questions regarding vesper xb8000 anchor alarm

[magna 6882]

I have been playing with the anchor alarm and was looking for some input from some users. Called vesper and got garmin since they were bought out and the guy indicated they had little training and was just reading what he could find online.
When i set the alarm then let the boat drift outside the boundary my phone makes one horn blast then silence. I would expect the alarm to continue until silenced by the user.
Is this how its working for you guys?
Does the phone need to stay connected to the vesper wifi to function?
Since i have garmin 8600 mfds are they also using the vesper or do they have there own anchor drag software?
I would never hear the alarms in the sleeping location which is why i am playing with the watchmate app.

 

[boomerang]

We had the 8000 on our last boat and all I could get out of it was one "horn" blow on my iphone. I would always get up several times a night to check the app & make sure we were still in the anchor radius zone so the one blow wasn't a deal breaker but it would've been nice to have a continuous alarm if we had ever had an anchor drag issue. The biggest complaint I had was waiting for the app to reconnect via wifi after being idle for a while. That was a pain since I wanted to open the app and make sure we weren't dragging or if the current reversed and get back to sleep and not wait for several minutes while the app reconnected.
We now have a Vesper Cortex (we purchased it last January just before Vesper sold to Garmin. Had we known the company was being sold,I might have entertained buying a different AIS ) on our current boat and ,while there were some other major bugs in it that needed to be worked out by Garmin, the anchor app seems to be improved. If the boat leaves the anchor zone , the phone now alarms "anchor drag alert" multiple times. Also, the wifi signal is stronger and reconnects much faster than the 8000 did.

 

[Flatswing]

[QUOTE
When i set the alarm then let the boat drift outside the boundary my phone makes one horn blast then silence. I would expect the alarm to continue until silenced by the user. Is this how its working for you guys?

YES - a single horn blast.

Does the phone need to stay connected to the vesper Wi-Fi to function?

Absolutely yes. The Vesper native Wi-Fi can be a bit finicky. It often requires rebooting. I found it more reliable to set it up on my boat's Wi-Fi network -but it needs a fixed IP address to be repeatable. Once established, I can monitor from any of my iDevices simultaneously. In practical terms, the visual "breadcrumbs" display of your position on the watchmate app, will give you more piece of mind than the perimeter alarm. Typically, you will see you are dragging before the alarm sounds. Your MFD almost certainly has an anchor alarm also but draws more power at anchor than the Vesper 8000XB plus iDevice.
[/QUOTE]

 

[twistedtree]

[QUOTE
When i set the alarm then let the boat drift outside the boundary my phone makes one horn blast then silence. I would expect the alarm to continue until silenced by the user. Is this how its working for you guys?

YES - a single horn blast.

Does the phone need to stay connected to the vesper Wi-Fi to function?

Absolutely yes. The Vesper native Wi-Fi can be a bit finicky. It often requires rebooting. I found it more reliable to set it up on my boat's Wi-Fi network -but it needs a fixed IP address to be repeatable. Once established, I can monitor from any of my iDevices simultaneously. In practical terms, the visual "breadcrumbs" display of your position on the watchmate app, will give you more piece of mind than the perimeter alarm. Typically, you will see you are dragging before the alarm sounds. Your MFD almost certainly has an anchor alarm also but draws more power at anchor than the Vesper 8000XB plus iDevice.

[/QUOTE]


This honestly doesn't sound like an anchor alarm that would reduce anchoring stress, and possibly increase it instead.

 

[Flatswing]

Actually, it does reduce anchoring stress, though I see that might be perceived as perverse. We typically anchor late afternoon. By the time we retire, we have 6-7 hrs.of visual data including 1 tide change here in the SE. personally, I have come to find that reassuring. Only something really unusual triggers the perimeter alarm. Typically if the wind picks up, the change in the boat’s movement & sounds at anchor wakes me. Never had the perimeter alarm wake me. The only times we dragged (in soupy conditions) we dragged in the first hour. everyone’s personal experience is different for sure.

 

[Taras]

The solution is simple, just download a different anchor alarm app to your phone. The one on my phone I use is Anchor Pro but there are many, many to choose from. The cool thing is you don't need a cell signal for them to work since they work off GPS. Also, they're like $4.99 for the app. Simple fix. Sleep well

 

[Sababa]

I’ve since upgraded to the Cortex, but my 8000 came with a speaker and a button that you could connect to the unit to give you a hard-wired alarm that would sound until you canceled it. Available separately as a kit too.

https://shop.vespermarine.com/external-alarm-switch

 

[DDW]

Called vesper and got garmin since they were bought out and the guy indicated they had little training and was just reading what he could find online.

Welcome to Garmin "product support".

While I have an 8000, I use a stand alone iPhone app for an anchor alarm. Less power, don't have to keep the 800o powered, does the same thing with fewer points of failure.

 

[boomerang]

Welcome to Garmin "product support".

While I have an 8000, I use a stand alone iPhone app for an anchor alarm. Less power, don't have to keep the 800o powered, does the same thing with fewer points of failure.

I'll admit, Garmin "techs" aren't as familiar with some of their products as I'd like them to be, but to their credit, they do at least try to research
& remedy an issue if they don't immediately know the answer.
We leave our AIS on while at anchor. It's one more layer of situational awareness that helps us sleep better on the hook. I have to wonder if ,like radar and not using it, the coast guard would find us partially at fault for having our AIS off while anchored and a boater conked into us? But I digress...
I don't know that I'd go as far to say the vesper issues are points of failures. To me , there is room for improvements on the 8000 & the Cortex. Some nice features using the Vesper has that I'm not aware of other phone Apps having are that multiple phones can be running the same anchor watch at the same time, if wanted. If the phone is powered down, the anchor watch is still running in the Vesper, and the anchor app isn't cleared/lost from the phone. An external alarm can be connected to the Vesper which isn't possible with a phone app. A feature I like is ,when using the Vesper anchor app and connected to the boats external sensors via NMEA 0183 or 2000, I can wake up and see information such as the ships heading (not COG) to determine exactly how we're laying at anchor, water depth and other vessels AIS locations in the area. Power usage is minimal and hasn't been a problem for us, even with the higher power 5W xmit of the Cortex.
Garmin just released an update that I uploaded into our Cortex this past weekend. It says it addresses connectivity issues and also gives me more control over the unit via the app. The boat is on the hard now so hopefully we'll get a chance to test it this weekend.