Iniital config using only cellular data

This may be covered elsewhere, but I need to do the initial configuration in a location that doesn’t have WIFI coverage. I understand I need to power unit from screwposts rather than USB or power plug, but is the configuration sequence the same as when WIFI is available? Alternatively, can I power the unit using the USB to my laptop where I do have WIFI, then move the box (and the PC if necessary) to the boat and apply power there without losing the setup configuration?

Thanks for the question, couple of options:

  1. You can configure the device in a location without WiFi coverage. The device itself will create a WiFi network that you can join from a phone, tablet, laptop, etc. It will be called floathub_XXXXXX (where the X’s are unque to your specific device), and the default password is floathub. You then point a browser at:

    http://192.168.4.1

And log into the device, using the default username and password of floathub. You can then set your account details (Device ID and Security Key).

  1. You could also configure the device in a location with WiFi coverage, but the inital steps would be the same as above. Your device will retain settings like its Device ID and Security Key between reboots and being powered off and back on again.

Note that in all cases, the most important settings to be configured are the Device ID and Security Key. You can access these from:

https://floathub.com/account

By pushing the button labelled:

Show FloatHub Device Settings

Of course let us know if anything is unclear.

Ok this hint got me up and running, but I now have an errant alert about the boat moving when it hasn’t.

I used the WIFI in the office about 50 ft from my boat to set things up initially,and set up an movement alert as a test just to understand how an anchor drag event might be detected. I used a criteria of more than 30 ft in 2 hrs, but when I make this alert active I get a message every day that the boat has moved when in fact it hasn’t left the slip. I think the root issue is that I set up the alert in the office where there was wifi, but then installed and powered up the unit on the boat which is more than 30 ft away from the lounge. So, the box is faithfully reporting that the boat has moved from the initial coordinates, which is true but not really helpful.

This issue suggests need to reset the lat/long for the current position, but I don’t see a way to pull that info so I can update it manually, or set the location to “current position.” Is there a way to do this easily, like when you’ve set the anchor and want the system to alert you if there’s movement. I know I could change the alert value to a greater value so it envelopes the lounge and the clip location, but I’d like to know how to change the setting for when we are anchored anyway. Thanks in advance.

If you try and edit the current rule, it will let you drag the alert circle anywhere you like. So if you are at a dock and know your slip number, you should be able to just click on the circle and drag it to your slip location.

If you’re on a moorage or similar, it may be easier to just delete the current rule and then make a new one. When you create a new location alert, it will initially center the alert circle on the current location of your device.

Note that depending on how good your GPS fix is, 30 feet may be a little small for an alerting rule. We are constantly tweaking the location alerting rules to filter out aberrations (so called GPS “spidering”), but it is a subtle art. A slightly larger (40-50 ft) radius will probably help reduce the level of false positive alerts. Also, an external GPS with antenna (connected to NMEA in) can provide a more precise and reliable fix if it is available (and continuously powered) on your vessel.

We’ll look into showing a live vessel position on the location editing screen though, as it could be very useful in some circumstances.