Panbo: The Marine Electronics Weblog

Kees at Mets, almost like walking the show

Ben — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:56:44 -0500

Wow, Kees Verrujit, our N2K Panbot in an attic, has out done his own reporting on last year's METS, and he even shot some videos for us. A collective tip of the beanies to Kees, please:

In general the feeling was quietly positive. Everyone still around will probably be able to weather the remainder of the economic storm. Attendance today was lower than the earlier two editions I visited, but then this was my first time visiting on the last day so I can't say for sure how busy it was. Sorry to say, there was no big big news. Still there were a number of exciting new developments. I've kept those to the end of this long mail!

AIS over NMEA 2000, concept defended

Ben — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:39:48 -0500

The screen shot above shows MaxSea TimeZero Explorer running on Gizmo this morning, much like I showed last week. In this case you can see how I'm cranking up the radar gain, a neat right click and mouse wheel maneuver, trying to see the ship coming down the Bay. Which was really asking too much of the superb DRS2D radome because there were so many obstructions between Gizmo's slip and the Kristen Knutsen. What's really different about this screen is that the FA50 AIS data is finally getting to MaxSea TZ, which should have just happened given that the transponder, like the radar, is plugged into the same Ethernet switch as the MFD and the PC...

New Garmin 6- and 7000 series, & Class B AIS 600

Ben — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:00:00 -0500

Garmin just announced several new products which will be shown when the doors open at METS tomorrow morning. The 6000 and 7000 series are very much like the successful 4- and 5000 series except that apparently they've got enough processor speed to warrant a new expression for how fast and smoothly they pan and zoom charts -- Garmin G Motion. They've also got backlighting that dims down more than the originals, and backlit keypads. And the big mama 15" touch screen 7012 and 7015, which will retail for something like $7,000, have a feature that's a first for MFDs, I think -- VGA input, so a user can use them as monitor for a down below PC. Interesting! They also have four regular video inputs, and I'm told that all the new machines can display video input full screen (which was a problem). Though it's not in the press release, I also understand the 6- and 7000 series will have limited distribution, which means they're mainly meant for installer/dealers, a crowd Garmin has slowly been winning over. Garmin's new Class B AIS is no slouch either...

SailTimer, gone iPhone & handheld

Ben — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:12:59 -0500

I first heard about SailTimer -- a set of algorithms for calculating sailing tacks, including total distance and tacking time to destination (TTD) -- back in 2006. And it did indeed become a very interesting feature of NavSim's SailCruiser. But developer Craig Summers was not done there. His Indepth Navigation company now offers a free, and very simplified, iPhone version of SailTimer as well as the $14 app illustrated above. Frankly, even the paid app doesn't seem as full featured as the online SailTimer demo yet -- you don't see what your calculated speed is, for instance -- but I know Summers is working on it. In fact, SailTimer 2.0, with tacking lines drawn between those pins on the map, is due out this week. And then there's the "Sailing GPS"...

MaxSea Time Zero, live at last

Ben — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:16:25 -0500

It took Furuno and MaxSea quite a while to actually ship Time Zero software in the U.S., and it took me a while to clear enough disk space to load it on that oldish HP laptop, but the long wait did not end in disappointment. My first impression is that TZ charting and radar run beautifully, and with amazing responsiveness even though the laptop barely meets the suggested minimum specs. The photo above is also another testament to the DRSD2's close range resolution; you can see the two boats on floats and shrink-wrapped schooner that are being cleanly targeted. And don't presume the GPS is off because Gizmo seems to be ashore...

CE & ACC, great but not enough! Part 1

Ben — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:00:00 -0500

One thing I've always liked about Coastal Explorer is the way it handles points of interest (POI) information. It includes a vast, searchable gazetteer, along with coast pilot info that gets listed and icon-located when you're checking out a harbor ("places" tab). Plus it integrates Panoramio community photos if you want and Maptech marine facilities and port photos if you have them. (CE 2009 is not sold as Maptech Chart Navigator Pro, though CNP, which is actually CE version 1, is still being sold as "new" software.) You can see in the Options box above how Rose Point is working on an automatically synchronized Community Guide Book idea that has terrific potential. But, whoa, check out the new "Subscription" options that will appear in an CE update very soon. Rose Point has struck an interesting deal with the Atlantic Cruising Club guide folks, and thus CE users will get free partial ACC marina listings -- like the Wayfarer data above -- for those guide areas shown. They'll also get a neat way to integrate complete ACC guides into CE...

KVH TracVision HD7, new top dog?

