I wanted to start a separate thread, so as to not keep hijacking the other.

YBTracking (formerly YellowBrick) also makes their data available through an XML feed. The documentation around it is located at: http://cdn.yb.tl/docs/Yellowbrick%20XML%20API%20Notes.pdf

I pulled a portion of the N2B 2016 data as an example. This particular subset is from Triage, on which I raced this year. It is not the full dataset returned, as that would be for all of the boats. The complete URL string was: http://live.adventuretracking.com/xml/nb2016?n=5

For any given race, you replace "nb2016" with the race's short code. The n value identifies how many updates back you would like to pull. In this example, I pulled the last 5 updates from the tracker.

<Device serial="5883" name="Triage" marker="165">
   <Position alert="false">
      <GpsAt>2016-06-22T15:00:05Z</GpsAt>
      <Latitude>32.29079</Latitude>
      <Longitude>-64.78717</Longitude>
      <Altitude>26.0</Altitude>
      <SOG>1.4</SOG>
      <COG>082</COG>
      <Battery>86</Battery>
      <ID>25421501</ID>
      <Temperature>29.0</Temperature>
   </Position>
   <Position alert="false">
      <GpsAt>2016-06-22T14:30:00Z</GpsAt>
      <Latitude>32.28920</Latitude>
      <Longitude>-64.80078</Longitude>
      <Altitude>30.0</Altitude>
      <SOG>4.1</SOG>
      <COG>134</COG>
      <Battery>86</Battery>
      <ID>25417427</ID>
      <Temperature>29.0</Temperature>
   </Position>
   <Position alert="false">
      <GpsAt>2016-06-22T14:00:00Z</GpsAt>
      <Latitude>32.31329</Latitude>
      <Longitude>-64.83002</Longitude>
      <Altitude>5.0</Altitude>
      <SOG>4.7</SOG>
      <COG>263</COG>
      <Battery>86</Battery>
      <ID>25412605</ID>
      <Temperature>29.0</Temperature>
   </Position>
   <Position alert="false">
      <GpsAt>2016-06-22T13:30:00Z</GpsAt>
      <Lati

pjl wrote:

Joe, is there any other setting than having the course active that would cause the destination to be incorrect?  I have looked and can't find one.  last year all this worked fine and i don't remember any particular bumps to get it active, but I did miss checking track other boats per nick's comment.  Still waiting to hear if there is any way to play this back in order to test operation.  Does Oxley's book deal with any of this?  I don't remember anything, but it has been awhile.

For testing, I go about a couple of different approaches. First, if you have the files you downloaded, clear everything from Expedition, and import them one by one. That should give you a set to test with. The YB Tracking button only automates the download of those files. Otherwise, it is the same import process.

Second, is for a race I didn't compete in, which is already finished. You can use the YB API to pull down XML files back over a specified range of updates. (You can pull the last update, last two updates, etc.). With those, you can build whichever combination you need. It's a bit of work, but valuable for reference. Also, the XML provides COG and SOG from the device, rather than calculated.

I am testing now to see if the built in delay is also reflected in the API data. Will get back later on that, once I have a race I can test with.

Short Version: Use SailDocs. Basic version is below. You can also setup a subscription, defining the interval and the duration.
To: query@saildocs.com
Subject: Anything
Body:
send http://yb.tl/<race code>-expedition.txt
send http://yb.tl/<race code>-boatids.txt
quit

Long version:
We struggled with web downloads on the Newport-Bermuda Race, but found email to work far better. The ability to resume an interrupted download came in handy more than a few times.

During the race, I laid out a framework for a subscription based system, that would allow you to subscribe to the position reports from YellowBrick for a fixed period of time, at a frequency you select. They would be pulled every X minutes, and delivered via email to the subscribed email addresses.

It was during a conversation with Nick (YellowBrick Nick, not Expedition Nick) that I found out SailDocs has pretty much the same service available.

I may still build the system, as there are a number of other files that would be good to have showing up on a regular basis, but it is decidedly lower priority now.

Seriously, Nick. If I am ever in the same city with you, drinks are on me. You are a rock star, sir.

Ian Rogers wrote:

crc1965 wrote:

I'm  pretty sure with Predict Wind offshore app loaded on PC.  You select area and time for grib files, select download and pick iridium Go as the source....  after downloads one just needs to point Expedition to the Predict Wind download folder......  with phone or tablet the interface was through iridium mail app...
C

Also some races don't allow Predict Wind as its a paid service.   I know that for Pac Cup you can only access free sources of weather data, so that eliminates PW for us on the left coast.   We find that any method to simplify things offshore helps when you are tired.  We still use sailmail for 96 hr forecast and other weather data that is not available in Expedition.  

For those races that limit access to freely available data, you can still use PredictWind to download the GFS and CMC models. You just can't use the PWG and PWC files. That was the clarification we got last year. The model data is freely available. PW is just the download mechanism.