Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Yearly Archive: 2024

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Press Releases / Fishing & Sonar

Raymarine Adds Powerful New Fishing Features to Axiom Chartplotter Displays

Raymarine – global leader in high-performance marine electronics for the recreational boating, marine first-responder and law-enforcement markets – announced today powerful new fishing features added to Axiom displays. With the August release of the Lighthouse 4.7 software upgrade, Axiom users can experience total boat control, directly from their chartplotter display, of both Power-Pole Shallow Water Anchors and all MOVE Brushless trolling motor models, including…

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Network & control / Navigation / Electrical & Engines

Dometic all electric steering, four years later and now with autopilot

It’s now been four years since I installed Dometic’s all electric steering system (AES) on Panbo(at). When I wrote my initial review of the system, I bragged that after sixty hours on the boat the system worked perfectly and without incident. Allow me to add a zero to my brag. After six hundred trouble free hours I’m back with an update on the system, a new auto pilot, and information on additional all electric systems for more boat types.

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Network & control / The future

Starlink Mini is available, but with limited data options

We’ve been hearing about Starlink’s Mini terminal for a long time now. Recently, hints from regulatory filings, new documents on their website, preparation for the new terminal in the app, and even a Tweet from Elon Musk made it seem the introduction was imminent. This week, Starlink made links on the website live and started sending emails to some long time subscribers offering an opportunity to purchase the new terminal. Now we have the opportunity to see if the Mini answers some of boater’s gripes with the current hardware.

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Sailing & Racing / Navigation / Weather / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Calypso Instruments Ultrasonic NMEA 2000 wind meter, plug and play wind

Wind sensors serve multiple purposes on a boat. For a sailor, they provide critical information to best harness the wind. For a power boater, they provide insight into conditions and a potential preview of close quarters manuevering. Regardless of the application, a simple, reliable, accurate, and easy to use wind instrument is something many boaters value. Does the Calypos Ultrasonic NMEA 2000 Wind Sensor deliver? Let’s take a look.

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LiFePO4 / Editors' Blog / Electrical & Engines

Charging LiFePO4, what’s the impact of lower voltages?

What voltage should I charge my LiFePO4 batteries? That seems like a simple question likely to have a single, direct answer. But, the actual answers are often unclear. Many LiFePO4 battery manufacturers recommend 14.6 volt absorption. But, that singular recommendation doesn’t account for numerous factors like managing a larger system, battery longevity, and more. Increasingly, we are seeing good reasons to lower charge voltages to 14 volts or below. But, what impact does that lower charge voltage have on capacity and charge time? Let’s take a look.

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Getting Technical / Editors' Blog / Network & control / The future / The Trade

Getting Technical: Standard upgrade

NMEA OneNet is the National Marine Electronics Association’s most recent standard, one of only three major electronics standards the organization has released in the past 40-plus years. First came NMEA 0183 in 1983, then NMEA 2000 in 2001, and now OneNet. The previous standards stood the test of time. In fact, despite being 41 years old, NMEA 0183 continues to be built into many electronics and remains the preferred standard for many light commercial vessels.

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Press Releases / Electrical & Engines / Green Boating / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Raymarine Collaborates With ePropulsion For Industry-First Integration of Electric Motors With Axiom Chartplotters

Raymarine — global leader in high-performance marine electronics for the recreational boating, marine first responder and law-enforcement market — recently announced that it has joined forces with ePropulsion, the global leader in marine electric propulsion systems and services. Through this revolutionary collaboration, boaters now can display engine data from their ePropulsion electric motors directly on Axiom displays, without the need for additional gateways or add-on interface boxes…

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Network & control / Communications / The future

Starlink spring 2024, making sense of continued changes

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted a Starlink update. Frankly, that’s because things have (mostly) been humming along pretty well with a relative minimum of changes. While there have been developments, including new hardware, none of them called to me for an update. Until last week. That’s when subscribers to Starlink’s Mobility – Global package received an email notifying them their monthly charges would double. So, now seems like a good time to dive back in and take a look at the state of affairs at SpaceX and Starlink.

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Press Releases / Navigation / Entertainment

Raymarine Update Adds Navigation, Entertainment and Avikus NeuBoat Docking Features

Raymarine – global leader in high-performance marine electronics for the recreational boating, marine first-responder and law-enforcement markets – recently announced new features and capabilities for Axiom and Alpha displays with the release of Lighthouse 4.6 and Alpha 2.0 software updates. This Axiom release includes a much-anticipated integration with the Avikus NeuBoat Dock system, which consists of an innovative six-camera solution, based on…