Iridium GO! tips
With Iridium Go!, sat communication seems easy as a modem wifi hotspot.
But.....yes, like every new tech, there are few buts....
1. Be careful with it's charging connector. It's a Micro USB. Micro USB connector on the machine side is mostly a SMD part, not really strong, and the connector itself is quite fragile. Especial when you connect your cable to it, the whole head is hanging up on that connector.
2. external antenna would be better.
When we where on the ocean, the boat has an external antenna, we do have iridium signal most of time, even on docking.
3. Iridium satellites, there are a lot, but not as much as you think.
4. Data Rate of Iridium is 2400 bite per second(2.4K bps). This is about the spped of early age telephone line modem in the 80's. No matter what air time SIM card you select, it's the same speed.
Since all communications are done by text email, information are clear and does not cost much. since one chart is on byte only.
The little antenna seems strong, but base on the recommendation of Iridium you will need a very clear sky view. which is not easy. My house is in mountain area, I can get GPS signal pretty quick, but I got no Iridium sat signal even leave it for 2 hours.
When we where on the ocean, the boat has an external antenna, we do have iridium signal most of time, even on docking.
IMERSAT has synchronized sats, about 4-5 only, the orbit is about at equator, so using imersat sat phone, it would be better if you face to equator.
It's also good to know where are those iridium sats near you, there are web site to find out there real time location:
But when you are in middle of no where, you would be able to check the iridium sats, so going higher is what you can do.
4. Data Rate of Iridium is 2400 bite per second(2.4K bps). This is about the spped of early age telephone line modem in the 80's. No matter what air time SIM card you select, it's the same speed.
when select grib file, make sure you only select your needed items, area, resolution, and period. try to keep the file as small as possible. And some time, due to angle of sat or other issue, the data rate won't reach 2400bps every time.
Good news is that grib file normally can be compressed at pretty good compress rate (about 1/3).
There are ways and services of getting grib. Most of them require email setup or log in setup.
Get grib in a compact but somehow complicated way:
This old captain shows a good example of minimize grib, he data is only about 27.2 KB (10.8KB after compression).down loaded with about 2mins.
Get data with predict wind offshore(pay version)
Here another example of a data set of 3.6MB, tooks about19 mins...
5. Iridium air time can be purchased from different vendors(detail can be found from Iridium Go web site), each one has very different pricing strategies.
Every SIM card need to be activated before using it, most of time you need connection to activate it. So, make sure you have enough SIM cards activated before going offshore.
6. Connect to Iridium Go! Turn off everything, only keep WIFI!
The only way to connect to Iridium Go is through wifi, iridium go will act as a wifi router. How ever, I did met some trouble when connect to it with my phone. After some googling, it says you better switch off all your wireless connection of you phone. like turn your phone into flight mode, and turn on your wifi only. This time I managed to log in to Iridium Go.
7. Most of the Iridium GO setting is config through APP(so wifi connection is very important). There are main 2 APP you would need.
one is : Iridium GO!® App , this one serve to setup your iridium Go, such as wifi setting, tracking setting, message and voice mail setting.
The other one is Iridium Mail & Web App, I did not test this one, since it request a iridium mail account, you can check the manual, it does mail trough iridium, twiter, sending photos....etc.
Predict wind off shore also offer pretty good integration with iridium GO. seems easy to use as well. But fancy function require more air time to get more data from iridium. And fancy features are only in paid version, such as weather routing.
GPS tracking through email with selected interval
Using the iridiumGo app on your phone, (connect your phone with iridium through wifi, and open a web with 192.168.0.1)you can set iridium to send your location with email.
2022 when Danny cross Atlantic from west to east, they use iridium to send their positions.
I used google data studio and predict wind to visualize their track and feedback with forecast to them by email, but no pics.
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