The tidal wave of interesting iPhone boating apps rolls on! The screen at left above (click for bigger) shows a beta version of Memory Map's upcoming charting app and I can tell you that it already handles NOAA raster charts and topo maps with speed and smoothness I didn't think possible on plain 3G hardware. At middle is the brand new Ships Ahoy!, a $3 AR (augmented reality) relative to Ship Finder and the other AIS viewers that lets you just point an iPhone 3Gs (you need the compass) toward a vessel or two to get their names and details (if the area is covered by a network receiver). And finally there's Navionics' neat new Ski:US, which admittedly has nothing to do with boats but does speak to this big marine company's big commitment to mobile apps. It happens to have my local Camden Snow Bowl among the so-far-limited ski area coverage, and it works great. In that screen shot I'm playing back the tracks (in yellow) I cut right after last week's big snow dump, in particular the --- MPH moment I lost board control in a huge drift. All these possibilities, and lord knows what else, will expand if Apple introduces a 4.0 version of the iPhone operating system this afternoon. But of course the bigger questions swirl around the Apple tablet, or whatever they decide to call it...
My longtime admiration for Jeff and Karen Siegel, and their creation ActiveCaptain, has started to lean dangerously toward jealousy! They've spend many months cruising from Maine to Florida and judging from their blog and the latest AC newsletter, they've not only been having fun but also writing code and making deals the whole way. Version "X" of the interactive cruising guide is really taking shape, and other developments coming soon do indeed sound "huge"...
I can't imagine why anyone with a Garmin plotter, a Windows PC, and a bit of ability to use both wouldn't find Garmin Homeport more than worth the $30 charge. I was able to easily copy the 5212's embedded charts -- plus the mess of tracks, routes, and waypoints I put on it last season -- and then review/manage all on my home computer. I stowed away some memorable tracks, quickly cleaned up some extraneous waypoints (careful with that track-to-route feature), polished some favorite routes, and then overwrote the user data on the 5212 with a much more useful set. But today's look at some deeper Homeport features gets the benefit of a friend's embarrassing navigation error. Click to enlarge the screen above and I'll explain after the break...
If I was walking the London Boat Show this week, I'd sure visit Digital Yacht, which seems to be on a new product streak. Besides the tiny, self contained ANT200 AIS receiver I mentioned here, they have a new line of 5-inch C-Map plotters -- one with an AIS receiver built in (which I'll cover soon) -- and an interesting new series of marine PC systems called "aQua". The boat show deal, which will purportedly be duplicated at the Miami Show, just might get your attention...
Fugawi & iNavX & Navionics & ??, the pieces come together
Apr 15, 2009
Wow, isn't an interesting crowd of chart, map, and data suppliers gathering rapidly around the iPhone/multi-other-platform X-Traverse service? I recently discussed the velocity of this and other iPhone-related developements, but was still surprised to learn today that Navionics is officially on board (Americas charts and U.S. Hotmaps available now, the rest of the world portfolio coming "in the next couple weeks"), that Hilton's Realtime-Navigator fishing overlays will go up on X-Traverse in May, and that "agreements are in place with several other chart manufacturers to bring expanded coverage and choice (raster or vector)."
CE 2009 hands-on #1; wows, confusions, and a gripe!
Apr 6, 2009
I spent some of this weekend installing and trying out Coastal Explorer 2009, and was thoroughly impressed. CE, also sold as Maptech Chart Navigator Pro, has always been an excellent charting program, in my opinion, and the 2009 edition is a worthy successor. The screen shot above, for instance, shows the slick new automated NOAA raster and vector chart updating routine (and the fact I was doing the updating while riding a train, via a Sprint EVDO WiFi server, suggests how possible online onboard is getting). CE 2009 also easily incorporated lots of Maptech data -- photo maps, topos, harbor photos, and marina databases -- that was already on my PCs. But CE's included Guide Book data, access to TerraServer photo maps and its new abilities to display Panoramio photos and CE user community POI info (photos included) make Maptech data somewhat less important. Which may be a good thing, in a way, as the relationship between CE's creator, Rosepoint Navigation, and the company that took over Maptech's digital chart business, Maptech Navigation, has gotten a little confusing...
Hot damn. The nine and ten inch screens on these new ASUS Eee PC T91 and T101 “netbooks” swivel to tablet mode and are not just touch but multi touch. The small one weighs just over two pounds, and can have a GPS built in. Now I’m quite aware that my interest in the big HP TouchSmart series isn’t shared by many boaters, but, geez, couldn’t one of these little puppies make a nifty nav/comms accessory? Engadget and particularly LaptopMag have good T91/T101 coverage. Pricing isn’t noted but the existing ASUS Eee series bodes well. Also at CES, Spot announced a roadside assist add-on service that might be great for trailer boaters. I’m sure there’s more of interest at the show, and will keep looking.
I’m back home, happily, and cogitating on a perennial issue: What’s a sensible compromise in terms of a compact and rugged, yet able and reasonably-priced, boat PC? A good place to start the conversation is a roundup of “marinized computers” written by Tom Tripp for MadMariner last summer (and recently expanded upon at Tripp’s blog). Just about all the marine PC specialists I know of are mentioned and linked to, but, as Tripp notes, the meaning of “marinization” is vague. Which is one reason I wonder if a good “carputer”—like the VoomPC2 seen above—might do.
The one-day product exhibit at the NMEA Conference is never long enough for me, and I hope the manufacturers I missed—often the ones I know the best—took no offense (you know where to find me!). I put particular focus on companies appearing at NMEA for the first time, like Digital Yacht above. This U.K. firm has been operating in Europe for some time, and is larger and more diversified than even its extensive Web site indicates. For instance, principal Nick Heyes seen above, and bigger here, is also a principal at Marine Electronic Services LTD. At any rate, Digital Yacht is not only setting up a U.S. distribution and service branch, but also introducing an interesting new navigation system called Touch…
I know a lot of salts, some of them geeks too, who've been using The CAPN for years, and don’t want to switch. I’ll bet they’ll be pleased to learn that this venerable charting software package will now be managed and developed by new owner Star Technologies, as announced here. I had a long chat with principals Bob Strunce and Witt Wittmaack today, and was impressed with what a good home this looks to be. For one thing, Star Technologies really is about rocket science, better yet the software side of it, and has been for some 30 years. For another, Strunce is a serious boater who’s been using The CAPN since 1993, and Wittmaack is Naval Academy graduate with time on submarines. Here’s what they have in mind for The CAPN:
It’s a good day here when the sun is shining invitingly and a noteworthy, yet easy to write about, new product is introduced. So a Panbo thanks to Garmin for the new GWS 10 wind and weather sensor, bigger image here. What with NMEA 2000 proliferating widely, it seems a little strange that this might be the first standard whirligig (i.e. electro-mechanical) wind sensor with a standard N2K plug on it, but I’m pretty sure it is. Yet, as you’ll find in the press release, it also has air temp and barometric pressure sensors like Maretron’s WSO100 ultrasonic wind sensor and Airmar’s do-it-all PB200 (that I wrote about in August, but apparently still not quite shipping).
Remember Maretron’s N2KView? I tried the initial version last fall, and later wrote a column about the whole concept of packetizing NMEA 2000 data. Recently I’ve been testing Version 2.0 and can tell you that it’s faster, prettier, and more configurable—better in every way. Perhaps more important, though, is Maretron’s recent decision to position the original $2,995 product—which can or will eventually control switches, take action on alarms, handle cameras, etc.—as the Platinum version, and offer a Standard view-the-data-anywhere version for $995 (as explained in this PDF).
It’s wicked hot and sticky here, especially at this big computer, so what a fine time to receive a Panbot e-mail suitable as a guest entry! Richard Stephens—developer behind, and sometimes soggy user of, Memory-Map charting software—recently sailed aboard the Tripp 33TRPXPRS in the Bermuda Ocean Race and reports:
It’s been a while since Jeppesen bought C-Map, and even longer since the 9.0 version of NNS (Nobeltec Navigation Software) came out. But the new versions of VNS and Admiral are now shipping, and looking good too (big Admiral screen here). Of course, the major change is that the programs now support C-Map MAX Pro cartography, which is why they’re called MAX Pro and not version 10. Besides a world portfolio of some 30,000 charts—versus Passport’s 10,000–another bit of nice news is that everyone who currently owns NSS 9 gets a free upgrade to Max Pro, and a free MAX Pro chart region for every Passport region owned, and a free copy of the new Raster Plus Pack. (Owners of earlier NSS versions get various deals, depending, as explained in the press releases.)
Smaller, faster, cheaper! I’m wondering if some of the new automobile computers, like this Jensen NVX3000PC, wouldn’t work pretty nicely on a boat. You got your built-in GPS, 7” touch screen, 30 gig drive, Windows XP, SD card slot, dual USB ports, 12v and li-ion power supplies…even WiFi and a remote control. There’s also the Azentek Atlas CPC-1000, which apparently adds AM/FM/Satellite/HD audio, a CDRW/DVD/MP3/WMA drive, Bluetooth, and CANbus integration. And no doubt there are others, at least concepts. I don’t know if any of these things are actually shipping, and I’ve heard that states like California are clamping down on how much computing you can do, or visual entertainment enjoy, while driving…which might impede developments. But isn’t some sort of inexpensive, mass market computer going to make sense afloat?
A subscription-based online boating magazine? Yeah, right! At first I thought the Mad Mariner concept darn right mad. But not anymore, and that’s not because it became a (highly appreciated) Panbo Sponsor. MM has been rapidly building a body of work that’s worth paying for. A particularly good example is their Navigation Software series. Primary authors Diana and Mark Doyle, who also create Managing the Waterway guides, set out to test and review every PC and Mac charting program available, including the free ones, and they’ve done an outstanding job. You’ll never see reviews this lengthy and thorough in a magazine. Actually there’s already a book’s worth of nav software information at Mad Mariner, with just about every program I know of covered, and apparently more resource material and gosh-knows-what to come. In fact, to my knowledge, there is no equivalent book in the print world, and if there is it certainly wouldn’t be this up to date. Plus MM has a lot of other electronics coverage spread amongst its articles and blogs, not to mention something new of general boat-nut interest posted every day. Some Mad Mariner content is available to anyone, and there’s a free 30 day trial of the whole site, but, what the heck, why not treat to youself to a year’s subscription? That’s my mood. As I’ll explain on Monday, I’ve gone and treated my boating passion very well indeed.
