Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Category: Wireless & Apps

25

Wireless & Apps / Charts / The Trade

ActiveCaptain: Data delivery changing, but free access assured

Within minutes of announcing Garmin’s acquisuition of ActiveCaptain in May 2017 commenters here and elsewhere immediately began to worry about its future. On Wednesday evening, the Polar Navy announcement above poured fuel on that fire, suggesting that the many non-Garmin charting apps and MFDs which display ActiveCaptain cruising information would lose access to the database this May. But that quote is not the whole story by a long shot. Actually, Garmin is emphatic that AC data will remain freely available to developers and users…

Raymarine MFD apps three ways: from drone control to sat comms to video streaming 14

Wireless & Apps / Network & control / Entertainment / The future

Raymarine MFD apps three ways: from drone control to sat comms to video streaming

Raymarine_Axiom_drone_demo_Miami_aPanbo.jpg

MIBS 2018 saw the manufacturers putting the multi in MFD, with Garmin and Raymarine each introducing multiple new multifunction app and app-like display integrations interfacing to all sorts of third party boat systems, plus consumer electronics gadgets and online services — actually every single brand seen below, with lots more likely coming. The results are exciting, but what the heck are MFD apps? Fortunately, Raymarine is illustrating all three ways they can be created and why it’s useful to know how it’s done…

New in safety: Exposure OLAS Float-On, Vesper smartAIS deckWatch, and Digital Yacht Nomad portable AIS 14

Wireless & Apps / Safety & SAR / AIS

New in safety: Exposure OLAS Float-On, Vesper smartAIS deckWatch, and Digital Yacht Nomad portable AIS

Exposure_OLAS_Float-On_aPanbo.jpgThe Exposure OLAS Float-On is one hell of a flashlight (or “torch” in Brit speak). That’s because it’s also an automatic water-activated MOB strobe light and a Bluetooth MOB alerting device that can network with smartphone apps and more familiarly styled MOB tags. Details follow, along with several other interesting new safety products that also got the attention of the DAME Award judges at METS…

Garmin & Navionics part 2, a close look at ActiveCaptain the app 44

Wireless & Apps / Navigation / The Trade

Garmin & Navionics part 2, a close look at ActiveCaptain the app

Garmin_ActiveCaptain_app_notifications_Navionics_cPanbo.jpgIt’s odd that I was writing about the Navionics Boating app’s excellence at MFD integration when Garmin purchased the company and downright weird that the acquisition news arrived via a beta version of the brand new Garmin ActiveCaptain app that takes MFD integration to some other excellent places. For instance, have you ever seen phone notifications pop up on your helm screen while you’re underway (if you choose)? The two apps are good news for lots of boaters as they are right now, but what fun to think of all their key features made into one…

Navionics & Garmin part 1, long live Plotter Sync 14

Wireless & Apps / Navigation

Navionics & Garmin part 1, long live Plotter Sync

Navionics_Plotter_Sync_improved_cPanbo.jpgDid my planned back-to-back reviews of evolving Navionics and Garmin apps suddenly become moot when the Garmin acquired Navionics on Friday? I don’t think so! The terrific Plotter Sync integration I’ve been experiencing between the Navionics Boating app and multifunction displays from Simrad and Raymarine is not likely to go away anytime soon, if ever, and it may add significantly to your current navigation happiness. Moreover, many Garmin owners are about to receive a wonderful app gift, and while the different advances are not such a competition now, together they suggest the broad harmony between phones, tablets, PCs and MFDs many of us will eventually experience on our boats…

Beta testing FloatHub boat monitoring, and the wonders of marine WiFi 12

Wireless & Apps / Monitoring & Tracking

Beta testing FloatHub boat monitoring, and the wonders of marine WiFi

FloatHub_yellow_box_beta_testing_on_Gizmo_cPanbo.jpg

I don’t usually write about beta testing, but the FloatHub monitoring system is already proving itself so smart and functional that I want its Kickstarter campaign to succeed and hope that some readers enjoy the good deal that seems available, at least for the next few days. Detailing FloatHub is also a good opportunity to discuss the many ways WiFi is being used afloat these days, a subject that many boaters are understandably confused about…

NMEA to WiFi gateways: TeamSurv’s & FloatHub 14

Wireless & Apps / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

NMEA to WiFi gateways: TeamSurv’s & FloatHub

TeamSurv_NMEA_Tools_NMEA0183-WiFi_bridge_collage_cPanbo.jpgWhen it rains, it pours (particularly at Panbo HQ this “spring”). NMEA-to-WiFi bridges are quite useful — mainly for getting basic boat data like depth, GPS, and wind into the wonderful world of marine mobile apps — and there have been numerous choices for a while. But yesterday TeamSurv started offering an interesting and notably inexpensive new bridge on KickStarter, and the intriguing FloatHub bridge and monitoring system will join it there soon…

News+: Victron Venus, CruzPro SOG2, DY WindSense, Vaavud Ultrasonic, & Panbo “News+” 3

Wireless & Apps / Electrical & Engines / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K / Monitoring & Tracking

News+: Victron Venus, CruzPro SOG2, DY WindSense, Vaavud Ultrasonic, & Panbo “News+”

Victron_Venus_GX_aPanbo.jpg

Victron’s new Venus GX is a dauntingly complicated looking blue box, but it could beautifully simplify and improve the monitoring and control of a boat’s electrical power system. Essentially, Venus is a Color Control GX without the screen, which makes it less expensive, and it also has extra goodies like 3 tank level and 2 temperature inputs, built-in WiFi, and yet more I/O that hasn’t been enabled yet. The Color Control has evolved (and been used) a lot since I wrote about it in 2014, and Venus can do more…

SkyMate Mazu/mSeries all-in-one Iridium sat comms & Si-Tex NavStar Android MFD 5

Wireless & Apps / Navigation / Communications / Weather

SkyMate Mazu/mSeries all-in-one Iridium sat comms & Si-Tex NavStar Android MFD

SkyMate_Mazu_and_mSeries_intro_MIBS2017_cPanbo.jpgIt was good to see SkyMate return to the Miami Boat Show after years focused on commercial fishing, and the company clearly has not lost its touch at squeezing lots of easy utility out of skinny-band satellite communications. Its new Mazu/mSeries marine system promises surprisingly full-featured weather and email using Iridium’s least expensive service, plus texting, SOS, navigation and (optional) off-boat monitoring. And, just around the corner in the Si-Tex booth, I saw a very interesting Android-based touchscreen NavStar MFD nicely interfacing with SkyMate’s existing communications system…

Navico Hawks 2017: “Full boat integration into one display cluster” 21

Wireless & Apps / Cabin & deck gear / Network & control / Electrical & Engines / The future / Weather / Monitoring & Tracking

Navico Hawks 2017: “Full boat integration into one display cluster”

Navico_integration_update_2017_Leif_Ottosson.jpg

The Miami Boat Show was loaded with marine electronics news, but first let’s visit the Navico writers event held at Hawks Cay, Florida, earlier this month. Deeper still – Mercury engine integration, B&G Zeus PredictWind weather routing, the Halo radar VelocityTrack Doppler upgrade, Navionics SonarChart Live everywhere, Simrad’s new 3kW 3-channel S5100 super sonar, and Lowrance Carbon (Gen3) MFDs are some of the goodies that were demonstrated and/or discussed. But I was especially taken with CEO Leif Ottosson’s opening “big picture” presentation and think it’s valuable to anyone interested in the future of boating…