The Orca Core is a Smart Navigation Hub. It contains a built-in GPS, compass, heel sensor, and sailing processor.
The Orca Core also connects to external devices – such as wind sensors, AIS receivers, radars, and autopilots via NMEA 2000. It broadcasts this sensor data wirelessly to the Orca App and the Orca Display.
The Orca Core turns the Orca App and Orca Display into a fully featured chartplotter: It gives you autopilot control, instruments, radar, AIS, and much more.
There are many reasons for getting an Orca Core – here are the most common:
You want a fully-featured backup system along with your chartplotter
You want a complete chartplotter experience on a mobile or tablet
You want wireless autopilot control
You want to add a compass or external GPS to your boat's network
You want a sailing processor
You want to monitor your boat from home
You want a fully-featured backup system
If you already have a traditional chartplotter, the Orca Core is great for adding a fully-featured backup system to your boat.
By adding the Orca Core, you will get a chartplotter-like experience on your smartphone and tablet: Offline marine cartography, instruments, autopilot control, radar, and AIS.
Orca Core is the easiest way to add redundancy to your boat – and to add additional navigation displays to your boat.
You want a complete chartplotter experience on a mobile or tablet
More and more boaters discard traditional chartplotters in favor of mobile devices. Some do it because of ease of use, others because of the cost and effort of installing traditional chartplotters.
The Orca Core is built to give you a complete chartplotter experience on your mobile devices. It does so by connecting to your onboard sensors and wirelessly transmits sensor data to your mobile devices.
You want wireless autopilot control
The Orca Core connects to autopilots from all major autopilot manufacturers. The Core lets you control your autopilot wirelessly from your phone, tablet, and Apple Watch. See the full list of supported autopilots for details.
You want to add a GPS or compass to your NMEA 2000 network
If you are looking at adding a GPS, compass or heel sensor to your boat, the Orca Core is likely a cost-efficient option. The Orca Core comes with a built-in GPS receiver, electronic compass, and heel sensor.
The GPS gives you a < 3m GPS accuracy under normal conditions, which is a significant upgrade from GPS receivers inside traditional chartplotters
The Compass delivers < 2° heading accuracy. It also delivers rate-of-turn data to your NMEA network, allowing it to power autopilots, radar chart alignment, and ARPA.
The heel sensor delivers < 2° heel accuracy for powering autopilots and sailing computers
All sensor data is broadcast to your NMEA network at 10Hz.
You want a sailing processor
The Orca Core contains a cutting-edge sailing processor that calculates true wind, currents, and back-calculated apparent wind. It also delivers polar performance targets.
Visit the Sailing Processor article for details.
You want to monitor your boat from home
Orca Core can relay NMEA 2000 data to the internet via WiFi. If you have a WiFi access point in your boat, you can use the Orca Core as a remote monitoring tool – and check your boat's location, battery status, fuel levels and more while you are away.
Visit the Remote Access article for details.
Should you have questions the Orca Core, don't hesitate to reach out via hello@getorca.com.
If you want to buy the Orca Core, you can order it from the Orca Web Shop.