Panbo

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Panbo News and Reviews

Coastal Marine WiFi, a winner! 58

Wireless & Apps / Network & control / Communications

Coastal Marine WiFi, a winner!

Coastal_Marine_WiFi_hardware_cPanbo.jpgSince early May I’ve used the Coastal Marine WiFi kit with all sorts of onboard WiFi devices and all sorts of Internet hotspots, and I’m very impressed with its smart design and easy, reliable performance. Yes, the overall system architecture is quite similar to several other good boat WiFi “booster” solutions like the various Wave Rogue and Bitstorm Xtreme kits, but there’s a lot of nuance to making these systems easy to install and operate. And whereas many boaters are still understandably confused about the WiFi booster/router combo that’s so unlike what they use at home or office, I’m going to dig deep into how the CMW goes together and what it can do…

Coastal Explorer PC charting revisited, with love to WPx 26

Navigation / PC & peripheral

Coastal Explorer PC charting revisited, with love to WPx

Coastal_Explorer_DR_mode_w_route_n_WPx.jpgThe last days of Gizmo’s trip north were a difficult dance of wanting to get home quickly versus not wanting to suffer the consequences of a relatively small power boat in biggish winds and seas. I’m still recovering. But it’s a good time to detail the Coastal Explorer planning tools that surely helped me make the best of the situation, and particularly the brilliant yet rare feature known as “WPx”…

The paper chart, still the best? 8

Charts

The paper chart, still the best?

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It’s true that I don’t navigate on paper charts anymore, but I appreciate them and use their electronic equivalent more than ever. One reason is what I learned last January while preparing for a TrawlerFest seminar called “Soup to Nuts Navigation” (which I’m reformulating right now for the new Cruising Boat Expo here in Essex, CT). The other is having just run up from North Carolina — including the entire New Jersey ICW, which can’t fit much more boat than Gizmo — with just about every chart type and brand in view. I think we would have had more trouble than we did because my mate and I learned navigation starting with paper charts and we referenced the equivalent heavily…

Testing Lithium Ion engine jumpers (plus), from Weego and Cyntur 32

Cabin & deck gear

Testing Lithium Ion engine jumpers (plus), from Weego and Cyntur

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Most boaters will not experience the benefits of a Lithium Ion main battery bank any time soon, but nearly instant gratification is possible with a portable Li Ion charger pack, some of which can even jump start a small diesel engine. Brands and models are proliferating like fruit flies, but I’m particularly keen on the WeeGo Jump Starter Pro above, which I’ve been testing for a couple of months. It is a veritable Swiss Army knife of an on- or offboard power source…

Volvo Ocean 65, powered by Mastervolt Li Ion 13

Electrical & Engines

Volvo Ocean 65, powered by Mastervolt Li Ion

VOR_65_power_overview_courtesy_VOR_Roman_aPanbo.jpgI’m happy as an oyster slow cruising Chesapeake Bay with my favorite first mate, but if I had a teleporter I surely would have jumped on an invitation to check out a Volvo Ocean 65’s systems in Newport yesterday. I doubt I would have encountered a scene as tidy as the photo above — which looks forward in the main cabin of Dongfeng with most of the engine, power, battery, and keel ram covers removed, as well as the pedestal galley — but then again all that technology has now zig-zagged almost around the planet in often demanding conditions. There’s a lot of gear on these one-design racers that has performed impressively, as best I know, but I’m particularly taken with the Mastervolt Lithium Ion battery system…

NMEA okays Signal K, a milestone in marine electronics? 33

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

NMEA okays Signal K, a milestone in marine electronics?

NMEA_recognizes_Signal_K_aPanbo.jpgWow! Today the National Marine Electronics Association — also known as NMEA, or IMEA for its International reincarnation — announced recognition of the Signal K open source marine data project. It’s clearly not an endorsement, but it does provide clear methods to gateway NMEA 2000 boat data to the Internet-friendly universal marine data model that the Signal K is about. And that’s plenty good enough, I think. In fact, as the title above wonders, this may turn out to be a very big deal. I also think it marks a nice evolution for NMEA. Though criticism of this trade and standards organization from outside the small world of hardcore marine electronics has largely been unfair, NMEA could do better fitting into the much bigger and faster-moving data/app universe, and now they’re trying harder…

How Simrad Halo works, 12 radars in one! 11

Navigation / The future

How Simrad Halo works, 12 radars in one!

Simrad_Halo_future_is_now_aPanbo.jpgPanbo’s first entry about Simrad’s unique solid-state open-array Halo radar tried to cover the promised features. Now I’ll try to explain how it works, with the huge benefit of slides made available to me by Navico engineer Don Korte, who I first met when Broadband (3G/4G) radar was introduced in 2009. I’m starting with the image above because that’s not just Navico marketing; it would be hard to overstate Don’s enthusiasm for Halo as he led me through the presentation. It was a teleconference but I’m pretty sure he was jumping up and down as I slowly got some of the concepts and he answered my smarter questions with a hearty “YES!”…

Simrad Halo solid-state open-array radar, what you get 14

Navigation / Safety & SAR / The future

Simrad Halo solid-state open-array radar, what you get

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This is big. Today Simrad announced the first recreational solid-state open-array radar and it seems to be a humdinger. In January I got to see Halo in action aboard the same Yellowfin 36 seen above in a screen grab of Simrad’s informative Halo video, and I’ve also met twice with members of the engineering team. In fact, there are so many features with so much complex technology behind them that this entry will only attempt to cover what Halo hopes to do for you; next week we’ll get into how it works. And yes, this radar does include blue LED accent lighting, if you want it, but that’s just the bling…

Teak Isle, Boat Outfitters, and Qi wireless phone charging 3

Wireless & Apps / Cabin & deck gear / Good Gear (non electronic)

Teak Isle, Boat Outfitters, and Qi wireless phone charging

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Yes, you can have wireless phone and tablet charging built into your boat right now. What’s more, the Qi wireless charging standard that’s powering the demo above is picking up support at a rapid rate, and the company building it into boat cabinetry is top drawer (so to speak). In fact, you should know about Teak Isle and its DIY retail outlet Boat Outfitters even if you don’t give a hoot about induction charging…

Raymarine eS Series, long live the glass bridge 15

Navigation

Raymarine eS Series, long live the glass bridge

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On Monday Flir unveiled Raymarine’s eS Series, and shortly thereafter, extensive detail on the new 7-, 9-, and 12-inch multifunction displays went online. A cynic might say that the eS Series is simply a refresh of the existing eSeries with its similar HybridTouch mix of keypad and touchscreen controls. But that would ignore multiple hardware improvements plus the amazing evolution of Ray’s Lighthouse II operating software since the lower-case “e” MFDs entered the market in 2011. For instance, click the photo above bigger to better see the full support for Navionics, C-Map, and LightHouse cartography (discussed here recently). Also, not to be ignored is the glass bridge style, which makes sense in all its ramifications and is very much here to stay, I think…