SkiPath Mobile

SkiPath Mobile

SkiPath Mobile is built for Android devices like phones or tablets. It’s designed for maximum portability and ease of use by ski boat drivers who want to track their path as they pull skiers through a slalom course. A real-time display indicates where the boat is relative to the designated 20-cm tolerances marked by the vertical lines. Green and yellow zones are acceptable. Red, not so much. At the end of a run, a scoring summary pops up showing how the run would be rated in an official tournament. The driver can immediately replay the boat path on screen or view it any time later.

SkiPath Mobile instant replay:

SkiPath gets location data from a twin-GPS system using RTK (Real Time Kinematics) that calculates a new position every tenth of a second, accurate to less than a centimeter.

To set up the hardware, attach the GPS antenna to the jack on the left and the radio antenna to the jack on the right. There's a barrel jack for power at the other end of the case that takes anywhere from 5.5 to 12v input. If connected by USB, power is supplied from the computer.

Place the Base station on shore and the Rover on the boat. Be sure the GPS antennas have an unobstructed view of the sky and the radio antennas have a clear line of sight between them along the length of the course. The Base sends its position information to the Rover up to 600 meters away using its own WiFi radio signal, so no external WiFi or cellular service is needed. The Rover calculates where it is in relation to the Base, and sends position information to the phone, tablet or PC using its built-in WiFi access point, Bluetooth, or as shown in the illustration above, a USB connection. Any SkiPath device within range of the Rover receives the same data simultaneously. SkiPath displays the data on screen and stores the information in a file that can be reviewed later. At an official tournament a report can be posted to WaterSkiConnect, a website that manages scoring.

The location of the Base station is automatically calculated by the Rover. All that SkiPath needs to know is the locations of the entrance and exit buoys. These are entered into SkiPath while the Rover GPS antenna is extended over each of the four buoys. When this is done, the system is ready to go.