If you’ve been studying up on NavNet 3D, or watched yesterday’s video, you’d know that Furuno describes the product’s remarkably fast and smooth charting engine as based on “Time Zero” technology. And it’s so distinctive—especially, say, when you go into 3D mode and freely fly around placing a route, eye-balling radar overlay, etc.—that it deserves a name. However, Iker Pryszo, whose father Bryce founded MaxSea way back in 1985, explained to me that “Time Zero” has an entirely other meaning. In the life of a software program there comes a TIME to dump all the old code and start again at line ZERO. That’s just what MaxSea did some four years ago, even starting with a new programming language (though Iker didn’t say which). So apparently while some developers continued to work on the old code—evolving MaxSea up to its present 12.5 version, plus building the module that can integrate 12.5 with Furuno NavNet vx2 system—others worked on MaxSea Time Zero, the entirely fresh product that launches tomorrow at the Paris Boat Show. Judging from the screen shot above, bigger here , Time Zero is much more like what we’ve been seeing demoed on the NavNet 3D machines than it is any earlier version of MaxSea, despite those familiar icons running down the left side. And I’m told that the two, NN3D and MSTZ, are going to work together very nicely. Plus, simultaneous with Time Zero, MaxSea’s cartography company MapMedia is announcing a wide expansion of its coverage including new vector charts “Powered by Navionics”, with 3D data and photo maps, and new raster areas. Hopefully, there will be much more detail on all this at www.MaxSea.com very, very soon.
So you know I think the new Raymarine G Series and Furuno NavNet 3D are pretty big deals on the high end of marine electronics. But they are computers, aren’t they? Interesting question. I don’t see Raymarine using that term on the G Processor pages, nor Furuno on the NN3D MFDBB pages. But they both have hard drives, they both handle lots of data and graphics very fast, and NN3D even supports conventional USB mice and keyboards. In fact, if you ask the guys who designed these machines, they’re not shy about what’s going on. The G Series run on Linux and NavNet 3D runs on Windows XP Embedded. So, yes, I think these are computers, even if built for the purpose (does the G above look rugged, or what?), and thoroughly locked up against normal PC software/hardware compatibility issues. But does even a heavy-duty locked-up computer make you nervous on a boat? I’ve heard some worry about the drives but mind you these are heavy duty shock mounted units, and, besides, it’s easy (if costly) to build redundancy into either system. Both are essentially headless, with all major sensors like radar connecting via Ethernet hub. And both, I think, automatically copy created routes, etc. to all processors on a network. Sounds pretty reliable to me, plus I like some of the Windows related interface features seen on NN3D screens like the fishfinder setup one below. What do you think?
That’s the hind end of an AmbientNAV 17” Alpha monitor, just announced but not yet up at the company site. Check the bigger shot to see the amazing diversity of inputs available, not to mention the sharp engineering.
That’s a Panasonic Toughbook MDWD I tested for PMY back in early 2003, and mentioned here when Nobeltec began selling it as a navigation accessory. It came with a simple plastic stylus—nice for, say, setting a waypoint bang on a buoy—but it could also be fingered. Check the larger shot and see how easy it was to tap common underway controls like zooming using those big buttons in Capn Voyager (or in Nobeltec Admiral’s NavView). Well, I’m a bit shocked to discover that the current model of Panasonic’s wireless display seems to use an active digitizer stylus, and will not respond to a finger.
The product image may be a little fruity—HP calls it the “perfect kitchen computer”—but I think this TouchSmart IQ770 might make one heck of a boat computer. That’s a 19” “BrightView” 1,440 x 900 pixel touchscreen display that responds to finger or stylus. I’ve tried navigating on tablet computers and think that while a stylus is fine for planning it’s not so great for underway work, especially if you get your hands on (sorry!) a navigation program truly designed for finger commands.
My June PMY column about Faria’s do-it-all PC-based Maestro helm system is now online, along with write-ups of the ACR ResQFix PLB, McMurdo SmartFind EPIRB, Icom M34 handheld VHF, and Cobra 425 handheld (I know, the picture is of the F80; we’ll fix it). Maestro is quite a system, and I’m glad that Faria now has dope about it on their Web site (online marketing is not the company’s forte, but they have strong relationships with lots of boatbuilders, which may be more important in the case of Maestro). Bigger here is the collage below which I made to illustrate some of Maestro’s connectivity. I believe the finished version also has a PCMCIA card slot on the back, meant for a cellular data card. Also online are all four of PMY’s June electronics features, including my take on ideal systems (which some of you contributed to back in March). The piece got titled “Perfect Picks” though of course they’re not, which I’ll probably be hearing about from manufacturers at any moment! Meanwhile some of you have asked about PMY’s sale to the “supermarket mogul” Ron Burkle. Well, rumor has it that we may be included in a secondary sale to some other publishing conglomerate, and, besides, we’re doing fine…in short, “business as usual”. In fact I’m writing my 73rd straight monthly column right now. Year seven at PMY begins.
There were several reasons for that grin on John Gass, Electronics Manager at Wayfarer Marine, the most obvious being that he was beating a particularly nasty February Maine day by testing a possible upgrade system in his shop. Second would be how unusual the system was, closeup here, a Mac Mini running MacENC (review link here) and talking to both a Furuno RD-30 and a NavNet vx2, black box model. John was stressing the whole kit by inputing GPS either from the laptop running Nema Talker or a Garmin 192, plus he had an AIS simulator running on a PC in the next room and connected to the Mini via Bluetooth, and a radar simulator that Furuno apparently supplies to dealers. There was also a Keyspan serial-to-USB converter plus lots of wires and alligator clips involved, which made me feel better about some of my test setups, and may account for the embarrassed portion of that smile. Regardless, John got all the data—routes and waypoints included—running around quite well except for one little MacENC-waypoint-to-NavNet glitch. Despite good support from both companies, he didn’t get that one solved before the potential owner of this system—who already has a very nice one, but wants MARPA and AIS—decided to put the R&D on hold. At any rate good geek fun was had, and I also became acquainted with Firma Mats Kagstron’s AIS Simulator (source of many other NMEA software products) and Effective Solutions’ combined AIS and NMEA Simulation, both of which I’d like to investigate further. Thanks, John!
Well, it turns out that my verklempt (definition) marine PC buddy didn’t have his facts right. Apparently Microsoft’s fee for driver certification is actually in the 2–3 grand range, and is waived entirely until May! Also, the new Globalstar 1700 satellite phone I mentioned is, or soon will be, Vista certified, and so will the older 1600. And this new phone looks sweet, with what looks like a number of usability improvements besides a major size reduction (though that folding antenna is still large enough to impress the swabbies). Globalstar has full coverage here, and OCENS is ready to sell you the phone, accessories, and service plans here. In fact, the phone comes with trial versions of OCENS Mail and WeatherNet, and is supposedly very easy to interface with a PC via USB: “Works with any PPP standard Internet device, including Windows, Mac OS and Linux.” And I notice that OCENS seems to have a promotion running that will get you an annual 1,800 minute voice/data plan for about 30 cents per. I dare say that other marine sat comm specialists like NavCom Digital and Marine Computer Systems will soon follow suit.
So this morning an acquaintance who sells and services laptops and peripherals to cruisers gives me a buzz. He’d rather not be identified (and don’t bother guessing, cause I know lots of guys like this), but he was some agitated: “This is a train wreck! This is going to shake up the whole marine PC world!” He was ranting about Microsoft’s new Vista operating system, and specifically the new “security feature” whereby it will not accept hardware drivers unless they are Microsoft Certified. Well, now, just yesterday I installed an older Deluo USB GPS on a tablet computer I’m trying, and I had to check a box saying that I understood that the driver is not Microsoft Certified, something I’ve done many times. Apparently this GPS will be useless with Vista, and a small company like Deluo will need to fork over $40,000 minimum to get that driver Certification. Interfacing is the soft, weak underbelly of marine computing, what with all sorts of little developers making sensors, multiplexers, SSB modems, sat. phone data connections, weatherfax demodulators, etc. etc. that wire into PCs, whereas most computer users only plug in a few items, all of which are manufactured in huge volume. And as of about today, you’ll have a hard time finding a new PC that isn’t running Vista, though even a fairly high profile device like the new Globalstar GSP 1700 sat phone, supposedly superior in all ways to its predecessors, is not “certified” for Vista hook-up, and hence data comms. That’s whats got my friend so riled up that he’s spending time at sites like BadVista.org, the folks who have been harassing MicroSoft’s Vista tour, often humorously (above). So I’m hoping that the many Panbo readers who develop and/or install marine PC apps will now speak up here about what’s working, and what isn’t.
Last Fall I tried Captn. Jack’s Garmin 76Cx bundle, and liked it a lot because it not only includes a Maptech Waterproof Chartbook of your choice, but comes with all the printed waypoints already programmed into the GPS. Turn it on, pick the desired waypoint from a list, and—bada bing—you have a solid connection between a traditional chart and electronic positioning. Given your distance and bearing to the waypoint, you can simply eyeball where you are, helped out by all the course lines Maptech lays out (bigger picture here), or you can use dividers and parallel rules for more accuracy. I think this is the nuts for beginners and traditionalists, not to mention small boat navigators and lazy old coots (like me). And whereas Chartbooks also come with a CD of digitized pages and a basic charting program, and you can get full detail charts for the 76Cx (or the larger Garmins in the other bundles), this kit gives you a couple of ways to grow. It’s also a good example of how a retailer can add serious value to some already good products. All of which is why this was one of my Sail magazine Freeman K. Pittman Award picks, just announced today. I notice that Motor Boating included it in their “Gear of Year” too. Now, wouldn’t it be cool if Maptech, and other chart/guide publishers, made their waypoint files available for anyone to download? And it might sell more printed products, so there’s some motivation!
Iris PC Radar is a relatively new product purportedly able to “interface as a slave or display-only with almost any radar antenna, and at present can control Raymarine, Kelvin Hughes and the Simrad/Koden/Anritsu family…soon to be more”. Moreover, “its 8-bit digitization gives far superior picture quality and sea clutter performance compared to ordinary boat radars”, and it incorporates a target tracker with AIS input and S-57 chart overlay (screen below, bigger here). Iris is currently marketed for harbor surveillance and is also integrated into the interesting monitoring and control system FT NavVision, but—head’s up, integraters and developers!—owner Ledwood Technology is “looking for partners to sell and continue to develop the radar.” My sense, by the way, is that 2007 is going to be a significant year for marine radar.
Argonaut's bargain marine monitor, pretty good so far
Dec 14, 2006
That’s Argonaut’s Tflex-G615, the $1,000 waterproof 15” monitor, looking pretty good in direct sunlight (though a low winter Maine sun partially filtered by trees). If I wasn’t also testing yet another compact camera (the unfamiliar UI being my excuse for erasing most of today’s shots), you’d see all four of those screens lit up, and you’d probably be pleasantly surprised that the Si-Tex ColorMax 15 looks almost as bright as the benchmark Raymarine E-120 (at least in these conditions). But both the Si-Tex and the Argonaut screens are more reflective than the Raymarine (and the Northstar 6100i), as you can see in this close-up. I’ll have more about the Tflex, ColorMax, and 6100i eventually, and also about my new super duper test bench, not yet finished.
