The Marine Electronics Hub
It may be a bit early to discuss this Scanstrut iPad case because it’s not scheduled to ship until February, but I know a lot of boaters are wondering what’s possible in this realm, and besides it goes with yesterday’s iPads-on-yachts-of-the-future entry. Plus, as noted in this Scanstrut blog, the case is “short listed” for a DAME award in two weeks. And I got Scanstrut to share some information on the optional mount that can go with it…
The Lowrance Elite press release is here and indicates that this product is a conscious colloboration between Tallon, RAM, and Lowrance. Smart! Which is also what I thought when I learned about Tallon’s Ultimate iPad Mount a few months ago. Why design and manufacture your own iPad holder when RAM has it covered? But do develop a socket system that makes the RAM gear easier to use and nicer to look at on a boat.
Incidentally, I asked Tallon about what’s on the other side of the Elite USB Socket. I was hoping for a single 12v lead that would power both the USB and lighter-style outlets, but in fact they’re separate male USB and 12v leads. So installing one of these requires a 5v USB supply, and a 2 amp one if you want to charge an iPad (mind you that most any RAM device holder will work with the socket). At any rate, I’m looking forward to seeing this gear in the flesh at IBEX next week (though I have a lot to do beforehand).
I spent a fair amount of NMEA Conference & Expo time reviewing products that are already shipping — more on that Technology Award tomorrow — but I still got a fair chance to see the new, new stuff (like the Fusion Marine Stereo wow). Check out that Green Marine Bridge Command Display System demo above, for instance, and don’t miss the video. I don’t think there’s ever been a monitor like that STAR at upper right, and I wondered how an owner or installer would set up the unusual STretched Aspect Ratio on the PC driving it. No problem: The monitor itself splits off the top third of a standard screen resolution, so that Maretron N2KView gauge display was simply set up on a regular monitor with that in mind. Slick. And of course there was much more…
Pardon the lousy show booth photography, but you’ve got to see what Fusion Audio debuted at NMEA, and it’s not fully online yet. The new MS-IP700 at upper right obviously has a color screen, but it also has both NMEA 2000 and Ethernet ports on its backside. Which means that it will be easy to install that new MS-NRX200 wired remote and it will even be able to display instrument info on its 2.7-inch monochrome screen (which is the same size as the 700 screen, because the collaged images are not to scale). And, yes, the Ethernet port is connected to a WiFi router which is being used by a Fusion app on that iPad at left to choose tunes, adjust volume levels on four possible zones, etc. But that is not all!…
My experience having Verizon-provided internet access over cellular data protocols to my cruising sailboat spans three years and five devices, the Verizon 4G LTE MiFi built by Novetel released this summer being the most current. They’ve worked well enough that I’ve never messed with a high power boat WiFi system, like Ben has, but they are not perfect…
Perhaps the main thing I learned while testing the Rogue Wave and the WireAP this summer is that I love having a private WiFi hotspot on Gizmo. The Rogue is Ethernet cabled to Land & Sea’s refurbished Netgear router and both are wired to a 12v fuse block, while of course the WireAP simply has a single 12v feed because both its high power WiFi client and access point are in that yellow waterproof case. So in either case I can step aboard, flip one switch and if the last shore hotspot used is still available then everything that can be online via Wifi — Datalux nav computer, Mac Mini, iPad, iPhone, Android Incredible, or even the Vizio TV — is online whenever it’s powered up…
“Iridium Force” — announced today with much fanfare — seems to be an entire “vision for the future of personal mobile satellite communications”, a bunch of new hard- and software products, and what may be a heck of a business strategy. You can read the press release or sign onto a whole Iridium site full of videos and more, but just the hardware tells a lot of the story. The new Iridium 9575 Extreme handset seen above is not just a highly ruggedized version of Iridium’s most recent 9555 sat phone; it includes an internal GPS, a dedicated SOS button, and it seems capable of doing most everything that devices based on Iridium’s 9602 SBD modem can do, like, say, the DeLorme inReach and the YellowBrick3 that are both due to ship soon…
I’m pretty impressed with the Garmin GTU10 I’ve been testing this summer. Inside that little IPx7 waterproof case is a sensitive GPS, a GSM cell modem, and a fairly able lithium ion battery. For $200 you get the hardware, a cute case (meant primarily for hanging on a dog collar), and a one year standard data subscription which normally costs $50. The subscription doesn’t get you much in terms of remote tracking — just the last ten points, whose spacing will vary with settings — but you do get unlimited notifications about when the GTU 10 enters and/or leaves up to 10 geofence areas that you can define at mygarmin.com, or with the free Android and iOS Garmin Tracker apps. And aren’t geofences the key to knowing that your boat or tender are where they’re supposed to be, especially when anchored?…
Months ago I heard that Navionics was planning to add boating magazine content to its mobile charting apps, but I didn’t know until the new 2.0 version came out that “my” Bonnier Marine Group was a lead participant! The implementation is pretty slick too. As long as your iPad or iPhone is online you can browse the “NewsStand” for cruising pieces relevant to your location or for articles listed by various subject categories or even ranked by reviews from fellow Navionics Mobile users. And you can download and read them two ways…
The UK company Yellowbrick has made a name for itself primarily by supplying offshore racing fleets with self-contained tracking devices based on Iridium’s original 9601 short burst data modem. But the new Yellowbrick 3 hardware announced this week is build around the smaller, less expensive, and more able 9602 modem and Yellowbrick intends to sell it as a standalone marine safety, tracking, and communications product as well as use it for fleet rentals. Yes, the Yellowbrick 3 is similar to the DeLorme inReach announced earlier this summer, but it’s got more features and flexibility, and it costs more…
