N2K “Intelligent Gateway”, (updated 10/20)
NMEA 2000—able to bring tons of essential sensor data to a computer in an easy, standardized way—should be a huge opportunity for marine software developers. But there have been two major impediments…
Monthly Archive: October 2007
Navionics Platinum Plus cards, 8 gigs!
Navionics just announced its new Platinum+ chart card product, which I got a peek at along the coast of Cape Cod last month. As the name implies Plus takes Platinum’s numerous features up a notch, or two…
Maptech Navigator Touch Screen freed, sort of
Ever seen this software before? Yup, that’s the same touch screen navigation program that Maptech started developing as the Sea Ray Navigator (SRN) back in 2001, and also sold as part of its own i3 hardware system. Well, things have changed…
Alden AE 3300, marine BB WB AIO receiver!
Sorry about my acronym thing! The relatively new and unknown Alden AE-3300 is a black box wide band receiver with included PC software that lets you easily receive Weatherfax, Navtex, Telex, and even medium and high frequency DSC messages, besides listening to most any frequency between 9 KHz and 30 MHz. Hence in marine terms it’s pretty much an all in one receiver…
Icom PCR, name a frequency!
I’m back in Maine briefly, which means I’m back to testing a couple of black box wideband radio receivers. And I mean WIDE. The Icom PCR2500 can tune in most anything from 10 kHz to 3300 MHz—less a few gaps like the cell phone bands (you have to be official to get that model). And I’ve got a pretty serious antenna…
AnyTrack redux, flaky in NYC
I felt bad about my harsh review of the AnyTrack monitoring device (and the inflated Sprint cell coverage that gives it Assisted GPS abilities). So I held on to the unit, and tried it again on a trip to Cape Cod, where it did pretty well. I also brought it to New York City, where I figured its claimed ability to determine location inside buildings would really shine. Well, not so much…
Xtreme Marine, pulse charging
I’ve been testing this PulseTech Xtreme Marine 12v “five-stage maintenance” charger for a month or so, and am impressed…
It’s Fall, and maybe a flaky Panbo
The truth is I sometimes use Panbo myself as a sort of diary of where I’ve been and what I was up to, at least in the boating/electronics portion of my life. So I’m sticking up this photo
a friend (thanks, Howard!) took last Thursday evening.
N2KView, PGNs get packetized
Check out the full size screen shot. I took it here at my desk while designing a custom screen for Maretron’s N2KView monitoring and control application. I was picturing myself the master of a high-end cruiser putting together the screen I’d like to have accessible anywhere on the boat—and off it—when anchored.
SeaTalkNG, an N2K parallel universe?
I’m not sure what Raymarine’s rational is for creating its own proprietary NMEA 2000 cabling system, though I’ve been studying the brochures and manuals available (on Ray’s nicely updated site). Aside from the small diameter (11mm) of the connectors, the features touted in the ST70 brochure…
