The Marine Electronics Hub
Yesterday Gizmo became the rare vessel equipped with four different solid-state Doppler radars. With the Simrad Halo24 announced in October, and the Raymarine Quantum 2 last February, all four major brands now offer this valuable technology. And while the timing isn’t ideal, I’m excited about adding the two new radomes to the Garmin Fantom 24 and Furuno DRS4D-NXT Doppler models already being tested…
In late September Amazon announced a slew of new hardware in time for the holiday season. Included was the Fire TV Recast, a clever network-based TV tuner and DVR (digital video recorder). The Recast announcement immediately piqued my interest for use on a boat. Could this be an easy and cost-effective way to record over-the-air TV on, or for, the boat? I bought one to find out and so far I’m cautiously optimistic.
While the functionality of multifunction marine displays has obviously been moving rapidly beyond navigation to include most any boat system that has (or can have) a digital interface, the pace is actually quickening. In fact, I’m pretty sure that next year we’ll finally see boats nearly as easy and pleasurable to use as a modern automobile, or least showing off significantly greater system integration. This entry covers a hodgepodge of integration developments I’m aware of, but be forewarned that I often have more questions than answers…
Garmin is bringing lots of good news to the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show (FLIBS) tomorrow. The powerful operating system behind their premium GPSMap 8600 Series 17-, 22-, and 24-inch MFDs is coming to more affordable 10-, 12-, and 16-inch displays; new BlueChart g3 cartography with Navionics data integration and Auto Guidance will be preloaded in the new plotters; the inReach Mini satellite messenger will get integration with many Garmin MFDs; and…
A timely first point I’d like to make is that this ClearCruise feature is not the same as the new ClearCruise Augmented Reality that Ben Stein just wrote about. While both features are exclusive to certain Raymarine MFDs, they work with different types of cameras in different ways. I think that both technologies are valuable and I strongly suspect that they will evolve together as Ray and Flir clearly blaze trail in advanced navigation imaging…
I spent the last four days judging the Innovation Awards and then attending IBEX, the International Boat Builders’ Exposition. We awarded Raymarine’s ClearCruise AR (augmented reality) technology (press release) the award for the OEM electronics category, and I have to say I’m pretty excited by this technology.
One reason I like ultrasonic wind sensors is the absence of vanes, cups or any other moving parts that might get damaged by roosting birds, loose lines or clumsy humans. So how about one that can also sense Heading, Air Temperature, Pitch and Roll; that is especially sleek and compact; and that comes in three models able to deliver the data over Bluetooth, NMEA 0183, and/or WiFi?…
While the Connect all-in-one WiFi and cellular get-online system — with the cell service included — is Winegard’s first entry into the marine internet market, they’ve been at it in the RV world for quite some time and the rock-solid RF performance is pretty impressive even if the interface seemed rather bare-bones to me.
For almost a year I hardly used this little control and monitoring panel because the attached EFOY fuel cell was already flawlessly performing its duty: If engine alternator, solar panels, and/or shore power were not keeping Gizmo’s main battery bank at the voltage parameters I’d configured, the EFOY automatically and quietly charged the bank for a variable period also configured. While the amp hours are expensive, I’m convinced that an EFOY Comfort could be a very pleasing addition to many cruising sailboats and trawlers…
Not long ago while talking to another boater he mentioned something about finding another boater on Nebo. I was curious so I grabbed my phone and searched the app store and what I found was pretty impressive… think one part Marine Traffic and one part social network.
Maretron and Raymarine announce strategic collaboration to integrate MConnect and Raymarine Axiom displays
New Sirius 12 gyrostabilized binoculars from Koden combine rock steady vision with great value for fishermen and boaters
Arco Zeus Bluetooth alternator regulator now available with Victron DVCC Integration