It’s hard to make out until you view the bigger image, but this screen is a Google Map demo of an interesting utility that can guesstimate an ETA for a boat that’s tacking into the wind. It was originally developed as SailTimer, but is now going to be incorporated into a new SailBoat Edition of NavSim’s BoatCruiser. I think that full-on routing modules, like RayTech’s and MaxSea’s, can provide this same sort of real life ETA, based on weather forecasting and a boat’s performance data, but maybe I’m confused? Starting yesterday at the WorkBoat Show in New Orleans, NavSim is also previewing a new version of NavCruiser Pro that uses C-Map Max Pro charts. Prior to this product, the Pro format—which looked very powerful in a presentation I attended at the NMEA conference—was only available on the Northstar 8000i, a system I gushed about last year, but is only now coming to market (there were some problems). At any rate, I flew down to New Orleans today, mostly for a Charles Industries product introduction, but plan to visit the Show tomorrow (anything particular I should check out?). Which is why there’ll likely be no Panbo on Friday, but I may get to see NavSim’s latest.
It’s worth checking out this screen shot in all its colorful pixels. Tiki Navigator is slowly gaining a devoted following, largely for its clean and attractive interface. I made this screen show some interesting options like the context sensitive help windows and the function key map, but they disappear completely if you want them to. Tiki only shows raster charts, but otherwise seems to have a lot of features, depending on the version you choose, all reasonably priced.
Here’s a report from a Panbo reader (thanks Ron!):
“I've been evaluating Xenarc's 10" touchscreen monitor for the past two months, having purchased it from Xenarc Direct thus taking advantage of their reasonable return policy {ed: Captn. Jack also has a decent policy}. Unfortunately, the first monitor proved defective but Xenarc replaced it quickly. It's connected to a laptop below decks running a Nobeltec navigation program. Also, Milltech's AIS unit is connected and displayed.
It's mounted at the helm of a sailboat and the screen's 500 nits is quite visible under all conditions, but keep in mind the bimini is always kept up. The monitor isn't waterproof as it has an open grill but the substantial aluminium case and 8 watt power demands make sealing the unit possible. A mouse GPS makes the system independent of the existent Raymarine radar/plotter system. The best part is that its $600 price makes it quite reasonable to be used as a redundant navigation system.”
Argonaut 15" monitor under $1,000, and other good new$
Nov 7, 2006
In a way, this photo, bigger here, doesn’t do Argonaut’s new Tflex-G615 monitor justice, but then again I took it at the NMEA Conference with a Canon XT flash aimed directly into the poor thing’s LCD. Try that with a conventional lap– or desktop screen! It is indeed noteworthy that Argonaut has come up with a “waterproof sunlight readable” monitor under a grand, but do note that its claimed 2,000 NITS transflective equivalency is figured in direct sunlight. I’m going to test one soon and will be interested to see how it does in bright situations without direct light. Note, too, all the added features—optical bonding, multiple inputs, wider range dimming, PiP, etc.—that you get with the Tflex-G515, the same underlying LCD, I think, but costing nearly three times the money.
More good pricing news: * Apparently due mostly to lowered memory card costs (all the data for an XL3 size region usually requires two Gigs of space), Navionics has dropped the price of Platinum cards from $499 to $299. Plus there are more Platinum regions available, like in Europe, and US cards still include the right to a free Fish’n Chip (which, by the way, deserves better Panbo coverage). * And, get this, Captn. Jack’s is now offering Maptech’s U.S. Boating Chart DVD for $19.50, still with free ground shipping, money back guarantee, and technical support. And here I thought this a great value at $50. But this special holiday price may not last long; I guess ‘Jack’ wants to get noticed.
Geez, anyone know where the “Big Belly Reduction” Tool is in PhotoShop? Also, what’s the drill when your full res photo reveals a half-naked Florida boat guy? At any rate, here’s another FLIBS product intro, this one splendidly orchestrated by Raymarine’s well oiled marketing machine. Simultaneous to this “VIP preview” event in a nicely shaded and catered boat shed, Raymarine “insiders” got the news via HTML e-mail (you can be an insider too). In fact, there’s no need for me to repeat the awesome specs on the new 17” and 19”, nine-input monitors, nor mention the spectacular prices. But I will point out how neatly they can work with an E-Series VGA Out port (pictured) or a PC running RayTech 6.0, though apparently you can’t do both with the same cool dedicated keyboard. They look similar but one is SeaTalk2 and the other is USB. And I’ll add that a trustworthy Raymarine Product Manager told me that he’s seen these puppies in direct sunlight head-to-head with the competition and with an E-120, and “they rock”.
I always enjoy poking around the megayacht tent at FLIBS; it’s full of gorgeous booths, boat models, and some awesome electronics. Palladium Technology is in the latter category, and it seems like every year it comes up with an interesting addition to its PC/Ethernet based SiMON monitoring system. This year it’s integrating in an elaborate, but simple to work, entertainment system, which I’ll write about when I get more info and better images. In the meantime check out that trackball the company came up with. It's translucent, and colored LEDs underneath are used to indicate alarm states. When everything is cool, it glows green. But if some system moves into warning territory (whose very sophisticated parameters you can set in SiMON), it goes to yellow. Finally, if alarm status is reached it throbs red. It strikes me as way better than an audio alarm on the bridge, neat looking, and an idea that could come down to us little people.
Since my first Simrad Glass Bridge post, the company has posted more information plus an 8 page PDF brochure. That’s where I snipped this hind-end shot of its super-connected black box computer (also here in a larger, unlabeled version). Check out the dual SimNet/NMEA 2000 and four serial ports—no multiplexers needed around here! Note too that the GB60 will support up to to two radar scanners (via that built in Ethernet switch) from a wide range especially designed for the system, or can connect to stand alone, even type approved, Simrad radar sets (via the RSI).
I understand that Simrad is hoping to demo the GB60 at the NMEA Conference and Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show, both in late Oct. I’ll be at both myself, and look forward to seeing it. I know that megayacht specialists can build systems even more powerful, and Raymarine has its elegant H6, but isn’t this is the new king of really high-end all-from-one-manufacturer systems?
I came across this late 90’s picture of my first ECS set up on Ralph, the boat’s that’s still looking for a new owner, yee scurvy dogs (hey, yesterday was supposedly Talk Like a Pirate Day). That cloth-over-something-stiff hood velcroed to the laptop made a tremendous difference in usability, even on cloudy days. I got it from Hoodman but now they only seem to have a hard plastic ‘desktop’ model (do not get the pop-up version, as you have to put your head too close for boating). Captn Jack’s has one that looks pretty good, and there’s also GlareStomper, which specializes in fabric and stiff foam hoods fitted for smaller machines like Garmin 492. Anyone know of other choices, besides some cardboard and duct tape?
With so many megayachts in the world—some with extra large tenders that they have to tow offshore, some with wild and crazy champagne-guzzling jet-ski-riding charter guests—tender tracking is a big deal. The Nobeltec Admiral 9 Plus Pack looks like quite a complete offering, as seen in these screen shots, and I know that there’s another interesting product about to enter this niche. Some thoughts: * I think Admiral can track more sorts of targets than anything else out there: MARPA, AIS, DSC, and now tenders. Won’t other navigation systems follow suit? And what new target type next? * The Seetrac transmitter/base station system that works with Tender Tracker (with Transas too) can also send wind info, using an option that sounds like the Airmar WeatherStation. Thus you could send your sailing yacht’s tender out to survey a race course America’s Cup style. * By the same token, your tender can also send back depth readings. I’m not sure how they are displayed in Admiral, hopefully as a track of varying colors, but I do know that if you have the optional Bathy Recorder, the tender’s readings can rebuild the 3D data right ahead of your yacht. Yeah, you’d be down $2,300 just in software options (and I can’t find Seetrac prices), but how cool is that! (Actually, has any reader devised a poor man’s way to collect soundings from a dinghy, lead line excepted?)
The above screen shot, full size here, is actually Nobeltec’s Bathy Recorder, a “plus pack” option to Admiral and VNS 8 that Jeppesen Marine introduced last year. I’ve seen these results of a tester’s survey of heavily dredged Port Everglades, and all the ways you can display it, demonstrated at a boat show, and it was quite impressive, though not inexpensive. But I’d neglected to mention this for so long that we are now seeing the arrival of Nobeltec 9! The press release went out last night, marking the start of the Newport Boat Show today (Admiral PDF here and VNS PDF here). Some highlights:
* Both Admiral and VNS will now display regular GRIB weather files and have new “Nav Info Panels” which can show strip charts as well as numbers. (All seen below and bigger here). * Admiral also gets “AIS Filtering” (I don’t know what that means yet) and now include OCENS WeatherNet. * Admiral 9 can also support a new Plus Pack called Tender Tracker which integrates with Seetrac hardware. * Either charting package can work with the new Sailing Plus Pack, which can display existing polars, build new ones, overlay laylines and wind info, and provide “basic instrument support for B&G and Ockam instruments”. * And either can support the new XM Plus Pack, which apparently integrates the WxWorx PC version of XM Marine Weather with Nobeltec.
So…wow…goodies for megayachts, racing sailors, and all the rest of us who care about weather (more detail and screen shots coming to Panbo soon). And we already know that Jeppesen/Nobeltec has been working with Simrad, and is also in a quiet period while it finalizes a deal to acquire C-Map. Looks like a really big year for these guys.
I was somewhat chagrined to open the latest issue of PMY and find a full page ad for an interesting new electronics system I had never heard of! I guess it’s hard to manage a world-wide product introduction; heck, even searching the Simrad Yachting site for the GB60, as this system is called, yields nada, at least today. At any rate, it’s pretty clear from the pictures and European press releases I found that Simrad Yachting has teamed up with Jeppesen Marine, i.e. Nobeltec. The PR references Passport charts, photo maps, etc. but the screen above sure looks like Admiral to me. Which is not a bad thing. Why reinvent the wheel, especially when you have all the hardware that a big Admiral glass bridge system wants to live in. When I visited Simrad a few years ago, I was surprised at how many commercial grade marine computer products they made. Hence there’s a lot of experience behind that dual processor black box PC below. Ditto the keyboard and even the cool arm rest control. Simrad has also been making, or at least OEMing, monitors for a while but these, available in 12”, 15” and 19” sizes, are a new super slim design. I dare say that a full 3 monitor GB60 system, like below (and really big here), will be pricey but powerful, and some will love that it’s all under one warranty. Intriguing detail: the system can talk NMEA 2000 (aka SimNet); will regular Nobeltec charting programs acquire 2000 soon? That would be a good thing.
