Best anchor drag alarm

[rwidman]

I see this is a 2017 thread that's been brought back to life, but my question is, why not use the anchor alarm feature that's built into your chart plotter?

[MathiasW]

Originally Posted by rwidman

I see this is a 2017 thread that's been brought back to life, but my question is, why not use the anchor alarm feature that's built into your chart plotter?

Because

- it draws a lot of power
- it usually only allows a circle around the current vessel position when arming, and so either you arm at the very moment when you drop the anchor, or you need to steer back to this position once the anchor is set.
- sometimes you do not want a circle, but a more complicated shape as a perimeter

[MathiasW]

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

Mathias,

Interesting... but which ones did you like (or dislike)?

FYI: the current paid/Register version of Android OpenCPN definitely has an Anchor Watch/Alarm feature (which is documented in the Android OpenCPN Manual App).

Perhaps you assessed the unregistered or old version?

Yes, the OpenCPN version I downloaded is some 6 years old, and I was told there is a more recent one, but I have not found / looked at it yet.

I quite like AnchorSentry for iOS and Anchor Pro, the premium version, for Android. Anchor Pro for iOS in premium wants to see money every year, so that I cannot recommend...

Cheers, Mathias

[brazenarticle]

I've been using Float Hub for several years and have Signal K and OpenCPN running alongside it but so far without remote access to the raspberry pi.
My raspi/SignalK efforts are my own experimental program, for the time being I depend on FloatHub for the data I really need.
FLoatHub works great, is simple plug and play hardware and the annual monitoring is a very low cost. Setting anchor alarms is easy and it will also report other parameters such as battery voltage, bilge pump uses and pretty much whatever you are to the NMEA 0183 terminals.
I haven't tried them all, FloatHub has worked very well for several years so no need to change

[ilenart]

Originally Posted by MathiasW

Because

- it draws a lot of power
- it usually only allows a circle around the current vessel position when arming, and so either you arm at the very moment when you drop the anchor, or you need to steer back to this position once the anchor is set.
- sometimes you do not want a circle, but a more complicated shape as a perimeter

Agree with all the above, particularly the power usage. Plus I like the function of having the anchor app replicated on my iphone, so when I’m away from the boat onshore I can tell if my anchor starts to drag. On my boat the app is running on my ipad.