Panbo

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Panbo News and Reviews

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LiFePO4 / Network & control / Electrical & Engines

Mastervolt MLi 12/1250 premium system integraged LiFePO4 battery

Mastervolt’s MLi batteries are some of the most capable, premium batteries in the marine marketplace today. With features like native MasterBus, CZone, and NMEA 2000 support they underpin some of the most complex marine installations you can find. These batteries are built on a foundation of quality, engineering, and reliability. The 12-volt, 1250 watt hour battery is the smallest entry into the line but gives up nothing to its larger brothers and sisters. The obvious question is, how do I benefit from this battery and how is it different from others in the marketplace? Let’s take a look at the battery and what it can do.

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Wireless & Apps / Network & control / The future / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K / Monitoring & Tracking

DBMIBS 2025: Digital Yacht’s NjordLINK developer friendly boat monitoring solution

Digital Yacht’s streak of specialized and interesting NMEA 2000 products continues with NjordLINK. NjordLINK is a $139 gateway that connects to a boat WiFi network and shares data from the NMEA 2000 network with Digital Yacht’s Njord cloud. But, NjordLINK and the Njord cloud aren’t just a one way repository of data. Digital Yacht plans an entire ecosystem of cloud apps that can alert the boat owner and send data back to the boat.

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Wireless & Apps / Communications

Starlink 2025, here we go again

I’ve run out of ways to say that Starlink changes things a lot. My most frequent refrain about SpaceX’s low earth orbit satellite internet offering is the only constant is change. For a while, it looked like they were going to make a liar out of me. We haven’t seen much change recently. But fear not! Starlink is back with another round of major changes. This time those changes affect their mobile priority data and plans and most notably, eliminate unlimited high speed data from those offers.

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Cabin & deck gear / What's on board...

DBMIBS 2025: Dometic DG3 Gyroscopic Stabilizer

Dometic made quite the splash at the Discover Boating Miami International Boat Show this year. They introduced the DG3 gyroscopic stabilizer and with that introduction launched an advertising blitz. Ads for the DG3 were everywhere: on the floor of the convention center, on the walls, and seemingly everywhere you looked. Obviously, Dometic thinks the launch of a new gyro is a big deal and I agree.

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Sailing & Racing / Navigation / Charts

Simrad NSS 4, a new Simrad flagship chart plotter

It’s been three years since Simrad introduced the NSX at the 2022 Miami International Boat Show. That chart plotter was the first to run Simrad parent Navico’s new Neon operating system. At the time, I expected that Simrad would introduce new models across their line running the Neon. Although that took a bit longer than many, myself included, may have expected, that’s just what they’ve done. The new NSS 4 — and corporate sibling Zeus SR — updates the flagship of their lines with new hardware and a crisp, modern operating system.

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LiFePO4 / Electrical & Engines / The future

DBMIBS 2025: Lithium Pros’ sodium-ion starting battery

Lithium Pros regularly pushes the state of art in marine batteries forward and they’ve done it again. This time with, to the best of my knowledge, the first sodium-ion in the marine marketplace. Their S2460 is designed primarily as a starting battery. Sodium-ion batteries have grabbed attention for their temperature flexibility, tolerance for deep discharge, and improved raw materials availability. Although it is early days for these batteries, it is quite exciting to see them available for purchase.

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Wireless & Apps / Navigation / Safety & SAR

DBMIBS 2025: FLIR Ocean Scout Pro

I’m trying something a little different for my coverage of this year’s Miami show. I am going to try and produce a series of short videos with company representatives introducing their products. First up is FLIR’s Ocean Scout Pro thermal monocular. FLIR’s Jim McGowan gives us an overview of the new thermal scope.

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Wireless & Apps / Network & control / Communications / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Icom’s M510 Evo VHF radio, a modern feature packed radio with an app

Icom introduced the world to its M510 about 3 and a half years ago. The M510 came with a slew of features including a bright, crisp color display, WiFi, AIS receive option, remote CommandMic second station capability, and control of the radio via a phone app. However, access to a NMEA 2000 network as well as hailer functionality required a separate interface box. Now, Icom has refreshed the M510 line with the M510 Evo. The Evo offers all the M510’s features and NMEA 2000 and a hailer with listen-back in a single unit. So, with a new radio from Icom and a new boat for me, the timing was for an extended test on the water.

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Mobile Apps / Navigation / How-to

Bob423 How To: Aqua Map with a big screen monitor

Robert Sherer (aka Bob423) has been helping fellow East Coast cruisers for many years — especially with specific advice about transiting the ICW and getting the most out of the nav app Aqua Map — and Panbo is pleased to publish his technique for using a large second display with an iPad….

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LiFePO4 / Electrical & Engines

WattCycle LiFePO4, value battery with a punch

You may not have heard of Watt Cycle before, but if you are in the market for a value oriented lithium iron phosphate battery, you should probably take note. Watt Cycle offers numerous batteries in multiple voltages at attractive price points. We have certainly seen batteries with low price tags and performance to match. So, the question is, how will Watt Cycle’s batteries perform? I have tested a pair of batteries extensively and have some pretty positive results to share.