Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Panbo News and Reviews

SRT’s 2011 OEM AIS products, a boat load 7

AIS / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

SRT’s 2011 OEM AIS products, a boat load

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The AIS Summit began today in Hamburg, Germany, and SRT took the occasion to announce a boat load of newly available OEM AIS modules. Of course that means that other companies have to brand and sell the gear above — or build their own devices based the same internal technology — but I have reason to believe that in at least one interesting case that will happen soon, and, in fact, several of the items above seem like they will be interesting products eventually…

MTA: Where we buy marine electronics 9

The Trade

MTA: Where we buy marine electronics

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The MTA 2011 Survey is still underway. In fact, we could really use more responses. Yes, we’re running it a bit later this year, and boating season has begun for many, but remember the goal of helping marine electronics manufacturers and distributors to better understand what we want and how we buy stuff. Your response, for instance, might help to confirm or modify the following MTA analysis of which sources are on the rise, and which aren’t…

Garmin GDL 40 cellular weather, hand’s-on #1 10

Weather / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Garmin GDL 40 cellular weather, hand’s-on #1

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An energetic but somewhat chaotic frontal system passed over Maine last Thursday afternoon but I was able to keep on boating largely thanks to Garmin’s new GDL 40 cellular weather system, which I’m getting to test somewhat ahead of the shipping date. The severe thunderstorm warning that headlined most of the NOAA coastal forecasts might have kept some people off the water. (The forecast areas greyed out on the screen above all have some sort of warning, as shown in the inset, as well as the full text, which can be called up.)  But the animated Nexrad precipitation radar, along with lightning strike data, indicated that that my bit of Bay was going to enjoy a frontal hole…

Marvin Creamer, still sailing at 95! 4

What's on board...

Marvin Creamer, still sailing at 95!

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I just had a fabulous two days exploring nature preserves on Isleboro Island while also fooling with Gizmo’s half installed electronics suite and generally enjoying a solo cruise. A SPOT track of yesterday’s ‘voyage’ can be seen here, a few electronics entries will ensue, and eventually so will another MBHH Adventures on the Coast of Maine. But the topper was getting a call from my old friend Joe McCarty about the very interesting sailor above, who is right now en route to Bermuda in a 36-foot sloop at the age of 95!…

DeLorme inReach, the Iridium 9602 almost surfaces 9

Wireless & Apps / Safety & SAR

DeLorme inReach, the Iridium 9602 almost surfaces

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Impatient me was beginning to wonder if the intriguing Iridium 9602 short burst data modem would ever materialize into a useful product. The Cerberus communicator and service I discussed in January is supposed “to arrive” for real in 7 days, but it’s gotten zero marketing so far, and I haven’t heard about any other 9602-based devices that might seriously appeal to boaters until yesterday. And, in fact, even the DeLorme inReach isn’t scheduled to ship until Fall. But it certainly looks neat…

Impedance-driven NMEA 2000, & SimNet gets a “Noise Filter” 29

NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Impedance-driven NMEA 2000, & SimNet gets a “Noise Filter”

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Maretron’s Rich Gauer has repeatedly tried to explain to me how NMEA 2000 is an impedance-driven networking technique and that’s why it’s so important that the cabling have the right electrical characteristics with the proper termination. He can get quite passionate about the subject, almost poetically describing clean waves of N2K data bits getting distorted by reflections to the point that microprocessors along the backbone can’t recognize them anymore. But then again Rich is an electrical engineer and Maretron may well have more troubleshooting experience than any other company with the large N2K networks where impedance problems tend to show up. Installs or other manufacturer’s gear that cause trouble because the impedance rules aren’t abided to gets him upset! However, a guy like me is way better at visualizing the dynamics of a hull passing through ocean waves, and I couldn’t begin to fathom the “Transmission Lines, Reflections, and Termination” PDF Rich once linked me to. Which is why I am especially taken with the graphic N2K analysis (above) that our friend Kees Verruijt posted on his Yacht Electronics blog…

The Geonav writers event, part 2 at last! 5

Navigation

The Geonav writers event, part 2 at last!

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In January I wrote about the impressive business story behind Geonav, but I neglected to follow up on the products I saw demoed in Florida. It’s true I was disappointed that the GIS Series and MID 110 weren’t ready to show yet, but it was interesting to see the G11 MFD and the GSC 110 autopilot above in action. Note, for instance, the Jeppesen C-Map 4D cartography on that screen above, NOAA raster layer included. I’ve waited a long time to see 4D on the water and my first impression was quite positive. Following are more images and impressions…

Boat Monitor, anchor watch in the cloud 16

Wireless & Apps / Navigation

Boat Monitor, anchor watch in the cloud

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It’s obviously not practical to anchor in Camden’s Inner Harbor — especially as there are often two Gizmo-size boats on each of those floats — but it was a good first taste of Boat Monitor, a very interesting new remote anchor watch system. What’s happening here is that I used Gizmo’s low-power Datalux police car computer (seen in yesterday’s entry, and also here) to log onto Boat Monitor’s web site and establish a sophisticated anchor watch keyed to a Garmin 17x GPS connected via NMEA 2000. Boat Monitor’s server then started minding Gizmo’s position, ready to serve it elsewhere and/or send alarms as needed. One possibility is this $5 app on my Android phone, but there are others. The details and flexibility are impressive…

iPad GRIB viewers, Weather4D & WeatherTrack 68

Wireless & Apps / Weather

iPad GRIB viewers, Weather4D & WeatherTrack

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When I wrote about Garmin’s new GDL 40 cellular weather system recently, the comments reminded me about how many different ways there are to access data and forecasts (and how opinionated some folks are about the methods they favor).  So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when two apps that both specialize in downloading and displaying GRIB weather model data on iPads or their smaller siblings, take quite different approaches to the task…