How notifications work
An alert helps only if it reaches you when it matters and then stops once you have seen it. This page explains where Zora's notifications come from, how loud each one is, and what each screen decides for itself. To read, quiet and set them up, see Notifications.
Where they come from
Zora watches the boat on the boat itself, with or without internet.
- Rules. Once a second, Zora checks the vessel data against a set of rules. Some apply only in one state: the anchor alarm only while you are anchored. The rules cover a dragging anchor or mooring, the GPS fix and its accuracy, the autopilot leaving its heading or wind angle, a wind shift, approaching and reaching a waypoint, the barometer trend, and Zora's own temperature and disk space.
- Your own alarms. The limits you set on a value are checked against the live reading.
- Other parts of Zora. AIS targets, radar guard zones, equipment that stops answering, maintenance that falls due and tasks past their deadline each raise their own.
One part of Zora puts every notification on the screens and takes it down again when the condition is over.
How loud
Every notification has a level. From quietest to loudest:
| Level | Colour | Circle on the button |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | grey | left, in grey |
| Alert (information) | blue | left |
| Warning | orange | middle |
| Alarm | red | right |
| Emergency | red, with a red row in the list | right |
A condition can climb a level, a warning turning into an alarm. A climb is what brings back a notification you muted or shelved.
Routine work waits while you sail
Equipment, maintenance and tasks can raise a dozen notifications at once, one per device or per job. Zora collects each kind into one panel under the other rows of the list, and into one entry on the banner, so a flood of them never pushes an alarm off the top. Inside a panel, the most serious come first.
Messages Zora raises about itself, such as a hard disk fault or a hot server, collect the same way in a Zora panel. They are not routine work, so they keep their level while you sail.
While the boat is underway, their warnings and alerts turn grey: they stay in the list, but leave the banner and make no sound. On an Equipment screen they keep their full level, and when you stop they come back without being announced again as new. An alarm is never turned grey.
What quieting keeps
Muting and shelving only quiet the banner and the sound. The list keeps every active notification, striped grey if it is shelved, so a quick look at the list always shows everything.
A mute holds until the condition gets worse or clears. A shelve holds for its period, even through the condition clearing and coming back at the same level. When it runs out, the notification stays muted. While the condition lasts, only a climb to a higher level puts it back on the banner.
An Until I clear it shelve that is older than 24 hours is dropped the next time the screen starts.
Each screen decides for itself
The sound buttons, the eyes in the Auto tab, mutes and shelves all belong to the screen you set them on. A tablet in the cockpit can stay silent about something the chart table still sounds. Set the sound on each screen you rely on.
What is set for the whole boat: your alarm limits, the depth and AIS thresholds, the email and SMS choices, and Away mode.
Email and SMS
Messages leave the boat only in Away mode, and each alarm is switched on for email or SMS on its own. Nothing is sent because of its level alone, so a disk filling up does not text you just because it reached alarm.
- A message goes out when the alarm goes off, changes level or ends.
- One alarm sends at most one message a minute, so a value hovering at a limit does not flood your phone.
- The message carries the alarm's text and the current reading.
- With no connection, the message waits and is tried again every minute for up to an hour. A newer one for the same alarm replaces it.
The addresses and numbers are set up once; see Notifications Settings.