Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Category: The future

Panbo at AC34, photo tweeting 10

What's on board... / AIS / The future

Panbo at AC34, photo tweeting

Panbo_at_AC34.jpgBest ticket ever?  I’m so excited about getting slightly behind the Americas Cup 34 scene — and out on San Francisco Bay for races 6 and 7! — that I’m dreaming up things might go wrong. Could there be too much wind to race?  In race 4 both boats averaged 31 knots — with bursts to 45 — in winds that averaged 19 with peak gusts at 23. Obviously things can really wrong when a catamaran is going that fast while delicately balanced on relatively tiny lifting foils. Or might Oracle Team USA find some way to delay further as crew and/or boat changes are hotly rumored?…

GPS spoofing, will we ever learn? 32

Navigation / The future

GPS spoofing, will we ever learn?

GPS_spoofing_superyacht_courtesty_University_of_Texas_Austin.jpgHat’s off to Professor Todd Humphreys and his grad students for not only demonstrating that GPS spoofing is possible but for doing so in such a dramatic fashion that they got the whole media world chattering about it.  For instance, Fox News led their story with “The world’s GPS system is vulnerable to hackers or terrorists who could use it to hijack ships — even commercial airliners, according to a frightening new study that exposes a huge potential hole in national security.”  While I think that’s an overheated conclusion, I suspect that we may need a even greater scare to finally build out a secondary form of civilian electronic position fixing…

My Pebble, more PAN in Panbo 26

Wireless & Apps / The future

My Pebble, more PAN in Panbo

Pepple_watch_update_n_faces_cPanbo.jpg

I’ve been waiting so long that disappointment loomed large. It was mid-April last year when I became a Kickstarter ‘backer’ in the Pebble E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android, which really just meant that I might get a good deal by buying one upfront for delivery the following September. But I wasn’t the only geek who thought they’d sniffed out a bargain. Though Pebble’s Kickstarter goal was only $100,000, almost 69,000 backers sent them over 10 million dollars! Which was neat in the sense that the Pebble people could then make the watch waterproof and add other features, but not so great in that suddenly they had a LOT of watches to build, which took much longer than ‘estimated’. However, I’ve been smiling about Pebble ever since I opened my mailbox last week and found the box with “It’s Time” printed on it in large, ironic type…

Navico’s numbers, should you care? 20

The future / The Trade

Navico’s numbers, should you care?

Navico_claimed_2012_market_share_growth.jpg

As a privately held corporation Navico doesn’t have to reveal anything about its financial state, but last week it issued a proud press release claiming a dramatic 15% sales increase in 2012, which resulted in revenues of 256 million dollars and EBITDA earnings of 41.4 million. And at the Las Palmas B&G event, the mother company added some claims about what their numbers meant versus the competition, as seen in the slide above. Is Navico painting a fair picture of where the recreational marine electronics market is at? Does it matter to consumers anyway?

Maretron IPG100, the missing link, sort of? 29

Wireless & Apps / PC & peripheral / The future / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Maretron IPG100, the missing link, sort of?

Maretron_IPG100.JPG

Wow, Maretron just released the IPG100, an “Internet Protocol Gateway” that can take all the NMEA 2000 PGNs on a backbone, turn them into TCP/IP data packets, and serve them out an Ethernet port.  Which means of course that the data can then be routed by cable to a vessel’s local network of computers (and other fixed Ethernet gear) and by WiFi to an infinite assortment of onboard mobile tablets, apps phones, etc.  Obvious too is that an IP gateway could also be adept at sending data off a vessel, and vice versa, for remote monitoring, troubleshooting, and more.  And Maretron’s IPG100 consumes only 0.5 amps of N2K backbone power at most and its $595 price tag includes much more than I’ve already described.  Or much less, depending on your point of view!…

Digital Yacht BOATraNET, something truly different? 14

Wireless & Apps / The future

Digital Yacht BOATraNET, something truly different?

Digital_Yacht_Boatranet.JPG

Interesting!  Digital Yacht’s BOATraNET — just being introduced at the London Boat Show — is a low-amperage 12v Linux server designed expressly to deliver all sorts of NMEA 0183 and/or 2000 boat data, plus centrally stored info and media, via WiFi to whatever assemblage of smart phones, tablets, and PCs are on board your boat.  And you won’t need a special app but rather just a new generation browser running HTML 5.  You can also connect a high power WiFi transceiver to BOATraNET so that all your devices can get online via the boat’s own hot spot when you’re in port.  Can anyone argue with Digital Yacht’s characterization of this concept as “revolutionary”?… 

Gizmo 2010-2011, Happy New Year! 23

Navigation / The future

Gizmo 2010-2011, Happy New Year!

Gizmo_fall_1010_cPanbo.JPG

I was happy to do some late season cruising and electronics testing on Gizmo this year, and am also happy that she’s snuggled high and dry under shrink wrap now that winter — including at least a foot of the white stuff — is really here.  But something I’m really excited about in 2011 is my plan to take the boat south next Fall.  Oh, I don’t intend to stop working; in fact, if the manufacturers continue to cooperate with what may be the industry’s longest testing program,  Gizmo’s flying bridge will look fairly similar to what I put together this season. (Which, come to think of it, I haven’t shown off until now; click above for a bigger image, and be assured that I have hundreds of screen shots yet to sort through and write about.)  A long gunkholing, blogging, and boat-show-ing circuit to, say, Charleston and back is sure motivating me, though…

ARGUS, harvesting depth data the ambitious way! 21

Fishing & Sonar / The future

ARGUS, harvesting depth data the ambitious way!

ARGUS_idea.JPG

The concept is pretty sensational:  The ARGUS (Autonomous Remote Global Underwater Surveillance) system would equip volunteer vessels with a custom WiFi transceiver that are connected to the nav system for GPS and depth, and that can automatically upload (when possible) the resulting data files to a shore server where it’s collated and quality controlled before being turned over to NOAA so it can better manage its dredging and charting responsibilities.  If it all works out as hoped, the volunteers might even get the equipment for free and be able to use the WiFi connects for their own Internet needs…