Did you cruise some mega systems with Intelisea on Monday? Well, now you might want to visit another relatively new monitoring company, Krill Systems, and download its SoftDisplay demo (it’s a single zipped .exe file and needs only XP or 2000 to run, no installation). You may miss that “carefor more champagne, sir?” feeling, but I think you’ll find well thought out software for monitoring important stuff on, say, a 45’ trawler. Krill is aiming for less than mega with a starter kit at $4,500. That gets you an Electrical System Sensor Pod (below), a Tank & Switch Sensor Pod, all cables and sensors, an Ethernet Switch, and the SoftDisplay to run on your yacht’s computer. Krill also makes a waterproof 8.4” display (a dedicated CE PC actually) with built-in WiFi lest the Ethernet run is too difficult. Of course more sensor pods can be added and, because Krill’s front end is a small PC application, off ship monitoring should be fairly easy to setup. Here’s the full image of the SoftDisplay screen above but you really should try the demo, drilling down to see how tanks are calibrated, bilge alarms set, etc. Also note developer Casey Cox’s unique bonus display of incoming NMEA navigation data.
Stuck in an office far from your boat? Or maybe your mega ride is in the yard for repairs? Well, then, scooch on over to Intelisea, a relative new comer to the world of high end monitoring and control, and enjoy some mouse time touring its online demo. The software design is elegant (and admired in the programming community), and it’s fun to think of yourself minding a 100+’ yacht packed with sensors and PCs. Intelisea systems are being installed on three large new yachts right now, but the builder is so far unwilling to publicize them (frustrating for the sales guys!). The systems are “complete sensor-to-user solutions” and, of course, very customizable, but Intelisea does quote a “standard” price of 60k for a 30m yacht.
Actually I’ve been watching RayTech 6.0 for quite a while, as I was kindly included in the Beta testing. I think Raymarine really got it right this time. Take a look at the full screen shot, and consider all the cartography it supports. On the left is Navionics Platinum being read off a CF card in a Navionics USB reader; RayTech seems to speedily support every Platinum feature—including blended photo maps (shown), panoramic photos, 3D, port info, tides & currents, etc. (by contrast Navionics own NavPlanner hardly supports any Platinum features, yet). On the right of course is a Maptech raster chart; other Maptech products supported are photo maps (with variable blending) and topos. Finally, you can also read NT+ charts using a C-Map reader.
And consider how many ways there are to use RayTech 6.0. You can download it for free (yes, available now), grab some free rasters, and you’re all set to plan routes that you can copy onto a CF card and take to your Raymarine C or E, or email to someone, or whatever (see below, bigger here). Or you can buy a Navionics or C-Map reader and use your plotter charts to plan on, or at least compare to the rasters, again taking the routes to the plotter via card. Or you can license your copy of 6.0, and then a single Ethernet cable feeds it everything that’s on an E Series network (Sirius weather, Navtex, and AIS excepted, for the time being). I’m trying both networked and stand alone versions, as well as the Sirius weather, am impressed by all, and will report further.
I’ll characterize NavGator Mariner, above, as a work in process. I couldn’t find many normal ECS features, only rasters are supported, and the chart management is crude to say the least. What’s interesting, though, is that NavGator is written in Java so that it can run on multiple operating systems. So far that means Windows, Linux, and Sun Solaris, but others will “soon be released”. The developer also has a Pro version “designed to be the core of the ‘glass cockpit’, where all electronic functions are integrated into a seamless, highly reliable, high performance environment.” The full screen shot is here (also showing off the full 1440 x 900 pixel goodness of my new laptop LCD).
Yesterday we learned for sure that Maptech has acquired a bunch more marine navigation products, which must somehow be integrated with all the products it already sells. Heck, the long list at right doesn’t even include its latest offering. Here’s a peek at how it’s going to work as explained to me by Maptech PR manager Martin Fox and others:
* The Capn charting software—apparently the main impetus for this deal—will become Maptech’s commercial level product, with customization and fleet pricing available. Recreational users may be offered an easy switch to Chart Navigator Pro, and certainly won’t be left adrift. Dennis Mills, always the chief developer of The Capn, stays on as Product Manager (and is tickled about it).
* The SoftChart brand, on the other hand, will not survive, but some of its technology will. The plan is not finalized but Maptech may adopt some SoftChart features like its highly saturated raster chart color pallet (very effective on dim monitors) as well as a much less obvious “vertices” technique that improves chart quilting. Supposedly there’s also some interesting vector chart assets changing hands. Like Mills, Dick Davis—director of SoftChart cartography since 1995, and head of NOAA’s raster development team before that—is pleased about where his work has ended up, though he will not be working for Maptech.
* Maptech is “not sure” yet what it’s going to do with MarinePlanner.com, but I recall that the site has some interesting weather forecasting, trip planning, and other goodies (though they’re almost all locked behind a “membership” scheme right now).
* Finally, Captain Jack’s online and print catalogs will come back to life, but as an operation “totally separate” from Maptech. Fox must have used that “separate” word a dozen times, which got me laughing and is an indication that Maptech is a little nervous about annoying its own dealers. At any rate, the new Captain Jack’s “won’t look anything like a Maptech catalog” and its emphasis will be on “solutions”, i.e. bundles of products like, say, a GPS loaded with waypoints from an included ChartKit Book. I dare say it will also still include a nice collection of PC charting accessories, and that’s good.
Panbo correspondant Jeff Siegel is excited about the nautical possibilities of this new PC architecture called UMPC, hyped recently as Origami, and I can see why. I got excited when the first tablet PCs came out, until I realized that you had to use a special stylus, awkward at a helm. A UMPC is a 7” tablet PC on whose touch screen a finger works just fine. Add a USB or Bluetooth GPS, or a whole electronics network connected via WiFi, plus a bracket, and this puppy might make a very nice navigator. (I suspect it might be particularly competitive against the dedicated car navigators). Of course it can do a whole lot more, and it’s supposed to price below $1,000, but some folks are skeptical.
As noted yesterday, the owner/designer of the dual PC helm setup has found a nifty HID (Human Interface Device) that I’d never seen before (bigger here, and set up for Coastal Explorer). The X-keys Stick USB includes software (Mac version too) that lets you define macros and print out key labels, even white on black ones to best utilize the Stick’s backlighting. It is not waterproof, of course, but it sure looks like it would be useful in a pilot house when the going gets jiggy, or you just have other things to do with your hands. The 16 key version shown cost $80, and the company has all sorts of other programmable key boards.
I was so wet behind the ears! One my first attempts at magazine writing was an overview of Electronic Charting Systems (ECS) for the Sept/Oct 1999 issue of Ocean Navigator. I spent months doing the research, actually installing and testing all eleven programs above (table bigger here), and wrote some 11,000 words on the subject. I recall that ON was surprised at the size of it, but published almost the whole thing (some is still online, titled "Power navigation", though you’ll need a subscription to read it).
At any rate—though I’ve tried to avoid big overview articles, particularly about ECS, ever since—I’m about to write one for Sail (which I’ll probably modify at some point for PMY). I’ve got to fit it in 2,000 words/six pages, and my idea is to highlight a good selection of particularly well done features, hopefully in as many different programs as possible. It goes with the idea that there is no perfect program for everyone, and that you can learn a lot about what’s possible via diligent shopping. I’d love your help. What do you think Nobeltec VNS, or Coastal Navigator, or RayTech or whatever does particularly well? And what ECS features are important to you, anyway? Please post ideas in the comments or just e-mail me. Developer comments welcome too.
* Panbo reader Dan Hinckley has put together a thorough and useful review of his experience running both GPSNavX and MacENC on a Mac mini, which is where the screen shot above came from.
* A couple of readers have pointed out www.chartsdvd.com, which is the work of a sailing couple living in San Francisco. They’re offering all of NOAA’s free raster and vector charts on one DVD for $30, shipping included, nice and simple.
* At the other extreme of computer charting is WECDIS, the Warfare version of Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems. Slowly but surely the world’s navies are dumping paper charts in favor of WECDIS, or similar systems with different acronyms. The company supplying the British Royal Navy and hoping to get the U.S. business is OSI.
Touch screen does seem like “the natural interface” (as I just read at some promotional site), but there are two gripes about using it on the water: one, the technology can reduce precious screen brightness 10–20%, and, two, it’s hard to use when a boat starts bouncing around. Northstar has addressed both issues:
* The 8000i uses an unusual infrared touch screen technology; LEDs and photo cells hidden in the bezel create a invisible light grid which your fingertip interrupts. It seemed to work quite nicely during my demo and it doesn’t reduce screen brightness at all. Supposedly even gloved fingers and sticky fish scales won’t phase it. By the way, in the picture above (bigger here), the 8000i is zooming out by tapping a desired new center spot (red target) and dragging a box from lower right to upper left to define the zoom level. Left to right zooms in, the shaded borders let you pan, and all those touch keys can be hidden with the upper right ‘min’ button.
* But there are also zoom ‘in’ and ‘out’ buttons built right into the 12” 8000i, or you can plug in the dedicated key board seen in the system diagram with the 15” model, or you can use any other USB keyboard or pointing device. Interface flexibility!
This 12” unit, incidently, contains a 1.2 GHz processor and a 35 gig hard drive in addition to what seemed like a very bright screen, and it’s completely sealed. Yet, after a couple of hours of use, its relatively shallow aluminum back casing was barely warm, which I thought impressive, and a sign of durability.
The 8000i has a lot of sizzle, and some interesting new charts, but let’s start coverage with a system overview (bigger here):
* The sunlight viewable multifunction displays are Windows PCs; the 12” is self contained while the 15” is broken into monitor, processor, and keyboard modules. (Both units are also touch screen, but more on that later).
* This is a ‘masterless’ network, meaning that sounder, radar, cameras, and even the various sensor networks go directly to an Ethernet hub. If one PC is shut down, or craps out, it should not affect what the others can do. Several manufacturers have network black box sounders, and a couple have Ethernet radars, but this is the first time I’ve seen network cameras or a Network Interface Bridge (USB, SmartCraft, and NMEA 0183, with—hooray!—NMEA 2000 coming in the fall).
* The only exception to this ‘masterless’ design is that only one processor can be an entertainment server, burning CDs and DVDs with the built in ‘jukebox’ software. But then any display can play from the music and movie library at will, audio going to a nearby stereo and video either playing right on the 8000i screen or on a TV.
* All the parts shown, and the necessary cabling, are supposedly waterproof and marine tough.
Yes, it’s expensive—the 12” retails at $7,000–-but the 8000i looks like a smartly designed system, with a lot of redundancy, power, flexibility, and pizazz built in. More details to come.
