Orca gives you advanced radar control on iOS, Android, and Orca Displays.
Which radars are supported?
Orca supports radars from several manufacturers. See the following articles for each manufacturer on how to connect Orca to your radar:
Before you control your Radar
For Radar control to be available, you must:
Connect the Core to your radar
Power on the Radar
If you have connected the Radar via a chartplotter, power on the chartplotter
If you don't have an external heading source on your boat network, calibrate your Core's compass
If your Radar Overlay does not align properly with your charts, it means your heading source is not calibrated properly. In this case, verify that your heading source is properly calibrated.
Showing and hiding the Radar Overlay
Radar is shown as a layer on top of your chart. To show the Radar Overlay:
Open your Control Panel. The Control Panel Button is found in the top right corner of your chart.
Press on Radar in the layer group. The blue color indicates that the radar layer is turned on.
Turning on the Radar layer in Orca will also set your Radar to Transmit mode. Hiding the Radar layer will not stop Radar transmission.
Reading the Radar Overlay
The Radar Overlay shows the intensity of a radar return as different colours, using this colour map:
Controlling your Radar
From the Control Panel, you will be able to adjust your Radar. Press Radar Status to change between Transmit and Standby.
Radar mode lets you select between modes that are predefined by your radar manufacturer.
Sensitivity, Wave noise reduction, and Rain noise reduction can be adjusted by dragging the sliders.
Pressing the vertical three dots next to each slider will show a larger slider control for more accurate controls along with the option to set Auto mode for the given option.
All changes to radar controls in Orca will also affect your other radar-capable devices.
Doppler Colour Coding
Orca supports Doppler colour coding with Raymarine Quantum radars. This helps you quickly identify moving targets and whether they are getting closer or further away.
On the radar screen, these moving targets are automatically colour-coded, whereas stationary targets remain the normal radar colour.
Red: Objects approaching your vessel (potential collision risk)
Green: Objects moving away.
This could make it easier to assess certain situations without manually tracking targets.
Examples include:
Crossing vessels
Overtaking boats
Fast and busy traffic
Poor visibility
Nighttime
However, it should not be relied upon, and manual checks should still be made.
See below an example of how this looks in the Orca app, in this case, a red target:
Doppler control can be switched on through My Boat > Configuration. This option will only appear if you have a Quantum radar.
It can also be enabled and disabled via the control panel, in the 'Radar Status' section.