Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Panbo News and Reviews

2

Cabin & deck gear / Handheld / Gadgets / Good Gear (non electronic)

SI-TEX Sirius 12 stabilized binoculars, stability at a nice price

Within a few months of leaving to travel America’s Great Loop, I decided there were two things my boat was sorely lacking. The first was a set of wireless headsets or marriage savers — rarely has a product been so accurately named. The second tool I found myself lacking was a pair of stabilized binoculars. A few nausea inducing episodes of trying to read the transom of a moving boat from the pitching deck of Have Another Day convinced me of the utility. While the marriage savers were quite affordable, the stabilized binoculars left a larger dent in my wallet. So, I was quite pleased to have the opportunity to try out SI-TEX’s Sirius stabilized binoculars and their much more affordable cost of entry.

1

Cabin & deck gear / Handheld / Gadgets / Safety & SAR

FLIR Ocean Scout Pro, high resolution, handheld thermal

FLIR’s Ocean Scout Pro is the latest iteration of a handheld, thermal scope from the market leader in thermal night vision products. The Ocean Scout Pro boasts a high-resolution, high frame rate sensor, simple operation, and a companion app for both Android and iOS. The updated Ocean Scout Pro offers streaming to a mobile app (though not without some frustrations, more on that later) and a bright easy to see viewfinder. So, how does the Ocean Scout Pro do on the water? Let’s take a look.

19

LiFePO4 / Electrical & Engines

Blue Heron Extreme series battery, feature rich and high performance

Blue Heron is a relatively small battery brand. So, you may not have heard of them as they have less marketing power than the bigger battery brands I’ve reviewed. But, that doesn’t stop them from offering a premium battery with impressive features and customer service. Perhaps in part because of their smaller size, Blue Heron provides services not typical of similar batteries, like testing and balancing the batteries prior to shipping. Let’s take a look at the battery, the service, and the value that Blue Heron offers.

0

Stabilization, trim, and roll control

A weekend with Dometic’s DG3 gyro stabilizer

Many people spend halloween trick or treating or at parties. Not me, I travelled, along with several other marine journalists, to the Florida Keys to spend a weekend aboard two boats equipped with Dometic’s DG3 gyroscopic stabilizer. The time onboard provided ample opportunity to experience the impact the DG3 makes on the rolling action of the vessel. Plus, Dometic provided one relatively common hull, a 37-foot center console, and a far less typical hull, a 35-foot, aluminum, power catamaran. With two full days on the water, I got the full experience of what the DG3 can do and how it goes about doing it. Read on for a full report and my thoughts on the DG3 compared to Seakeeper’s gyros.

0

NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K / Monitoring & Tracking

NMEA 2025: Sensar Marine’s expansion hub

I wasn’t kidding in my Vanemar writeup when I mentioned boat monitoring products’ strong showing at the NMEA’s 2025 conference. Continuing with that theme, let’s take a look at Sensar Marine’s Expansion Hub. The Expansion Hub pairs to their existing monitor to bring more capabilities to the original monitor without sacrificing the monitors’ core strengths.

3

Wireless & Apps / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K / Monitoring & Tracking

NMEA 2025: Vanemar Boat Monitoring

Boat monitoring isn’t a new category, but looking around the exhibition hall at the 2025 National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) conference, you might think differently. The hall featured at least eight companies exhibiting boat monitoring products and nearly half the entrants in the Best New Product awards were boat monitors. So, why so much activity in boat monitoring? Frankly, I’m not entirely sure. However, there is a noticeable improvement in the quality of all the monitors I saw. I am excited by the refinement and advances in the products on display. Speaking of refinement, Turkey based Vanemar was there displaying their system with wireless sensors, NMEA 2000 integration, video capabilities and a slick app.

10

Wireless & Apps / Network & control / Safety & SAR / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K / Monitoring & Tracking

NMEA 2025: Digital Yacht Bilge IQ

Last week, the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) held their annual conference in West Palm Beach. This year’s conference featured quite a few interesting product introductions. I had the opportunity to see most of them while helping judge the NMEA’s Best New Product and NMEA Technology Awards. I plan several articles covering the various product introductions, though I’ll have to be quick about it as IBEX begins next week. Digital Yacht’s Bilge IQ is a NMEA 2000 and WiFi connected bilge pump control and monitoring system. The clever system monitors bilge pump activations, runtime, and current draw. My fellow judges and I thought enough of it to give it the Best New Product award. What did we see that intrigued us enough to award it? Let’s take a look.

30

LiFePO4 / How-to / Electrical & Engines

Don’t murder your batteries, tips for winter storage of LFP batteries

In recent years LiFePO4 (LFP) batteries in boats have morphed from a slightly mysterious luxury to commonplace. The perception has gone from an expensive and risky modification to a widely accepted, game-changing, and comfort enhancing upgrade. As such there is great excitement when it’s “your turn” to upgrade your boat. Marinas and boating forums are full of stories from the recently converted about their newly installed LFP system and the resulting improved and simplified boating. Those still using legacy lead for house power may be feeling left behind.  At the same time the prices of converting to LFP have dropped significantly.

7

Mobile Apps / Wireless & Apps / Navigation / Handheld

Orca and Raymarine Axiom integration, easy route sharing from tablet to chart plotter

Tablet navigation has come an extremely long way in the decade and a half since Ben Ellison started covering it. However, for as far as the apps have come, integrations between navigation apps and chart plotters remain remarkably frustrating. Some in brand solutions, like Active Captain with Garmin equipment and TZ iBoat with Furuno plotters, work quite well. However, cross platform options typically involve clunky, multi-step export and import routines. Often, these routines require ejecting and inserting physical memory cards, a task made more complex as memory card slots move to the back of slick, all glass chart plotters. Raymarine and Orca have broken with recent trends and offer a wireless integration that allows for remarkably simple sharing of routes between a tablet running Orca and a Raymarine Axiom chartplotter.

16

Stabilization, trim, and roll control / What's on board...

Smoothing the seas, pitch and roll control systems compared

There are numerous systems that control a boats pitch and roll. These systems use a variety of in water devices to control the flow of water and alter how a boat runs through the water. In recent years quite a few systems have been introduced and updated including Lenco Pro Control, Seakeeper Ride, and ZipWake. With numerous options and different technologies, how do you decide which system is right for your boat? I put together a fleet of test boats to try and answer these questions and compare the systems performance. Read on to see the results and determine the best fit for your boat.