Monthly Archive: March 2012
Another area of boating that may benefit from ever smaller and cheaper wireless computing components is video cameras used for monitoring and just plain fun. It may seem crazy to put a baby product on Panbo but not when you check out the specs of the Withing Smart Baby Monitor. That’s a remotely controlled hi-res pan/tilt/zoom camera in that ipodish box seen above and it can connect to multiple iThing viewer/controllers via Bluetooth, local WiFi, or the Internet. It also has stereo microphones and a temperature/humidity sensor, and it can detect motion and noise anomolies. And if any of these multiple remote monitoring features lead you to think that your boat is unhappy, you can transmit a little sweet talk or play it a lullaby!…
A few weeks ago I added a comment to an entry about Chetco and DMK Ethernet/WiFi NMEA 2000 gateways that caused some anxiety in the developer community. I reported that “NMEA has essentially served Chetco with a Cease & Desist order regarding its various SeaSmart ‘NMEA 2000 compatible’ products” and added my opinion that NMEA had a valid case. I’m pleased to report that Chetco has already acted on some of NMEA’s demands and it seems likely that their N2K gateways will be certified in due time. And I’m hoping that this entry will clear the air about what happened and why all manufacturers — and consumers — should respect the NMEA 2000 certification process…or at least frame the debate…
I hear that trying to use the Inmarsat iSatphone Pro’s low-speed but high-latency data connection can be extremely frustrating, as we partially anticipated when it became possible last winter. Meanwhile, the folks who’ve invested in broadband satellite connections tend worry a lot about extraneous programs that eat expensive megabytes. And regardless of their satcom speeds most everyone these days wants the freedom to use it with any of their computing devices. Well, it looks like Global Marine Network’s new RedPort wXa-102 WiFi router/firewall may be an elegant solution to all these issues…
