Many small changes makes for a big update

June 23, 2023 • 2 min read

New functionality, new languages, and a better help desk have arrived in Orca.

The boating season has arrived. Over the past few weeks, thousands upon thousands of nautical miles have been navigated with Orca. On top of this, the total number of Orca installations has nearly doubled since late April – a testament to the popularity of Orca Display 2 and Orca Core.

During these past weeks, many small updates to Orca have been released to make Orca better for new users and veterans. Here are the highlights.

More details about updates

Orca is updated on a weekly basis. It means you’ll get improvements and upgrades to your system quickly, such as support for new autopilots and better performance.

In the past, major updates and additions have been announced via this blog, but smaller updates were not. Many members of the Orca Owner’s Club have asked for more insight into each update, and we thought that was a great idea! You’ll now find a detailed list of changes included in each Orca update on the change log website.

One of the recent updates to Orca.

If you are curious about what goes into each update, visit the website. You can also subscribe to receive the latest updates via e-mail from that website.

A better helpdesk

The helpdesk has been reorganized and updated with more information. You’ll find installation instructions for the new Orca Charging Mount, guides for controlling your autopilot, and more technical information like which NMEA2000 PGNs the Orca Core broadcasts and receives. 

Press "Help and Feedback" in the Main Menu to access the new helpdesk.

The helpdesk is available on the web, and the Orca app has also been upgraded with improved search to make help you find answers to the questions you have.

Instrument additions

Instrument panels now have more contrast to improve legibility in direct sunlight. New instruments have also been added for heel and pitch. You’ll also find dedicated instruments for COG and heading that replace the old dynamic instrument that changed between COG and Heading depending on your speed.

Overall, these instrument improvements aim to help you sail faster and hit that perfect heel angle more consistently.

Autopilot improvements

The navigation mode for autopilots has been upgraded with a more informative user interface. The new interface shows you precisely what the autopilot plans to do next, and makes both long-distance crossings and nearshore autopilot operations a lot easier.

The new autopilot interface makes navigation mode more convenient.

Support for the Simrad AC autopilot models has also been added. For a full list of supported autopilots, see the Autopilot Support help desk article. 

New language support and better performance

Orca is now available in Norwegian, German, and Catalan – with Danish right around the corner.

Charts are now more responsive, in particular on Orca Display 2. Orca is also better at handling a lot of NMEA 2000 devices and when you are in areas with many AIS targets.

A big thank you

Every single update detailed in this blog post has been the result of direct feedback or suggestions from Orca users. We are incredibly grateful to have so passionate and insightful users, and we’re looking forward to improving Orca every single week together with you.