I’m a sucker for anything that connects to a PC. The new AutoAnchor Rodecounter for the PC is an interface box that provides anchoring information for PC based applications. It is designed primarily for large yachts, with glass screen PC displays, but is also generating interest for use on smaller vessels using laptops. It features accurate rope/chain or all-chain rode counting, with pre-set calibrations for specific windlasses, a docking alarm to warn the skipper the anchor is approaching the boat, and “plug and play’ software. The company also produces units with a display. — Jeff Hummel
A C-Map question this morning reminded me that I’d meant to comment on my experience with the company’s latest PC Planner product. I’ve always liked the concept: bring home your chart card, stick it in Planner’s reader and use it to do fast, detailed route making on a PC, then bring the routes back to your plotter on a user card. These days Planner is a pretty mature program and also nicely shows off the goodies in C-Map's newish Max chart cards. Check out the streets, detailed harbor info, multi-shaded contours (land too), and even a yellow real time current arrow in the screen shot above (bigger here). The program can also display Max’s perspective view, animated nav lights, and harbor photos. I may have razzed C-Map last spring for its Max marketing, but I like the charts and PC Planner.
And I’ve wondered why Navionics has not yet introduced a similar product. (I have been told it was “about to happen” several times, including quite recently.) Even Garmin users can’t plan on a preprogrammed data card, though they can get the same effect by buying BlueCharts on a CD and making their own card (note that the new G2 charts will not be available on CD, at least at introduction).
At any rate, the question asked this morning was the cost for Malaysian C-Map charts for use on a PC. One reason for the long introduction is that PC charting programs supporting C-Maps can generally read them either from the CD version or from a card via the reader (SOB has a good explanation of the hows and whys here). A "Wide" size CD unlock code for the Malaysian area, either Max or regular NT+, costs about $250 and includes maybe 100 charts (you can drill down to name, scale, etc. detail using C-Map’s online catalog). I’m still working on prices for the applicable cards, which come in two possible sizes for the area; they’re likely a little higher, but can also be used in a dedicated plotter. I was surprised that I couldn’t find these prices online; I think Bluewater usually has such info but their system is down. Any suggestions for other online sources of worldwide electronic charts?
At METS, the U.K. company TackTick—a prior DAME winner for its Micronet wireless instruments—introduced these remote displays. Like the Micronet fixed displays, they’re solar powered and, using a Universal Wireless Interface, can show most any NMEA 0183 data, besides, of course, what’s collected with Micronet sensors. I’m just now realizing how powerful this Interface could be—capable of, say, data networking GPS, PC, another manufacturer’s instruments/sensors, and Micronet. In fact, TackTick even supports proprietary data sentences created on the boat’s PC and then displayed as desired on the Micronet screens (pdf here). It sounds like a savvy sailor or developer could use this to create a very sophisticated instrument system.
Speaking of which, Sailing Anarchy put up a fascinating piece on the super high end sail racing instrumentation that B&G is capable of these days. Note that it is apparently written by a B&G employee, but nonetheless…wow.
Here’s wishing all the Yanks in Panbo world a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. It’s spitting snow here in Maine, perfect for holing up with friends, family, and a lots of good food. There’s much to give thanks for, but let’s include gizmos too. Needed they’re not, but aren’t they fun?
Whoa, things are happening even faster than enthusiastic yours truly thought possible. For $500, Maptech’s new Chart Navigator Pro (CNP) give’s you 13 (13!) DVDs containing NOAA’s entire portfolio of U.S. RNCs and ENCs, plus all of Maptech’s accessory cartography—photo maps, harbor panoramas, topos, bathy maps, pilot books, and information databases. But the real surprise inside is that Maptech ditched its aging, non-quilting, non-vector charting software in favor of Coastal Explorer. The name has changed, but CNP is CE 1.1 with nothing taken out and Maptech’s decent 3D contour engine added. CNP gets introduced today at the Fort Lauderdal Boat Show and will supposedly be in stores next month.
PS, 11/7: Thanks to Greg’s comment for a head’s up that Maptech has launched a new site, freeboatingcharts.com, where you can download all the U.S. RNCs you want. I don’t quite understand why Maptech is doing this before NOAA has a system in place, but it works fine. First you select the charts you want, then the site packages them up in a self executing zip file and notifies you when it’s ready for download. It only took maybe a half hour for me to receive the 15 charts that cover my area in all scales.
Last night Nobeltec announced the new features coming to VNS and Admiral 8.0 PC navigation software; they’ve been busy! Both packages integrate camera/video displays (for DirectX enabled cameras) and SkyMate communications, plus add a place-name search capability (all illustrated in my collage above, bigger here). Both also now support NOAA ENCs and will plot DSC VHF calls. AIS target tracking has expanded from Admiral to VNS and Nobeltec will be selling the single frequency NASA/Si-Tex AIS100 receiver [corrected 10/16]. Meanwhile, Admiral will now be able to support multiple radars and the InSight Sounder over a GlassBridge Network, resulting in such sexy system possibilities as the one diagrammed below.
One comment that inspired my “Geeks vs ME Empire” rant a while back was: “Megalomaniacal marine elex vendors disdain such commoditization as evidenced by the disappearance of most stand alone dumb GPS sensors and proprietary integration of d/s sounders into proprietary networks.” I really, really didn’t understand where that commenter was coming from. It strikes me that the planet is awash in GPS sensors that can output in NMEA 0183 format (or 2000) via bare wire, standard serial plug, USB, Bluetooth, etc. etc. I have a cheap Deluo mouse GPS that has swappable dongles so that it can output via DB9, USB, and custom iPaq PDA serial plugs (& get power too), and it’s worked with all sorts of software. How commoditized can you get?
And while it wasn’t long ago that all depth, speed, temp, etc. sensors were proprietary, these days Airmar (which makes most of them) offers a wide variety of “Smart” versions. More than I realized, actually, as I discovered at Airmar’s much improved web site (try the Smart Sensor .pdf for starters). As illustrated, these sensors process their own signals. Add power and out comes NMEA 0183 or 2000 data to feed a plotter or multifunction display from most any of the ME manufacturers or a PC or, in the 2000 case, a network of up to 50 separate devices. So what was that guy talking about?
How freakin coincidental! I was going to write a post today following up on “Geeks versus the evil M.E. empire”, but damned if some software didn’t hijack my computer, and my attention, for a significant chunk of the day. It was Adobe Acrobat, a big time program, and one that’s been running fine since I bought this top-of-the-line Dell and installed my fav software on it last December. All of a sudden Acrobat just wouldn’t open a .pdf file, hanging up on the opening splash screen. I tried everything. I installed updates; didn’t work. I went into the Add/Remove Programs dialog and asked Acrobat to “repair” itself; not. (Along the way, I rebooted the machine many times, and quite lost track of all the tasks on my desk today). I used Window XP System Restore (twice) in an attempt to go back a few days to when Acrobat did work; nada. I completely uninstalled and reinstalled Acrobat; still it hung up! That’s when I fled to the gym to watch CNN and sweat for a while.
Finally I Goggled “adobe won't open” and—bingo—learned from some other users somewhere that a glitch in Acrobat can sometimes cause it to create, then choke on, thousands of .tmp files in an obscure directory. Sure enough, there they are above. Even this powerhouse couldn’t delete them all at once. I had to hack through them 6–10 thousand at a time. There must have been over 100,000 files created in just the last few days (and XP’s “clean up” disk utility doesn’t go near them). Finally I can open a .pdf file, though Acrobat is asking me register again (for the 4th or 5th time, I think). So even now I’m not quite back to where I was before this glitch, and I have no assurance that it won’t happen again.
Please don’t write that I should have Googled, or gone to Adobe help, first…you know that can be a wild goose chase. And please don’t tell me that I should be using a Mac or Linux or something…if you haven’t had problems with those it’s largely because can’t fool with a fraction of the software I use.
Most days I love computers, and I’ve had pretty good luck using them on boats. But today is a day I certainly understand people who despise them, and are happy to spend good money for a dedicated plotter instead of chancing navigation on one of these FUBAR machines.
The race to get hard drives into cell phones and PDAs may result in drives that really lend themselves to tough marine environments. Hitachi just announced a 1”, 8 gigabyte drive with ESP (“Extra Sensory Protection”). It uses a 3-axis accelerometer to detect a fall in as short as four inches and switch into non-operational mode, which according to Hitachi can handle 2000 Gs of shock. It’s hard to imagine where such tiny, rugged drives will take us… or to fathom what it means about the future when tech companies name a hard drive "Mikey" and promote it as “the new bling!” Is it politically incorrect to laugh, imagining a roomful of Asian marketing execs discussing “bling”?
Update 9/7: How timely; today Apple announced a new iPod “nano” that obviously uses a drive like "Mikey". Walt Mossberg, the gadget guy at The Wall Street Journal, is in love with it.
Last week, when I enthused about plotters displaying DVDs, reader Don Parker unloaded on me about how easy this is to do with an onboard PC. He further expressed his general disgust with the “megalomaniacal” marine electronics industry and took a shot at me for failing to point out “when the value added doesn't justify the price”. And Don is not the only smart, techy reader who has a bad attitude toward the electronics companies, and thinks I’m too positive about them. A recent e-mail from Mike took me to the woodshed over the enthusiasm I’ve expressed for NMEA 2000 here and in PMY, and ended with, “You need to think hard about whether you are a reviewer, columnist, or cheerleader for the industry.” Ouch!
Don and Mike are both computer industry veterans and both have some points worth discussing, but first some generalities. Fellas, I have no dog in this fight! In fact I don’t even see a fight. There are perfectly good reasons that some boaters like dedicated electronics, others like computer centric solutions. I use both, and am enthusiastic that both are advancing (and, hey, I write for what are called “enthusiast” publications). The marine electronics industry is not a big nasty monolith out to do you you harm. It’s comprised of tiny to medium size companies, and a lot of generally decent people, competing to make products that make money. If one thought it could do that peddling a generic radar sensor, for instance, there’s nothing to stop them from trying. (I wish this would happen too, Don, but don’t see anyone to blame). And what is value? Getting a powerful system cheap, even if you have to do a lot of friggin around to make it all work? Getting a proprietary system that works pretty well and is all supported by one company, though expensive? There are many angles on this subject. Don, for instance, is using an expensive SeaView computer monitor (right) that came out a few years ago with much hoopla (so waterproof that it was exhibited in a fish tank). The brand didn’t last much longer than a year, and I’m not sure Don can even get his repaired at this point. Was that good value? Unfortunately this sort of thing has happened fairly often with marine computer gear, which has turned some boaters off on that choice. (I’m seeing boaters who used to navigate with laptops switching to plotters, because they’ve gotten so much better, and in a situation like Don’s—a 42’ sailboat—they can be mounted and used right at the helm). At any rate, I don’t get the anger, but will deal with more of Mike and Don’s feedback soon.
