Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Yearly Archive: 2009

Echomax RTE looks great, but what about USA? 18

Safety & SAR

Echomax RTE looks great, but what about USA?

Echomax_Active-X.JPG

I first got excited about RTEs (Radar Target Enhancers) in 2002 when the Sea-Me came out; in fact, it inspired one of my favorite PMY columns (in which you’ll also learn why I want a whomping big horn on Gizmo).  The Sea-Me went on to be quite a successful product, at least in the U.K., but now Echomax — the Brits who already build a respected line of static radar reflectors — has come out with its own Active-X RTE, and apparently it just plain kicks Sea-Me’s butt…

Garmin N2K AIS, & the 5.3 unfix 20

AIS

Garmin N2K AIS, & the 5.3 unfix

Garmin_N2K_AIS_n_Mariner_3D_view_cPanbo.JPG

This was nice.  It was Friday late morning — after the fog burned off but before the torrential rains arrived (summer of ’09 is making history!) — and we were idling along in company with the school schooner Tabor Boy.  All of which was being colorfully portrayed on the Garmin 5212’s Mariner 3D screen; zoom in and you’ll see the Tabor Boy’s Class A AIS signal represented as a 3D icon with heading and track lines. You’ll also see Gizmo’s own Class B AIS represented as an unnamed dangerous target directly under our own boat icon, a little glitch we’ve already discussed…

Maretron’s N2KBuilder, better than sliced bread? 10

Network & control

Maretron’s N2KBuilder, better than sliced bread?

N2KBuilder_showing_prelim_Gizmo_install_cPanbo.JPG

Actually I like to slice bread myself these days, but, man-o-man, Maretron’s latest gift to the world of NMEA 2000 is one brilliant invention.  N2KBuilder — which is free, and downloadable right now — would be handy if it just let you easily mock up a proposed network.  But it does much, much more than that.  As you drag and drop cables, connectors, and devices, N2KBuilder keeps an eye on total cable lengths, amperage loads, and the resulting voltage drops, and alarms you if you’re over the limits.  It also keeps track of backbone integrity and plug genders, and all the while builds a system database from which it can produce various valuable reports, and even a bill of materials (BOM)…

Cruising with an iPhone, Navionics Mobile 2.2 16

Handheld

Cruising with an iPhone, Navionics Mobile 2.2

Navionics_Mobile_22_Frenchboro_Long_Island_cPanbo.jpg

How cool is this!  Most of the time we were hiking Long Island over the last two days I had Navionics Mobile 2.2 (East Coast) running on the iPhone and in track mode.  Thus I could use it to check our progress against the trail map (downloadable here).  I also took some iPhone photos of the mossy rich and rugged scenery from within Mobile, which then geo positions them on the chart.  That’s all neat, but the true kicker is that I could easily email the whole track with (reduced) photos to anyone as a KMZ file (only 248k, downloadable here) that can be overlaid on Google Earth as shown above.  Or, with only two touch commands, could post it all on my Facebook page, where it seems to link to a Navionics-served Google Maps file which you may be able to see even if you don’t have Google Earth or don’t know beans about Facebook (like me).  This easy track and photo sharing is great, but in fact the iPhone has been useful in many ways on this cruise…

18″ radome testing, part 1 3

Navigation

18″ radome testing, part 1

“The fog was so thick that…” is a popular line here on the coast of Maine, especially this summer.  Well, it was so foggy yesterday morning that we didn’t actually see this can buoy...

BR24 vs Furuno 4′ UHD, take two (yike!) 15

Navigation

BR24 vs Furuno 4′ UHD, take two (yike!)

Onboard_SoZ_2009_cPanbo.JPG

Well, that was exciting.  Yesterday afternoon I went out on the Bay aboard Spirit of Zopolite, in large part so Capt. Bruce Kessler could show me how well his new Furuno 4-foot UHD radar works in close quarters now that he’s seen Navico’s Broadband Radar.  And he was right; once away from the dock, the NavNet3D screen was resolving the complications of Camden Harbor very well indeed.  The photo above, worth examining large (click on it), shows us returning via the channel through the Outer Harbor moorings, with almost all the boats and shoreline sharply resolved at quarter mile scale, and we could have gone down to 1/8th mile. I’ve been in this spot many times when you couldn’t see anything except an occasional channel bouy or vague boat shadow, and it’s interesting to compare the image with BR24 screens taken a few weeks ago…

Ray C140W Deck Pod install, a dubber’s impressions 13

Navigation

Ray C140W Deck Pod install, a dubber’s impressions

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Yes, I’m frustrated that a combination of weather, travel, and gizmo glitches has so far prevented me from getting this Raymarine C140W and the attached RD418D Digital Radar operational, and then comparing it with Navico Broadband Radar (and Garmin HD radomes, too), but it was educational to install the MFD in that new Scanstrut Deck Pod.  The completed rig is quite slick: the “silver” finish goes nicely with Ray gray, I think; all the cables pass easily, and invisibly, through the base; and the whole pod angle adjusts smoothly but locks up solid with that lever (which, after a little tweaking, now goes tight against the base when locked).  But putting it altogether was a little challenging…

Cobra MR HH475: floats, rewinds, burps, & does bluetooth cell 1

Communications

Cobra MR HH475: floats, rewinds, burps, & does bluetooth cell

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Here’s Bill Boudreau of Cobra Electronics showing off the two new floating 6 watt handheld VHFs the company announced earlier this week.  The higher end model, the MR HH475, includes the Rewind-Say-Again audio recording feature I liked a lot in the original HH425 and the fixed F80.  Plus this handset can also double as a Bluetooth handset for your cell phone, much like Cobra’s dedicated MR F300 Bluetooth speaker mic.  It doesn’t have some of the mic’s features, like a built-in address book, but it does have the PTT/VOX choice and the noise cancellation that tested so well in my lab.  But what if someone hails you on VHF while you’re chatting on your phone?

MAATS Innovation Awards, MasterLock PulseCode 2

Cabin & deck gear

MAATS Innovation Awards, MasterLock PulseCode

MasterLock_PulseCode_cPanbo.jpg

Not surprisingly, there were fewer than normal applications for this
year’s MAATS Innovation Awards, but we judges were pleased to find some
strong entries, and selected a winner in every category (though we’re free not to, and often don’t).  Also not surprising were the wins for Navionics Mobile 2.0 in Electronics and Revere/McMurdo’s FastFind 210 PLB in Safety.  But I knew nothing of Master Lock’s PulseCode access management system, and was impressed…