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Source priorities ​

When two devices on board send the same value, say two GPS receivers or two depth sounders, Zora uses one of them at a time. A source priority is the order it tries them in: the first while it sends, the next one if it goes silent.

You set the order in the Zora Setup app, in two places:

  • the GPS tab of Connections, for every GPS value at once
  • the Data Browser, for any other value, one at a time

Zora's own settings have no screen for this. In Zora, Settings... has Zora Setup, which opens the Setup app; see Open the Setup app.

What Zora does with the order, and what it does on its own when nobody has set one, is in How Zora chooses a source.

Choose the primary GPS ​

  1. On the Setup home screen, open Connections & Sources and pick the GPS tab. Its title is GPS Priorities.
  2. Drag the receiver you want to navigate on to the top of the list, by the handle on its row. It is marked Primary.
  3. Drag the others into the order you want them used. They are marked Backup 1, Backup 2 and so on.
  4. Press Apply. The button is inactive until something changes.

The primary receiver wins every value that describes where the boat is and how it is moving: position, course over ground, speed over ground, antenna altitude and the differential corrections. What each receiver says about its own fix is never ranked, so every receiver's HDOP, fix quality and satellite count stay readable. Managed paths, at the top of the tab, lists both sets.

If the primary stops sending for 8 seconds, the first backup takes over, then the next. Every receiver in the list can take over; there is no way to switch one off here.

A receiver Zora has not ranked yet is marked new. The row of the receiver the boat's position is coming from flashes each time a position arrives.

If the boat has no receiver, the tab reads No GPS detected on this boat.

After Apply ​

The new order is in force at once, with no restart, and Zora confirms with GPS priorities applied. If the data server cannot be reached, Zora saves the order, says so, and uses it the next time the server starts.

Reassess the GPS order ​

Reassess throws your order away and ranks the receivers again from what they report right now:

  1. a receiver with a fix before one without
  2. a dedicated GPS before the receiver inside a VHF or an AIS
  3. the lower HDOP
  4. more satellites

A receiver reporting no fix goes to the end, and Zora says it could not be judged. One that is silent while you reassess keeps its place behind the others.

It asks first, in Reassess the GPS ranking, and lists the order it is about to replace. The button is inactive with fewer than two receivers.

Rank the sources of any other value ​

  1. On the Setup home screen, open Data Browser.
  2. Type part of the value's name in Filter paths… and tap its row.
  3. Under Sources, switch on Priorities. The section is there only when more than one source sends the value, and a value that already has an order opens with the switch on.
  4. Drag the rows into order. The top source wins.
  5. Set a Timeout (ms) for each source below the first: how long the one above it must be silent before this one takes over. Left empty, it is 3000.
  6. Press Save priorities. Zora confirms with Priorities saved — in force now.

A source that has stopped sending the value, such as equipment you have taken off the boat, is marked not publishing. Tap the cross beside it to take it out of the order. Remove every row and save, and the value goes back to having no order at all.

A save changes that one value and no other. The values the GPS tab keeps readable per receiver, such as HDOP, cannot be ranked; the save leaves them out and says so.

Rank GPS values on the GPS tab. Apply, Reassess and an automatic change of receiver all rewrite every GPS value from the GPS order, so an order set here on one of them does not last.