Panbo Forums, they’re here…
Hey, look at the menu bar up to the right: now there’s a Forum link, and it works! Of course there’s hardly anything there yet, and I’m still struggling with the issue of categories, but the possibilities are terrific…
For instance, someone e-mailed me this morning asking whether anyone was working on a (NOAA) charting app for Blackberries. I don’t know, but one of you might, and if you reply to his question, the answer will be available to all of us, and probably soon to someone Googling about it. The forums should also be a good place to troubleshoot an electronics issue, make suggestions to the manufacturers, or brag about an install.
The forum design will no doubt need some tweaking, and please don’t hesitate to make improvement suggestions there, or via e-mail. To start a new topic or reply to one, you will need to be authenticated…sorry, no anonymous posts. The same TypePad or OpenID that works for blog comments will do, but it’s best to use the Panbo registration. Let the games begin!
How about a category “Onboard monitoring and control”. NEMA 2000, Maretron, Krill etc.
Lee Simpson
I would like to see a categories for free & open source marine software (might be a single category). There are some really nice free pieces of software out there (Seaclear at http://www.sping.com/seaclear/ foe example), and needless to say they do not have big booths at the boat shows or full page glossy ads in the magazines 😉
This could be a great place to help people find this stuff as well as learn what works and what doesn’t.
John Tarbox
Let’s have AIS!
I’m sure many would want to comment on topics for the following:
NMEA 0183
NMEA 2000
I’m quite comfortable with the customary blog heirarchy, and can give you an example of a cataloging system that is way to complicated: see http://www.mulithulls4us.com !
Perhaps a simple self referencing system would help us search for entries we didn’t catch when they were current. I suggest a grid rather than asking someone to list key words would minimize confusion arrising from spelling or the shear over-abundance of synonyms. We are pretty focused on Marine Electronics already, and would probably look elsewhere for discussions of engines or sails or destinations. Sooo….. Pick a classification:
——————–data——protocol—-hardwre
Navigation———-a———-b———-c
Communication—–e———-f———-g
Vessel or Voyage—h———-i———-j
Management
I’ve been thinking about this for a couple hours and am fairly sure this covers a lot of what we like to talk about. For example, a radar would be covered in c, Navigation Hardware, Weather would be discussed at h but a weather receiver, whether Navtex or XM is J.
It would be far better to make this selection graphically, like checking a multiple choice item. That might be simple to do in Visual Basic, but its a little too hard to do in I square (idiot irishman)
Congratulations! A new era begins at Panbo.