Panbo: The Marine Electronics Weblog

Navico Broadband Radar, truly safer?

Ben — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:38:25 -0500

Since we're already discussing the Navico BR24, let's take a look at an interesting disagreement that's cropped up regarding its safety claims. At introduction, Navico's CEO called this low wattage solid state technology "a huggable radar" -- i.e. without any radiation danger whatsoever. But how dangerous are conventional magnetron marine radars in this size range? In the July issue of PMY, the new electronics editor Tim Bartlett tries to answer that question, and concludes, "So rest easy. While your microwave oven could theoretically cook you, a small radar can't because it doesn't transmit long enough or with enough power." Navico disagrees...

BR vs UHD, Capt. Kessler is surprised

Ben — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:35:44 -0500

The weather here -- a phenomenal run of fog and rain -- has been great for testing the Broadband Radar temporarily mounted on Li'l Gizmo, and I'm going to lay a BR screenshot show on you all soon, I promise. But I've realized that while I've used lots of radars, and seen lots more demonstrated, I've never had one on my own boat before, and I'm not dead sure that the performance I'm seeing is as amazing as it seems. How convenient, then, that the indomitable Spirit of Zapolite cruised in out of the murk on Monday, complete with a new Furuno NavNet 3D system swinging a four foot Ultra High Definition open array. That's the indomitable Capt. Bruce Kessler above, trying to tune NN3D/UHD to achieve as crisp and detailed an image of Camden Inner Harbor as he'd just seen on board a 14-foot outboard...

Wireless N2K wind & more, Tacktick style

Ben — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:14:40 -0500

Mission accomplished! I tried integrating a Tacktick wireless sensor and display network with a NMEA 2000 sensor and display network, and the results were quite good. The depth seen on the remote above is coming from a Maretron DST100 in Gizmo's bottom. The Micronet system is also getting Heading, Speed through Water, COG/SOG, and more from the N2K system, which it can display and/or use for True Wind calculations. Meanwhile -- and perhaps coolest of all -- all displays on the N2K backbone are getting Apparent Wind info from the wireless Tacktick wind vane I simply clamped to Gizmo's mast...

NMEA 2000 opens up, in a Dutch attic!

Ben — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:15:20 -0500

I love this photo. It may look messy, but not only is one man's fine N2K+++ yacht system being tested here, but the standard itself is getting explored, possibly to the benefit of many boaters. This is Kees Verruijt's attic somewhere in the Netherlands and, as explained on his new Yacht Electronics blog, that Commodore PET is the "PC" he first learned programming on back in 1979. The rest of the gear is going on Merrimac II, a Stadship 56 now under construction that Kees and his family have obviously put a lot of thought into. Kees wants to extend the usefullness of his NMEA 2000 data system, even to his iPhone, and he's had to go to some serious trouble to do so...

Mcmurdo Fast Find PLB, Ritter tested

Ben — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:29:11 -0500

If the remarkably small and inexpensive GPS-equipped Fast Find PLB also works very well, what does that mean? My guess is that it makes McMurdo king of the PLB hill, at least for a while, and that it will...

Scanstrut Scanpods, & a U.S. warehouse

Ben — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:57:34 -0500

The U.K. company Scanstrut has been making all sorts of radome mounts and similar gear since 1986, and I know I'm not the only one who's admired their smart and handsome engineering. I learned at the Miami show that they were working on a line of universal electronics pods, and today that line is not only official, but a few nice new design twists are revealed. For instance, the preview literature for the Deck Pod above -- meant to mount MFDs up to 15" on fly bridges and the like -- illustrated its heavy duty silicone gasket and other features, but showed a mount that "only" swiveled. Look what they came up with for the finished product! Apparently you can just release that lever and position the pod however you'd like. I've long held that such flexibility can make displays much more useful in varying light conditions, and I've achieved that goal often with RAM mounts, but this looks like a truly elegant solution...

Ship Finder, networked AIS for the iPhone

Ben — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:21:27 -0500

Should I rename the blog iPanbo? I know I've been focused on these marine apps a lot, but, as noted just last week, the developement velocity is awesome. I first heard about Ship Plotter this morning from the good...

