Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Yearly Archive: 2009

HYMAR, can Nigel find the electric drive grail? 17

Network & control

HYMAR, can Nigel find the electric drive grail?

E motion components page.jpg

I remember getting excited about Solomon Systems’ regenerating electric sail boat motors at the 2004 Annapolis show, but I never hear about the technology today.  Then in late 2006 I got stoked about the Ossa Powerlite diesel electric system, and even dreamed of having one in a Maine Cat P45 (which went on to become the great P47).  But Maine Cat dropped the idea after testing it on the prototype, and the Ossa web site today shows about the same few customers it showed back then.  Designing a truly practical electric drive system for cruising-size boats, great as it sounds, is clearly not easy.  However, Nigel Calder did his homework on these systems all along — and often was properly skeptical when others, like me, were infatuated — and now he’s put together an A list of companies and earned a $3,000,000 EU grant to develop hybrid marine propulsion. How cool is that?

Alba Analog Adaptors, the screenshot show 13

Network & control / Electrical & Engines

Alba Analog Adaptors, the screenshot show

Alba_NMEA_sensor_boxes_cPanbo.JPG

NMEA 2000 has been working well on Gizmo this summer, making it easy to get heading, wind, depth, GPS, and more to all the MFD systems I’ve been testing.  AIS over N2K has some issues, but then again the Garmin VHF 200 is good evidence of what’s possible.  However, I’ve just begun to explore how NMEA 2000 can integrate Gizmo’s engine, tanks, batteries, and other non-navigational systems. A few weeks ago, for instance, I plugged an Albatross demo case into the boat’s backbone to see how data from those three Analog Adaptors above would display…

Simrad NSE, brand new & looking good 23

Navigation

Simrad NSE, brand new & looking good

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Yeeeeha, Simrad is introducing the interesting new NSE series today, and Panbo already has a pre-production unit installed in Gizmo’s dash.  Apparently it’s not entirely coincidental that this NSE 12 model (there’s also an 8-inch) fits fine in the hole once occupied by a now ‘classic’ Raymarine C120 (which wouldn’t accommodate a new C- or E120W).  Who wouldn’t want a nice slice of that upgrade market, and the NSE may well earn one.  For starters, that display is not only as bright and crisp as it looks in this not-fiddled-with photo, but it’s backlit with power-efficient and cool running LEDs.  And displayed on screen is another power-related feature I’ve picked up on lately…

SeaView & ScanStrut mast mounts, solid 4

Cabin & deck gear

SeaView & ScanStrut mast mounts, solid

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A big thanks to both ScanStrut and SeaView for contributing mast mounts to the ongoing Gizmo radar testing program (will it ever end?).  I found the SeaView SM-18-R to be as solid and easy to install as the ScanStrut. In fact, having just two mast feet instead of four might make the SeaView a little stronger and easier to align (though there may be a reason for the four-foot design I haven’t understood yet?)  SeaView also offers the optional canting feet shown attached in the photo above, which made the Gizmo flying bridge mount possible…

Labor Day weekend, fun & radars 2

Zany

Labor Day weekend, fun & radars

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I can’t quite grok that such a short summer is nearly over, but do realize that a moment like above may not come around again.  That’s the lovely day sailor Heron, Mark Island and the Camden Hills in the background, and several blissful tons of seal basking in the sunshine. But I am looking forward to the Camden Windjammer Festival this weekend, though partially because I plan to use the incoming fleet to test ARPA and MARPA…

C-Map is back, in many dimensions 4

Charts

C-Map is back, in many dimensions

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Actually C-Map never went away. But it has been fairly quiet since becoming part of Jeppesen Marine in early 2007.  Oh there was scuttlebutt about how Jeppesen resources meant vastly improved data acquisition and distribution capabilities, not to mention evidence of zero error tolerance. And C-Map MaxPro cartography came to Nobeltec charting, though sadly many remember the event more for a dumb raster chart policy than, say, MaxPro’s slick Quick Sync data updating.  Meanwhile, arch rival Navionics worked its way into more and more displays.  But things change, as certainly happened on Tuesday when Raymarine previewed E Wides, which will come C-Map preloaded and also support a new format C-Map calls 4D…

Raymarine E-Series Widescreen, mission accomplished! 29

Navigation

Raymarine E-Series Widescreen, mission accomplished!

Raymarine_E_Wide_video_capture.JPG

It’s a cruddy image, for sure…a screen shot taken at my desk as Raymarine’s Jim McGowan used a web cam at his desk to walk me through a beta version of the new E Wide series which is being previewed today worldwide.  But it does illustrate two critically important features.  The E Wides are touch screen, using a much gussied up new interface, while they also retain the same soft/command key set that Ray developed for the C Wide Series (and will come in the same three screen sizes).  You can do everything by touch if you like, and the weather permits, or run things the old fashioned way; Raymarine calls it “hybridTouch”.  Perhaps even better in terms of user choice: The E Wides can display both Jeppesen C-Map and Navionics cartography, of any format level, and even simultaneously…

NMEA announces Technology Award, & shows some tech leg 7

The Trade

NMEA announces Technology Award, & shows some tech leg

NMEA_2009_Convention.jpg

The 2008 NMEA Convention in San Diego prompted many Panbo entries last October, and I’m hoping the return to Fort Myers this year will be at least as interesting.  One new feature of note is a Technology Award that will be judged by yours truly and three other BWI boating writers. The criteria will be “a combination of innovative design, benefits to boaters, practicality and value,” and the NMEA has wisely chosen to limit manufacturer entries to products that were not available for sale and delivery sixty days before the 2008 convention but are available sixty days before this show.  In other words, no vaporware please!