMAZING, but I know that's a ton of information. -Any sort of conversions that may be necessary on the bridge - barrels/MT, feet to meters, fahrenheit to celsius -Again, if any of the engineer's want to pitch in, I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that they could use too

**Capt_Anonymous** · August 18th, 2008, 09:13 AM

Stability calc Strapping tables/tankage etc Kw to horsepower conversion (1kw = 1.341xxxxx hp Sleep/rest tracking Calorie counter with a "per cook" breakout. License insurance rate calculation for those post-incident "gee I shoulda" moments.

**john** · August 18th, 2008, 09:53 AM

New3m,

We will probably do an app for engineers down the road, I'd rather not over complicate the project during phase 1. That being said... the calcs needed for noon slip are important.

As far as the nautical calculator should celestial be part of the package or broken out as a separate app? The advantage of breaking it out are: speed of development, lower purchase cost and simpler to use. The disadvantage is that you would need to exit the terrestial app to start the celestial one.

Anchorman, good idea to include everything but we want to keep this simple.

**New3M** · August 18th, 2008, 11:05 AM

John, That makes sense - get it out there first, and then update it later. As for my opinion on the celestial aspect, I suppose having it be its own application would be fine. I'm sure that if it was all together, it would slow the whole thing down to the point where it would be frustrating. I don't think it would be too taxing to exit the terrestrial app and enter the celestial app.

**stellarseas** · August 18th, 2008, 11:16 AM

Why not for the now-being-developed Android Phone? Its open source. Apps can be more easily customized, and can interact with each other. Built in GPS for example. Personal preference, but I try to avoid getting caught in Apple's closed system.

**El Capitan** · August 18th, 2008, 02:26 PM

John, I would keep the celestial separated from the everyday apps. I would do Plane, Mid-Lat, Mercator, Great Circle, and Great Circle Vertex. Since they can all be accomplished mathematically, that shouldn't give the developer too much of a hassle. After that, an everyday calculator, with a speed/slip/consumption function for doing noon slips would be advantageous for the new 3rd/2nd to have, along with some conversions from SAE/Metric for distance/volume/quantity for cargo calculations (I think I would add to this the basic area and volume calcs for square, and few other common shapes, i.e. cylinder/cone). I think those two could break out nicely, and might be pretty straightforward to put together. Just my 5 cents...

**chaos** · August 18th, 2008, 04:38 PM

John, whats the possibility of: sunrise, sunset; LAN; Lat. at LAN; Lat. by polaris; Planet Sha and Dec for plotting on starfinder); DR advance caculation (input dist and course); All sailings; ETA.
This should be on hell of a program with all the great input so far. Thanks John

**HighSeas** · August 18th, 2008, 11:52 PM

I think John was looking to put mainstream, used everyday calculations into iPhone/handheld application. Celestial Data can be carried on a laptop, the things that are used everyday should go on a handheld for quick and easy reference.

**eThib** · August 19th, 2008, 03:01 AM

Stellarseas- 'Android phone'? Don't you run the risk of it becoming sentient?

**anchorman** · August 28th, 2008, 12:55 AM

Hurricane Avoidance Calculation Vessel Intercept Bearing Problems / All

**anchorman** · September 4th, 2008, 09:07 AM

Winch drum wire capacity.

**Capt_Anonymous** · September 5th, 2008, 11:57 PM

User interface suggestion: Make this app a one-stop home screen for all things salty. Uh.. sorry brown-water types, no offense. Load the app and you get a screen that looks like an iPhone home screen. An icon for celestial calcs. An icon for operational calcs. An icon for tides/currents. An icon for general nav calcs. An icon for a personal journal/log etc. Harness the accelerometer feature of the iPhone to make it sense when you stop moving for xx minutes and it'll scream at you to wake up. Cool but probably not: Attach the iPhone securely to the console and use the accelerometer as a Doppler log. An icon that turns your iPhone into a red flashlight! An ability to add external app icons to the default application screen (eNav, voice memos, etc). CA

ds · October 2nd, 2008, 08:07 AM

It looks like the first navigation apps for chart rooms are starting to come out. Here's one that plots your location on a raster chart: <a title="inavx" href="http://www.inavx.net/]www.inavx.net/[/URL] http://www.panbo.com/archives/2008/0...n_iphones.html

**Ready2Sail** · October 2nd, 2008, 11:49 AM

Ok i think the charts, celestial calcs, operation calcs, tide and current and personal notes on routes that can be added to chart with a*separate*log is a great idea. What i gather is you are all coming up with an idea for a new*application. Am i correct?

**CMA_Decky** · October 9th, 2008, 12:09 AM

Judging by the first half of our Adv. Nav class I think everyone would be grateful for sailings, great circle, and compound calculations.

**john** · November 13th, 2008, 10:57 AM

Bad news guys, our iPhone developer bailed on the project... too many high paying customers. If any of the cadets out there have iphone programming skills then let me know and I'll send over the source code.

We are also looking for Django and PHP programmers for another project in the works!