Over at rec.boats.electronics there’s a great thread underway about the ‘perfect’ built-in onboard computer. I’m particularly interested as I’ll likely go that route if and when I ever manage to finagle a larger cruising boat. In the meantime, last week I put some miles on the rather funky rig above (bigger here), and it actually performed pretty darn well, even gunkholing around the hairy unmarked ledges in Penobscot Bay’s outer waters (it was calm and clear). I used the old soft case (and sometimes a towel) to keep the laptop from sliding around. Valuable accessories are the Hoodman screen hood (really cuts glare, though I notice they don't seem to sell this model anymore), a tiny Atek optical USB mouse, and an old Deluo USB GPS (no WAAS and weak signals in my cabin, but still consistently accurate). Here I’m using Coastal Explorer 1.1 (now shipping), which is giving me that “the more I use it, the more I like it” feeling. It happens that the designer of CE has an interesting description of his own onboard PC system here.
It was just last week that Rich Ray sent me this screenshot of MacENC, a new version of his GPSNavX charting program that supports NOAA’s free ENC vector charts. But after Tuesday’s news about free raster charts, it no longer seems like a big deal. Now we know that by about next spring Rich and other developers will probably be able to sell their charting software on a DVD that includes the digital equivalent of every single NOAA U.S. paper chart, without any encryption hassels and at little added cost. And users will be able to update those charts weekly if they want (making that easy will be another chance for developers to add value). But ENCs aren’t going away. They’re better than RNCs in many ways, and they’re definitely the future. Eventually—when ENCs are perfected and coverage complete—NOAA will drop raster chart production altogether, even printing paper charts from the vector database (if they print charts at all). Right now it’s quite useful to have both RNCs and ENCs for the same area; each has data or display features that the other lacks. In fact, if I was a Mac person, I wouldn’t think twice about paying the extra $35 for MacENC. I’m looking forward to inexpensive DVDs loaded with both types of free U.S. charts.
By the way, breaking the raster story generated a record number of readers here at Panbo, and for a moment made me feel like Matt Drudge (in a good way). A big thanks to whoever it was out there e-mailing Panbo links all over the planet!
Coastal Explorer 1.1, the current thing (and a Maine story)
Aug 2, 2005
Rosepoint Navigation’s Coastal Explorer is now in “open Beta”, meaning it’s essentially done and available for download by all registered 1.0 users. The retail version should be coming along soon. The “1.1” tag is dry humor; there are so many major additions to the program that they could justify a jump to 5.0 or beyond if they felt like it. At any rate, above (bigger here) is an example of the new tides and current prediction functions. They are extremely well done; you can easily animate multiple onscreen tide and current stations and/or get graphic, tabular, or text info for any one station. Bravo!
I chose the particular area above so I could tell you something about coastal Maine, and the characters who live here. That light blue area (you really need to look at the full screen) is the Bagaduce River, which isn’t a river at all, but rather a long, complicated tidal bay (that extends well beyond the chart window). 10 feet of tide is trying to fill or drain that whole area every 6+ hours, hence the 2.3 kn current at the Jones Point station I’ve selected. The coast is so complex, and the prediction stations so spread out, that Maine boaters become amateur hydrographers, able to guesstimate current strength by looking at the chart and a tide table.
Mainers can also be crusty. The story goes that there was quite a contentious town meeting when that little bridge (lower right) was built. One gentlemen got up and said, “Why the hell should it cost so much; I could piss half away across there.” To which the moderator replied, “Sir, you’re out of order.” And got back: “You’re damn right I’m out of order; if I wasn’t I could piss all the way across!”
Above is output from a free program developed in France called GPSActionRelay. It is written in Java, and will suppossedly run on any operating system. Features include replay of several boats in a regatta, polar diagrams, VMG, speed averages, etc. It looks pretty complicated but apparently is used by some sailing teams and a number of geeky windsurfers. I’d like to know what hardware they carry on their boards at 46.7 knots (yi!), but couldn’t find any information. A Garmin wearable Forerunner perhaps? And if so couldn’t heart rate be graphed to speed?
A bonus of my trip to Annapolis was getting to try Maptech’s third generation i3. I first saw this system back in 2001, when it was being developed as the Sea Ray Navigator (and it’s still going on many new Sea Rays under that name, despite parent Brunswick’s own move into electronics). Last summer I enjoyed a live demo of the second generation system, which Maptech had begun to market on its own as i3. By then the developers had added radar plus optional touch screen versions of Weather Channel Marine and SkyMate. Now Maptech owns the contractor that actually builds the i3 hardware, and the new Type 3 is a significant upgrade. The screen is more stylish, more colorful, and brighter, and the software flys. Plus there are many interface improvements (besides the 3D fishfinder option). In the screen above (bigger here), notice how the radar range rings can be shown on the 3D screen to make better sense of relative scales. Notice too how the 3D is automatically exaggerated to make the good, and bad, sections of this relatively shallow river (hey, I live in Maine) obvious. Look at how well the radar is synched to the chart, despite the fact that there is no electronic compass in this particular install and we’re doing 26 knots (which is why the depth sounder isn’t reading; the transducer needed better fairing for high speed). It’s not shown but Type 3 also lets you remove the side menus, or make critical info semi transparent, so you get more chart on the 12” screen. And, finally, there’s now a 15” screen version too. i3/SRN is not just a unique concept; it’s an evolving family of functions.
Monitoring and control systems can potentially do anything. Once you have a system of sensors, cable backbones, PCs, screens, and so forth performing the core task of collecting and distributing information and system commands, well heck, why not blend in security, entertainment, communications, inventory/maintenance management, digital documentation…whatever. A case in point is Hyperion (above), the 157’ super yacht built in 1998 by Royal Huisman for the legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jim Clark. Clark had to start a small company called Seascape Communications to create the system he envisioned, and what a humdinger the resulting “Genisys” is. 24 onboard computers monitor 50,000 data points and display on 22 touch screens throughout the vessel. Clark and his crew could mind and manage everything from windshield wipers to ballast transfer pumps to e-mail wherever they wished onboard. Clark could even “cruise” the yacht by satellite from his den in California (or his airplane), leading to the waggish comment that it was the world’s largest remote control toy. And guests had their own screens mounted into berth-side drawers so that they can amuse themselves with the system’s 1200 CD’s on hard disk, 400 DVD’s in changers, world band tuners, and masthead cameras!
Since then, Clark had Royal Huisman build him the even larger yacht Athena, launched last fall, with more Seascape software on board. Now he’s announced the formation of CommandScape, which sounds like Seascape repurposed to automate large homes as well as yachts. Clark was the subject of the wonderful biography The New, New Thing, which begins with a hysterical description of Hyperion’s trail run in rough weather—failing computers, seasick film crew, et all…a must read excerpt here).
Big power outage here earlier this morning…coffee bean grinder no grind, DSL modem no blink…I’m definitely off my stride. I’m declaring this an OFI Friday, and will soon be off to fool with the fleet. If you’re stuck inside somewhere, you might want to picture yourself strolling down a dock with this Flintstone tablet PC in hand (for full effect, include the GSM whip antenna not screwed onto this prototype). I saw it displayed at a show once, and the developer’s site is still up, but I’ve never seen one in the field. In my fantasy, the case is carbon black and the boat I’m strolling toward is the Wally 118. Oh yeah.
I’m on the road to Annapolis where I’ll get to trial Maptech’s wild new fishfinder module for its i3 system, maybe catch a croaker too. The poor photo above is of a simulation playing at the Miami Boat Show introduction. You can see on the left a regular 2D fishfinder screen while on the right the fish targets have been placed into a 3D bathy model; among other things, you can control how long targets stay on screen so that you can learn where fish hang out over time. Then on Thursday I’m visiting Airmar, source of the transducer and processor behind this module, and much more. My posting may get a little raggedy.
A reader from Sydney, Australia, wrote to say that he’s happily using a NASA AIS Receiver with a program I hadn’t heard of called Software on Board (SOB) from DigiBoat. I gave it a brief looksee, above and bigger here, and was impressed that SOB comes with a 15 MB C-Map world map that’s detailed enough for large area voyage planning. For actual navigation you need full detail C-Maps on a CD or memory card (which you can buy from DigiBoat, ergo the business model). On the other hand, it doesn’t support other chart types, and I found the interface a little difficult—no standard drop-down menus and oddities like those scroll bars in the data windows (probably related to my particular screen resolution/font setup). It’s totally irrelevant, but I also wonder if SOB is as common a swear in Australia as it was in the house I grew up in?
PS: SOB does require registration and a key to access all features, but it really is free at the moment (it may eventually become shareware).
I’m back in Maine, but unfortunately won’t be able to make the Homecoming ceremony for single-hander Bruce Schwab that starts in Portland today. Bruce just sailed from France to Maine aboard his Open 60 Ocean Planet, which must have seemed like a day sail after two circumnavigations in three years, the second non-stop in 110 days racing the Vendee Globe. I understand that our Governor will declare today “Bruce Schwab Day”—kind of goofy, but wonderful to have this great sport better recognized here in the U.S.A.
I particularly wish I could make Bruce’s “Truly Offshore Seminar” on Sunday, which will include a discussion of electronics and “trouble-shooting and repairs on the run”. I got aboard OP in 2003, after the Around Alone race, and know that Schwab removed the Furuno radar and fixed PC/monitors he had then in favor of a lighter laptop with a Nobeltec PC radar dome. Many people think such a setup unreliable but it apparently held up fine on the grueling Vendee course, though there was a problem with the scanner’s tilt mount mechanics. Bruce’s posts describing how he amazingly got to, and fixed, the mount while underway are here (look around 12/21/04).
Comar has a new SLR100 single frequency AIS listener for £299 suggested UK retail (the SLR200 is £575). Since they now make both single and dual frequency, I asked them about the differences. It turns out that their receiver, unlike Nasa’s, automatically switches channels every minute. “The main reason behind this was that just occasionally we have seen ships with faulty transponders that are only transmitting on one channel, so we wanted to ensure we at least caught those some of the time.” The downside of this approach is that infrequent data—like an anchored ship’s name, sent on one frequency every 6 minutes—might slip by the auto switching for a long time.
I’m also learning that the AIS system allows “competent authorities” to manage frequency use in busy coastal areas (apparently the transponders can be remotely controlled by such authorities). Comar confirmed that “Authorized authorities can command individual or all vessels to shift to another frequency. Both the SLR100 and 200 use synthesized frequency controlled radios so that they can also shift frequency. Although the high seas frequencies for AIS will always be the default, it may be that as more congestion occurs in busy areas channel switching will become more prevalent, Tokyo Bay for instance use 2 local frequencies.” Thank you, Comar, for the information. Seems like the frequency issues are a little more complicated than they first appeared, and I intend to keep on digging.
