Furuno FI-50 Multi XL, a NMEA embarrassment?
Hey, maybe I can get the NMEA riled up too (though I doubt it has the posse gCaptain does). Here’s the thing: Furuno’s FI-50 line of instruments, including the neat new Multi XL above,...
Hey, maybe I can get the NMEA riled up too (though I doubt it has the posse gCaptain does). Here’s the thing: Furuno’s FI-50 line of instruments, including the neat new Multi XL above,...
As of yesterday, Furuno’s FI-50 (aka FI50) instrument family is officially available in the U.S. and Canada, and thoroughly documented at FurunoUSA. I’m a bit chagrined as I thought they’d be out much sooner, in fact chose them…
Well, it’s one thing to contemplate testing a rack of N2K instruments, and quite another thing to do it. So many factors…oy! Today’s focus is Furuno’s unusual approach to calibration…
It’s a crappy picture, but this scene, bigger here, does give some sense of what Raymarine’s new ST70 instruments look like next to the brand new Furuno FI-50 series mentioned yesterday…
Sorry for the blown out screens, but the point of this photo is Furuno USA marketing manager Dean Kurutz, who co-delivered the NavNet TZtouch2 introduction with senior product manager Eric Kunz just like they did with the original NavNet in 2001 — when I was just getting into electronics writing — and every NavNet update since. The dynamic duo have been coming to Miami with the company since well into the last century and a lot of their colleagues have similar histories. If you go Furuno you get remarkable management consistency and institutional memory, but that doesn’t mean they’re old school…
I did get to tour a couple of yachts during my Trawler Fest engagement and the one that got my attention was the Garcia GT54 hull #1, which was built in France and motored to the U.S. on her own bottom…during hurricane season! “Le Trawler” is both stylish and practical in numerous ways, and it’s also a good example of a full-on Furuno NavNet 3D system…
Furuno’s new WS200 wind/heading/GPS etc. sensor is obviously a re-branded Airmar PB200, and that’s fine; some customers want all their electronics to come from one manufacturer (and sometimes I think they’re smarter than I am ;-). But, in fact, there is one slight difference between the WS200 and the PB200 that Airmar ships today, and once you understand it, and the silliness around it, you too may laugh, cry, scream, or some combination thereof…
Just as with the nifty-looking new RD- and GP-33 color 4.3-inch displays, Furuno Japan is ahead of FurunoUSA in announcing the new NAVpilot 700 series. (Sorry, Klamath, but if it’s on the Web somewhere, some Panbot is apt to find it — thanks, Frank! — and I feel obliged to write about it ;-). Aside from the brochure downloadable at that link, the most information I’ve found so far is a press release at the Australian Furuno distributor, which discusses a “unique Fish Hunter Mode” as well how highly sailboats figure on the feature list. While I’m not sure such features are new relative to the existing NAVPilot 500 series, the use of CANbus (aka NMEA 2000, an unfortunate word game we discussed here) in the three control heads and the processor definitely is. But the brochure diagram has me scratching my chin…
Thanks to Panbo readers “arisatx” and “Recovering Racer”, commenting on one of the FI-50 instrument entries, we’ve learned that Furuno is introducing the RD-33 data display with a bright, high res 4.3-inch color display and powerful abilities at not only displaying NMEA 0183 and 2000 data but also bridging either type between sensors and other displays. There’s going to be a somewhat similar GP-33 GPS, too, and all the details look very good indeed…
Furuno USA has finally released the SC30 Satellite Compass, after putting it “through strenuous testing” and “modifying the software to meet our testing requirements.” Heck, I thought it performed phenomenally well last June. The SC30 is NMEA 2000 device, and an interesting aspect of its launch is Furuno’s excellent…