A couple of weeks ago we started this review with a look at the Orca architecture and the Orca display (Part 1).
At that time I figured I could cover Orca Core and the Orca app in one article. How wrong I was. When I got stuck in analyzing Core and writing about all the useful things we can do with this little box of tricks, I ended up writing two parts on Core alone:
- What it is, installation and configuration—super easy, but also really worth writing about for just that reason.
- Capabilities and uses—I’m amazed by all the different things this little box can do for us, some that are not obvious at first glance.
So let’s start with the former, and we will publish the latter in just a few days since the two are so closely related.
The other reason I’m willing to put all this work into reviewing Orca is that I’m getting incredibly positive feedback from my contact at Orca, so I think that we here at AAC, including you members who comment, can make a real difference to the future of this money saving product by pointing out things that are not quite done right yet.
Let’s dig in:
I assume that since you have to swing it, it’s a fluxgate compass? That limits the usefulness of the system on a steel boat.
Hi Jordan,
Sure, we could hardly expect a GPS compass, together with everything else for US$595. GPS compasses seem to run around US$1500 from pretty much all vendors.