Mikebat
Member III
www.cradlepoint.com makes WiFi hotspots that access the internet through cellular broadband. You can attach a USB internet adapter, or tether your broadband-enabled cellphone through the USB port, and then connect to the internet with any device that can access the WiFi hotspot, just like you would with a cable or DSL WiFi hotspot. I'm using the CTR-350 to get near-DSL speed internet on my boat (2500+ kbps download and 470+ kbps upload on a good day, while in the harbor).
The goofy part is that a recent firmware update added the ability to provide a NMEA 0183 data stream from the phone's GPS, over the router's TCP port 8889. It's a rather geeky chore to translate this into a serial RS232 NMEA data stream that can be used by your chartplotter or PC, but it's doable. If you have Google Earth installed, connecting to the router on port 8889 with your browser will serve a KML data file that will automatically open up Google Earth, centered on your current location.
I said it was goofy.
The goofy part is that a recent firmware update added the ability to provide a NMEA 0183 data stream from the phone's GPS, over the router's TCP port 8889. It's a rather geeky chore to translate this into a serial RS232 NMEA data stream that can be used by your chartplotter or PC, but it's doable. If you have Google Earth installed, connecting to the router on port 8889 with your browser will serve a KML data file that will automatically open up Google Earth, centered on your current location.
I said it was goofy.
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