Nobeltec just announced an InSight Sounder option for its VNS and Admiral charting+++ programs. The company can now supply the soft– and hardware for plotting, radar, AIS, and fishfinding, including a heading sensor and even a wireless display. Nobeltec has also established a relationship with SkyMate, the easy-to-use satellite messaging and monitoring system that I’ve followed with much interest. Their respective programs can now share a PC and sensors nicely, and maybe more (not much on either company’s sites yet). Finally, Nobeltec has slashed the price of its AIS listener (was it the first to offer AIS to yachts?), and is running some new rebate programs. And we can imagine that the lads in the lab are working on more ways to expand the total package.
Yesterday I was tickled to learn that Nasa’s AIS Radar and Engine will be marketed in U.S. under the well known Si-Tex brand (thanks, Pascal). That means U.S. sales and support. It also turns out that the Engine will put up AIS targets on a variety of Si-Tex plotters, like the Color Max below (just a mocked up screen). This AIS listener business is moving fast!
Correspondant Dan is psyched about the growing possibilites of Mac navigation for his 40’ sailboat. The starting point is GPSNavX, which offers a hell of a lot for $50, was extravagantly reviewed by Chuck Husick here, and will soon—according to Dan—support free NOAA ENC vector charts. Possible hardware includes a “Mac Mini, a normal 12-15" monitor for below decks, a sunlight monitor (like certain Big Bay screens sold by Tom MacNeil Electronics) for the helm w/mouse and buttons to control the software on the mini, BSB charts form Maptech, and a Nasa AIS Engine.” He also mentions a Mac compatible USB GPS whose links seem dead, but there are other choices; I like the looks of the USGlobalSat MR-350 cabin top model that can be bought with GPSNavX. Dan closes his description with that favorite Mac brag, “And, best of all: no viruses...” Us PC people are a little jealous about that, and about the Mini, which almost seems designed for a boat.
Seems-to-be-a-trend department: another correspondant, a true Uber Geek, wrote last night describing the elaborate system he’s putting together for a custom 50’+ power cruiser. “The helm support computers will be Mac Minis and the planning software will be GPSNavX, an insane value at $50!!”
One problem with putting together a high power marine WiFi system is the need to use finger-thick low-loss LMR 400 coax—the shorter the better—between the high-gain antenna and the radio. The stuff is hard to run and particularly ungainly when plugged into the dinky connector on a laptop’s PCMCIA card. One solution is a WiFi “Ethernet bridge” which can be installed near the antenna and then connected to the boat’s computer or network router via a slim, no-loss Ethernet cable. GeoSat Solutions has gone the next step by designing a 12v, 250 mW bridge into a waterproof box and packaging it with a 10 dB omni-directional antenna. This is a serious ($1,395) big boat system.
It’s a little confusing but note that one of these bridges—there are inexpensive non-marine versions—can connect to a conventional WiFi router. Thus a boater can use a normal WiFi laptop on board, connecting to shore via two WiFi hops. Here’s an interesting example of such a system installed on a Greenpeace vessel.
In addition to Kees’ report yesterday, Dan sent in a link describing another successful test of the Nasa AIS engine, this time in conjunction with GPSNavX charting software for Mac computers. (Thanks, Dan, and I’ll follow up on your other Mac navigation suggestions soon). PC Maritime's interesting Navmaster Superyacht AIS package (look in the Leisure section) includes the same Nasa engine, which passed the company’s own testing and is reportedly pleasing early users. Superyacht’s AIS display looks like the best I’ve seen to date. Click here for the full screen shot and notice how the vessel is drawn to correct scale and its predicted track, i.e. rate of turn, is shown along with its heading. The user gets to control what data gets shown with the AIS target, plus the sidebar neatly categorizes all possible AIS info. I still want to know if there's a downside to only receiving one AIS channel at a time (I've asked Nasa), but it sure is exciting to see AIS hardware, and software, rapidly becoming affordable for even medium size yachts.
Update: “The same data is sent alternately on both channels so listening on one channel only is not much of a limitation. (It means the unit would 'hear' data every 6 seconds rather than 3 seconds from a vessel travelling at speed.)” — Nasa Marine
I’d never heard of this Nasa AIS “Engine” before, but oddly got two e-mails yesterday that referenced it. It seems almost too good to be true: a simple AIS listener that can feed ship information to a PC’s serial port for a mere $200 (plus cost of VHF antenna). It’s sold by a U.K. firm here, but does not seem to be listed at its manufacturer’s site here. One spec I see that might be a deal breaker is that a user must “Select 161.975 or 162.025 MHZ operation”. I thought AIS devices automatically use both. Please, someone, educate me on these mysteries!
Update: Be sure to read the comment from reader Kees who owns one of these listeners, reports good performance, and terms it an “outstanding no unbelievable value...” Thanks, Kees!
This is the first NMEA 0183 multiplexor I know of that can automatically switch to a back up input for any one of three reasons — “a failure to send any NMEA data, an invalid NMEA sentence checksum, or if the validity flag(s) contained within the NMEA sentence indicate that this data is not valid and should only be used with caution (for GPS and Depth data)”. In other words, you could have 4 GPSs (or, more likely 2 GPSs and 2 sounders) feeding the best available data to, say, a plotter and a PC…no manual backup switches needed. Very slick. Actisense’s site has lots of good information on the NSW-1, and it’s available for 260 pounds from at least one English online retailer (the U.S. distributor is Gem Electronics, 843–394–3565).
Instead of buying this extremely pricey Itronix GoBook III I wrote about yesterday, you could also take a look at how PCs are entering the automotive environment. For most boaters this will be a perfect solution to all their entertainment and navigational needs. And since the car industry is providing economies-of-scale, prices will come down very fast.
"The compelling argument comes from the fact that a modern computer can do anything a car stereo can do and much, much more. Currently you can install name brand DVD, MP3, TV, radio, XM and navigation hardware into your car, costing you thousands and the possibility that it wont all work together. A computer in your car can offer up all those options and lots more to make sure you're distracted enough to plow through a farmers market. Internet access, encoded movies, gigs of MP3s, email, web browsing, in-car gaming, and even, *gag* office applications are just some of the things that a little box in the trunk can offer."
I have to agree with Gizmodo's statement that this is not the best looking laptop I've ever seen, but I'm sure some of you might still be interested in putting this machine to work on a boat...
"I feel kind of stupid, but Itronix actually told me about their new GoBook III here about a week ago, and I kept putting it off. Easily remedied, though, and gladly, because this ugly fucker actually hides a really nice laptop - Pentium M 1.8 GHz, Ati Radeon Mobility, all that good modular radio stuff - inside the typically ruggedized Itronix case."
SAIL Magazine highlights Rose Point's Coastal Explorer in their new gear section and they seem to like it. This product was released not so long ago.
"Coastal Explorer is a humdinger of a new PC charting program. It's remarkably fast and bug free for 1.0 software, deftly handles most raster-chart flavors as well as free NOAA vector ENCs, and has planning and underway interfaces that I find both comprehensive and comprehensible."
There's a new manufacturer of marine computer systems, Locomarine, primarily building Centrino based 'desktop' systems. At least conceptually they have a very good understanding of the value a PC can bring to any yacht. One of the simple but innovative features is the additional 'Dashboard control' unit with power on/off button, 4 USB ports and headphone jack.
"This new series 2000 model is based on high performance ultra low power consumption Pentium M (Centrino) 1.7+ GHz processor. It offers speed and usability as the strongest desktop machines with power consumption lower than many laptop models. 2000 model is prepared for usage of up to 4 independent LCD which give you a possibility to monitor all necessary information separately (radar, chart, NMEA information, sonar)."
Over at the World-Cruising Yahoo Group someone is considering to buy an Apple notebook for both navigation and business purposes. He has a couple of questions he needs answers to.
1. Is anyone out there using a Mac on their boat? Which one and how
is it working for you?
2. What applications (navigation, etc.) are there for the Mac?
3. If you have a Mac, would you keep your Mac or go back to a PC
(prices being what they are, by the time you get a PC up to the same
standards as the Mac, the price will be close to the same and so
price doesn't really enter into the equation)?
4. If you went back to a PC, would you use Windows or something like
Linux? Why?
Yesterday I read some news about MacGPS Pro, so that's a start, but I'm sure there's much more. If you have some tips, send me an email.
"MacGPS Pro works with almost all GPS receivers for a real-time display of GPS information on a moving map on the Macintosh screen, and allows import of maps from a variety of sources. These maps can be viewed with no GPS receiver connected, or used in real-time as a moving-map display."
So you would like to have a system onboard that integrates virtually every electrical and digital element that can be found on a typical megayacht so that you will be able to control it from various touchscreens? Superyacht reviews a solution developed by Naviops and Romagna.
"Imagine a central system that receives data from all the on-board sensors and systems, from those in the engine room for checking working status and engine efficiency to video cameras, intrusion sensors, fuel and water tank level sensors, radar, GPS, wind station, depth-finder, electrical switchboard, bilge pump alarms, air conditioning etc.. Well, all these data arrive at a central unit where, by means of touchscreen technology monitors, they are not only visible but can be controlled: this means that if we want to switch on the air conditioning for example we can do it from a monitor, just as we can modify the lighting conditions in each environment or carry out navigation by integrating the system with the plotter."
If you're considering to install a PC at the hart of your boat's systems, may be Stealth's new fanless LittlePC, rugged design, compact dimensions (10" x 5.82" x 2.79"), is something for you.
"Designed without cooling fans the rugged extruded aluminum chassis acts as a heat sink to dissipate internal heat and provide noise free operation. Littlepc.com's new Model LPC-401FL Fanless LittlePC is a small footprint PC that features an Intel 2.0 Celeron CPU clocked at 1.33GHz, passive cooled CPU processor that offers optimal heat dissipation and power consumption."
Some nice new rugged LCD displays from Trident, up to 21.3", allowing you some great 'views' in the cockpit...
"All three panels have viewing angles of 170 degrees in both axes, with a virtually symmetrical viewing cone. This means that colour shift and colour inconsistencies when viewing the display from extreme angles are almost eliminated. This is essential for mapping and other applications where colours are used to show vital information. This symmetry of viewing angle also means the panels can be used in portrait orientation as well as landscape - something which conventional panels aren't suitable for. This is the result of ID-Tech's Post-Spacer construction, which also yields very high colour consistency."
A GPS/Bluetooth combination is not something new, but this implementation by Mobile Tracker is quite nice because the device is battery powered as well. Which allows for a very easy set-up on any type of boat.
"Compact GPS Receiver with Bluetooth connectivity and a nine hour battery provides real time location information to any Bluetooth enabled devices such as SmartPhones, PocketPCs, Laptops, and Tablet PCs."
