The Marine Electronics Hub
Hurricane Sandy may make this year’s Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) especially exciting! And whereas I’ve got better hardware for tweeting photos and words, I’m going to try that reporting method again. It may take a while to relearn the software tools but one my first visits will be the Raymarine booth where they are debuting a major Lighthouse 5 update to the e- and c-Series MFDs plus I’ll get to touch the a-Series for the first time.
Ben Ellison
Panbo editor, publisher & chief bottlewasher from 4/2005 until 8/2018, and now pleased to have Ben Stein as a very able publisher, webmaster, and editing colleague. Please don't regard him as an "expert"; he's getting quite old and thinks that "fadiddling fumble-putz" is a more accurate description.
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Here is a screen shot of iNavX showing AIS targets in the Ft. Lauderdale area. The AIS targets are provided by SiiTech.net AIS server. No problem processing or plotting the targets. New full screen mode coming to iNavX 3.1.8..
http://inavx.com/images/compare/SiiTechAISFL.png
“No iThing AIS apps seem to cover Lauderdale. Siitech does but tough on iPad Safari http://j.mp/cfBUcu http://yfrog.com/j4emwhj“
Well there is ONE AIS app that has free, pro grade coverage of Lauderdale… only it’s not your favorite one Ben 😉
iBoatshow claims to have World Wide coverage. I found only Genoa, METS and Rome from the near future in Europe… 🙁 Un-installing…
Have fun in FLIBS!
/Chris
John, I don’t see Ft Lauderdale AIS targets in GTrax, just a few in Miami. Am I missing something?
Rich, how come iNavX is only showing a fraction of the targets I see on Siitech?
The SiiTech AIS server (used by iNavX) shows targets within a 30NM radius of the iPad/iPhone location. You can select the “Instruments” tab in iNavX and see the field “TCT:” to see the Target count. Right now at ~1100 I am seeing 200+ targets. This is after letting iNavX run for about 15 minutes.
Ben –
Thanks for doing the Tweets! It’s been great being able to follow you and get frequent updates from the show. PLEASE keep them going at various events (or any other time).
By the way – regarding your comment about “Who says Garmin touchscreens don’t work OK on fast offshore rides…”, just because they are installed doesn’t mean they’re effective. I can’t comment on offshore powerboats, but having been in some pretty rough seas on our sailboat (12′-15′ seas and 45kt winds while rounding Cape Fear two years ago for example) I can’t imagine trying to plot a course using a touchscreen. I could barely do it with our Raymarine hard controls. I love the idea of the “new” E-series hybrid touch system. I wonder what real world users are saying about it, and what real world users are saying about using the Garmin touch in heavy conditions (since while I can’t believe they’d work well, I’d be happy to be corrected).
Chris
Chris, I have installed many Garmin touch screen units, and have used them many times in adverse conditions (rocking and rolling in power boats at over 50 kts, in heavy seas), and they are just as easy to use, if not more so than CP units with push buttons. The touch screen buttons are often larger then regular CP push buttons, and the simplified interfaces are easy to use. The new Ray hybrid touch screens are also easier to use while bouncing around also. But that being said, if you need two hands to stay in the boat, and I’ve been there, none of them will work for you unless you have done all of the planning ahead of time.
Hi Chris,
There are more shows & events outside of the U.S. 18 of the 88 listed, (19 if you include Miami – which after all is the Capital of Latin America!). Still adding shows for 2011 as info becomes avail. Hope to have our first custom boat show app soon. Don’t give up yet!
Ben, I’m feeling about two years outdated. I picked Saturday for FLIBS because I think the weather will be great, maybe…
Don’t forget, garmin has a RF wireless remote control 010-10878-00. I am considering installing a garmin 5212. I was concerned about using a touch screen in heavy seas. I am planning to install the 5212, and get the RF remote. If I have a situation where i struggle with the touch screen, I’ll switch and use the rf remote. Which should be a piece of cake in a rough sea. I haven’t actually tried this though. Would love to hear from someone that has used it. It essentially adds rubber buttons to garmin touch screen and gives you the same hybrid idea.
Amazing that Raymarine has another update for the new c/e series.
I have been bugging them about wifi and allowing the use of existing wifi networks as opposed to a dedicated mfd only network.
I am only a customer, so I so there is no reason to listen to me. If you are talking to Raymarine again Ben, Perhaps you could mention this as well?
I have asked about joining existing boat networks and while there is no hardware limitation I think Ray is concerned about customer support with the wicked variety of routers out there. This a big issue and it’s why Garmin is going to market a specially set up Ubiquity Pico Station so their network MFDs can work smoothly with the new BlueChart app.
But here’s news: Raymarine intends to issue new system software for all the new a-, c-, e-Series every three months for the forseeable future! They also say they’ll have a lot to show in Miami. I’m only guessing but maybe a g-Series?
How about the long overdue refresh of RayTech Navigator?
Having hung in there with Raymarine during some dark years of buggy software and hardware, I can support their concerns. But isn’t Lowrance’s approach better? (As I understand it, open networks are not supported, but possible.)
Not sure how hard it might be, but I am tempted to look into some sort of wifi bridge. Switching networks back and forth all the time is just not realistic/.
Testing the auth system. Ignore.
Patrick – sv Deep Playa