Ben — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:36:44 -0500

Of course the big news about KVH's new TracVision HD7 is that it can receive all three of DirecTV's main satellites at once, which means that using multiple TVs/DVRs at once -- or keeping up with Guide data coming down from sat 101 -- are not the problems they can be with a one-satellite-at-a-time solution like the Intellian D4. But first check out the iPhone/iTouch app that communicates via WiFi to the HD7's antenna control unit. Not only can it be used to switch the dome to one of the secondary satellites that carry some oddball channels, also to download system updates at home, or wherever, for later one tap transfer to the ACU. There are alternate ways to accomplish these tasks, to be sure, but isn't this a slick option? Not that a HD7 user should need to mess with it much...

Baron Quicklink, XM WxWorx weather goes global

Ben — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:29:46 -0500

XM Satellite Weather actually has nothing to do with this new product, but I mention it in the title because Baron Services is both the meteorological expertise behind XM Weather and the developers of the WxWorx software which can make that XM data accessible on a boat's PC. The idea of the new Quicklink is provide XM-WxWorx-like semi realtime weather beyond the North America coverage area of XM's satellites, and it looks like Baron is pulling a couple of rabbits out of the hat to do it...

Birth days, dog days

Ben — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:02:36 -0500

So this card is how the dear wife honors my 63 years on earth? And it gets worse......

SPOT HUG, multifunction marine messenger

Ben — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:00:43 -0500

I previewed this on my Ft. Lauderdale Twitter feed (did that thing work for anyone?), and I remain enthusiastic. HUG stands for Hybrid Universal Guardian, which is quite a mouthful, but then again this puppy can do a lot for a boater...

Airmar H2183 Improves Situational Awareness Feature on Raymarine

Dan Corcoran (b393capt) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:24:59 -0500

Check out all the vector arrows around Dan Corcoran's Raymarine E-80 boat icon, as he steers Breeze Pleeze through Huntington Harbor as a storm closes in. Red is for heading, green for COG, blue for current, and yellow for wind. High performance sensors have made these vectors valuable for situational awareness of the current where he's about to dock, and more, as Dan explains:

I am writing about the Airmar H2183 solid state heading sensor (covered in Panbo here) after my experience as a beta tester. Raymarine gets honorable mention in the title above for its role in making this compass especially useful at a time in recreational navigation when its too easy to cruise all day without taking a compass heading.

Iridium SBD, interesting possibilities!

Ben — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:21:36 -0500

One of the most interesting meetings I had in Fort Lauderdale was with Patrick Shay, who fairly recently took the reins of Iridium's data division (after much related experience at Motorola and Sirius, and a lot of boating). His message was clear: Iridium has realized that data is important, in fact the fastest growing part of its business, and wants to see its SBD modems "disappear into as many marine devices as possible!" Coming soon is a new version of the 9601 modem above which will be smaller and cheaper but still able to transmit a 340 byte message from anywhere on the globe in less than 60 seconds with very high reliability. It can also quickly receive a 270 byte burst from anywhere via the Iridium ground stations, and it's that two-way nature that suggests so many interesting possibilities...

Gigando touch screen remote, from Palladium

Ben — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:04:57 -0500

You may never feel comfortable about slapping a bowl of chips and a couple of beers on this coffee table, but it surely would impress the folks visiting your super yacht, and it's wicked fun. Tucked somewhere in that table is a full on Mac computer that's networked to a full on distributed entertainment system -- curtains, lights, movies, internet, whatever! As usual, the megayacht sections of the The Fort Lauderdale show were awash in wretched excess, but also as usual, the good folks at Palladium Technologies demonstrated how creative, even joyous, cost-no-problem electronics can get...

Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show...tweet, tweet

Ben — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:01:00 -0500

An experiment in mini blogging the big show, via iPhone and netbook. (If you don't see a Twitter window below, it's probably because you don't have Flash running right.)

VOJ satellite broadband testing #2, the install +

Ben — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:00:00 -0500

Visions of Johanna is now in Ecuador, the vast Pacific beckoning. As discussed recently, Gram Schweikert has set the sloop up to test and compare the new compact satellite voice/Internet systems from Iridium and KVH/Inmarsat. Above he's geek goofing with the KVH IP Phone and a Uniden waterproof portable which can access four lines -- Skype, cell, Inmarsat FB150, and Iridium OpenPort. But he's sure been doing his homework. What follows is the longest Panbo entry ever, in which the good Gram details the hardware, the installation, the costs, and his first impressions of performance...