Radar teases: Garmin goes big, Panbo gets wet

Ben — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 09:07:22 -0500

Thanks to Rich Owings, who runs the excellent GPSTracklog site, we now know that Garmin will soon introduce four new open array radars. The photo above comes from deep within the FCC equipment authorization database (sorry, linkage not possible), where anyone as patient as Rich might have discovered that four new Garmin radars were granted approval on Friday. The model designations are GMR 604, 606, 1204, and 1206 -- which strongly suggest that they range from a 6 kW 4 foot array to a 12 kW 6 foot unit (hello, big yachts and sport fishermen) -- and which will probably be sold in two parts like Garmin's existing open arrays. But what the heck is "xHD"...?...

Wind Meter app, & iPod Touch bluetooth

Ben — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:12:38 -0500

iPhone folks will notice that the one I'm holding above is upside down. That's because the Wind Meter app shown uses the sound of wind passing over the iPhone's microphone to measure its speed. And -- would you believe it? -- it actually works. I was out testing and photographing the NMEA 2000 wind rig early this morning and thus could compare Wind Meter to a consensus of five high quality sensors mounted just a few feet over my head. No, it's not as accurate or responsive as they are (especially flaky under 3 knots or so), and it apparently can't handle speeds over about 25 knots, but still...

Broadband Radar now shipping, installs neatly

Ben — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:57:40 -0500

Navico Broadband Radar is apparently meeting its promised "Q2" shipping schedule, and I'm already impressed with the install details. Above you can see how a waterproof gland fits over the scanner cable -- which is just a bundle of Ethernet and power wires -- before it's screwed to the interface box. If the ultimate destination is a Simrad NX or a Northstar 8000i, you then run a proprietary serial cable to the 'comms' port, while Lowrance HDS units use a proprietary Ethernet cable to that orangey 'network' port. It all went together quickly and feels solid...

SpeedWatch, wireless wireless STW

Ben — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:11:34 -0500

That's my goose-bumped knee and I'm rowing at 2.2 knots through the water, which is my true speed in terms of performance, as opposed to speed over ground (SOG), which would be my true speed in terms of getting somewhere. The distinction relates to endless discussions about what true True Wind is, which depends, but more relevantly to that JDC SpeedWatch strapped to my thigh. It would be fairly unremarkable gadget if it was a GPS (showing SOG) but in fact it's talking wirelessly to a tough little transmitter under the boat's bow seat, which in turn is wirelessly collecting STW data from a tiny magnetized propeller mounted on the hull a few inches away...

NMEA 2000 AIS, not yet right!

Ben — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 07:27:23 -0500

Yesterday I fired up this sample Simrad AI50 Class B AIS transponder and found it to be pretty much as self-contained and impressive as I'd hoped. I attached one of my boat's VHF antennas, deployed the AI50's included GPS antenna, gave the unit a little 12v juice (just 8 watts at 100% screen brightness), and, voila, Gizmo was transmitting its position and plotting other AIS targets, including another Class B I had set up as "Panbo.com Lab". A full AI50 entry will follow, but first I'll report on its SimNet/N2K output. I was excited about how easily NMEA 2000 could feed the AI50's target and GPS info to all devices on the network, but nervous about that how well 2000 currently handles the data (nobody has yet tried it much). Both feelings were justified...

iPhone mania, a marine app slide show

Ben — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:56:11 -0500

So there's a new iPhone, the 3G S, and some of its new features -- like a built-in compass, voice commands/feedback, and a much faster processor -- will no doubt benefit marine navigation applications. But I've been trying the major existing apps (thanks to a loaner 3G from Navionics), and can tell you that they're pretty seductive as is. None is perfect by any means but the three above -- Navionics' Mobile Gold, GPSNavX's iNavX, and Navimatics' Charts & Tides -- each has some interesting features. And I've assembled a super duper screen shot slide show to illustrate...

Lowrance "StructureScan", sonar scanning heats up

Ben — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:21:30 -0500

I've long been interested in the ability of some Humminbird MFDs to side scan with near photographic precision, at least in fairly shallow and calm waters. A lot of fishermen, especially of the freshwater kind, are using the technology to find the structures where their quarry like to hang out, and you can see lots of real world results on this Yahoo group. Humminbird has virtually owned this niche for several years, and claims some patent protection, but now Lowrance is coming right at them with an HDS add-on called StructureScan. It will debut at the MAATS/iCAST show in Orlando this July (and I'll be there), but Lowrance has started showing proof of performance images...

Panbo punts, Garmin grieves

Ben — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 07:38:49 -0500

This entry's title is not about cause and effect; my wind sensor testing may go incomplete, but that has nothing to do with Garmin's chart problem. And while I had a good time on the water yesterday, even if frustrated...