Would you like your computer (the one you've mounted in the cockpit..) to work while circumnavigating the Antarctic? JLT is a supplier of rugged computers that that can do just that and they have put some evidence online in order to proof it.
"JLT's line of computers are rugged (not ruggedized or semi-rugged) and are used in tough environments such as mining, construction, public safety, marine and logistics. They are built to withstand rough terrain, rain, dust and wind, extreme temperatures, water, etc."
Motor Boating Magazine takes a look at one of the ships participating in the Nordhavn Atlantic Rally, a high-seas adventure from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., to Gibraltar. There's a lot of electronics stuff on board this ship... Here are some of the highlights:
-“It’s the autopilot that’s the most important thing,” he says. And for autopilots, Kinney selected two Furuno NavPilot 500s and added a SC 60 GPS satellite compass."
-"The first display supports Furuno’s 1953C chartplotter with a powerful 12-kW radar for 72-mile range and 1.2-degree horizontal beam width for accurate target separation."
-"The second chartplotter, an 1833C, uses a smaller radar with dome antenna that will pump out 4-kW of power for a range of about 36 miles"
-"Called NT-Link, this is a little sister to C-MAP’s rugged commercial product, only it’s coupled with the NT recreational cartography. One notable feature of NT-Link is its ability to handle online chart updates."
-"But the real heart of the navigation package is Furuno’s NavNet system, which allows for multiple sensor displays on three different display screens—the two 10.4" monitors in the pilothouse and an additional 7" remote display on the bridge."
The early adopters of marine electronics can be found in the competitive fishing scene. Here's a story on a guy who outfitted his boat to the fullest extend. Like the article says: "he'll be at the helm of a boat with a control panel that resembles the Starship Enterprise"
"An impressive array of electronics -- everything from a laptop computer and wireless monitors to color sonar, a Lowrance LCX-104C, and global positioning system technology -- covers the dashboard of Samson's 20-foot Crestliner walleye fishing machine. As technological trappings go, not even Mr. Spock or Capt. Kirk could claim bragging rights over Samson."
Sunglasses With Integrated Instrument Displays...?
May 10, 2004
This may sound, and probably is, a bit far fetched, but heads up displays are coming, to the yachting scene as well. Someday. They're being used in the military right now and have found their way into the industry. While useful/usable applications for recreational sailing might take a while to appear, I guess that something like this could be valuable to those of you that are really into performance sailing. And don't forget the yachting maintenance and engineering industry.
"These screens, often referred to as "heads up" displays, are used extensively by the military, which is loading soldiers up with displays that help them do everything from seeing around corners to referencing global positioning maps."
Following up on a previous story on Stealth's LittlePC, here is the wireless LittlePC... Not such a bad idea by the way, certainly not on a boat where cables are even more of a hassle than at home. And with all these marina Wi-Fi hotspots popping up everywhere, it is an even better idea.
"Stealth today has released their latest LittlePC with 802.11b wireless capability. The model LPC-401XW can run at a blazing 3.2GHz making it the smallest most powerful feature rich machine available on the market. The built-in wireless Ethernet capability opens doors for many applications where traditional network cables could not be run. Mobile medical carts, movable kiosks, digital signs, factory floor connectivity and remote data acquisition are a few of the applications well suited for Stealth’s new LittlePC."
The Garmin Marine Network: How Not To Get Lost At Sea
Apr 16, 2004
Engadget discusses Garmin's new plug-and-play systems (GPSMAP 3010C & 3006C) that put GPS, weather, sonar, radar, and other important data at boaters’ fingertips. It also highlights Garmin's proprietary Marine Network, yet another alternative to NMEA 2000, the standard that somehow takes a long time to mature. One of the advantages of the Garmin approach is that it uses ethernet as a backbone. Since ethernet cables can be used for powering devices as well, this will make a supposedly plug and play boat network a lot less complicated in terms of wiring...
"From Garmin, a couple of new waterproof GPS handhelds designed specifically for seafarers. The GPSMAP 3010C (pictured above) has a 10.4-inch color LCD screen, while the GPSMAP 3006C has a smaller 6.4-inch screen. Both of them work with the Garmin Marine Network, Garmin's new line of peripherals that you can attach to the handhelds. The first two to be available will be the GDL 30, which connects to XM's satellite weather service and can download real-time graphical weather data (there's another version, the GDL 30A, if you want to tune into satellite radio, too), and the the GSD 20, for adding sonar. A marine radar attachment should be ready sometime next year."
Through Naval Technology I found some interesting rugged hardware. Some of the highlights:
This one looks like it could have been a good case modding project from a navy adept. But the specs will show that, if you require a PC on board, this one is built for it. It can be shock mounted and is sort of mobile as well...
Israeli BES System's"RCS-PC, and Mini RCS-PCs are rugged PC compatible computers specially designed and qualified for use in harsh Naval, Airborne and Ground mobile military environment. RCS-PC is built for full size ISA and/or PCI cards."
Miltope's Centrino laptop doesn't require a laptop bag, for that reason alone I've listed it here. Although not submersible like Itronix GoBook MAX, it's easy to carry around and definitely looks tough.
"The Miltope TSC-750M, featuring the new Intel® CentrinoTM Mobile Technology is the most versatile and compact rugged-militarized laptop computer available today. Designed and manufactured in the USA, the TSC-750M has been successfully qualified to MIL-STD-810/461/464. The TSC-750M also delivers the fastest-yet 3D video thanks to its ATI MOBILITYTM RADEONTM 9000 graphics accelerator – dramatically enhancing all aspects of the visual experience in every application."
My personal favorite is the GDC4S Mission Data Tool (MDT). It is a ruggedized PDA with a 400MHz Xscale Processor, BlueTooth, GPS and embedded radio interface. But the MDT's looks and form factor somehow really caught me.
"Mission Data Tool (MDT) - The Mission Data Tool (MDT), the latest product in the CHS-2 arsenal of rugged computing devices. The MDT is a ruggedized PDA that hosts Pocket PC 2002 as an operating system. Additionally, it can support a customer-ported LINUX environment. The MDT has been engineered to survive the rigors of the tactical battlefield, and has incorporated extensive soldier feedback into its design. The resulting product is a computing device that will be readily accepted by the deployed warfighter and homeland defenders."
Not sure if it is water resistant, but this looks like a nice solution for use in the cockpit, inside or outside.
"Nobu is now shipping a 12.4" in-wall touchscreen PC running Windows XP. This computer is designed to work with home networking and automation systems. Nobu, based in Costa Mesa, CA, manufactures a variety of "PC touch screen products for clients in the Residential, Commercial, and Industrial sector."
Yachting World's May issue reviews an electronic chart system, LookSea, that uses a 360-degree "pan-and-tilt" video camera and 3D interface to make navigating more easy and safe. Through the advanced technology of augmented reality, LookSea enhances your electronic navigational picture with continuous, real-time views of the surrounding ocean. LookSea happens to be a sort of spin-off from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), where the owners of the company behind LookSea used to do research into augmented reality. And funny enough, the system was even tested on the predecessor of the U.S. Navy's High Speed Vessel (HSV) SWIFT which I wrote about yesterday.
For more reviews of this interesting system you can visit Klein Associates. At the bottom of the page you will find some relevant links.
"LookSea Pro is the most advanced electronic chart system available and can also provide a focal point for your integrated bridge system. The LookSea system takes video data from an exterior camera, converts electronic chart data into computer generated, 3D graphics and synchronizes those images with GPS and heading data to create an augmented view of your situation on a video monitor."
In an article discussing assistive technologies in sailing I came across YachtAware, a company which creates integrative technology that connects navigational instruments to a main computer. In this case it helped disabled people compete in the Transpac, but it could be a good solution for many.
"YachtAware installed one of its systems on the B'Quest. It placed sensors all over the 40-foot yacht: including the sails, the hull, water tanks, and the engines. The sensors are hooked up to the main computer that provides instant information and makes recommendations on a course of action. The sensors also sound an alarm when someone goes beyond the railing, possibly falling overboard. "It even translates Morse code, which I don't know," Miyares said. "It's important to communicate to other ships during emergencies." Also, if the boat breaks away from its anchor the YachtAware system calls the skipper's cell phone to relay what happened."
If your communications, networking and securtity needs are extensive you'd might consider Virtek's CommBox. It combines a router, email server, least cost route switch, and lot's of other features in one box. Altough developed with large vessel requirements in mind, increasingly private yachts will be equiped with these types of solutions as well.
"CommBox is designed not only for today's data communication requirements, but also with the future in mind. Anything that can communicate through the Internet can communicate through CommBox. CommBox supports all standard mail clients. It can run as a stand-alone e-mail server or as a mail relay server to enhance the performance of existing mail systems. CommBox utilizes dedicated black box technology for superior stability compared to software solutions. Configuration is easy as any user with privileges can control CommBox from any computer in the network with a web browser. CommBox supports all dial-up connections, MPDS and leased line."
Cheyenne's record attempt is nearing a successful end, but this quote from one of the crew shows us why it is important to have the right equipment.
"For now the rain pours down, and we are happy to be maintaining 10kts of boatspeed. Any hour, the sky should clear, the north-easter fill, and the boat begin to pound into trade wind swells. The crew has profited from the downpour to shower and wash clothes between sail changes. Unfortunately, the humidity has killed the crew correspondence computer. Efforts are underway to resuscitate it, but I suspect a soggy motherboard."
Although there has been a lot of writing around Panasonics' Toughbook, there is another big player, Itronix, when it comes to deploying 'ruggedized' notebooks in the difficult military environment. It is also preferred choice for many boaters.
"The worst test (those with a sensitive disposition may want to skip this part) was to load up a Barney game on the machine and deploy them to kids at a pool. The tots actually played the program underwater and surprisingly the Itronix survived even though there were other (unnamed) notebooks in the test apparently that didn't."
It's not because the are the best or the first, but the news that HP has introduced a rugged notebook (nr3600) and a rugged Tablet PC (tr3000) shows that these types of computers are becoming mainstream. And that's good news, from a pricing perspective, for the non-industrial users that would like to use them on a boat for instance...
"The computer giant on Thursday unveiled a rugged notebook PC and tablet PC designed to absorb punishment from vibration or shock, repel water during inclement weather--and keep on working. "After listening to customers in industries such as the public sector, government and law enforcement, we're responding to their needs by bringing rugged, mobile solutions into the mainstream.""
The concept of marinas offering Wi-Fi internet access will by now be clear to most. Fortunately, more and more service providers are popping up, all over the world. YachtMama's YachtSpot is the latest, so check out whether you're lucky enough to be able to get your email on board very soon.
"Providing a dependable Internet connection at a marina and surrounding areas is similar to the wireless internet in your home or office. This system allows slip renters and visitors access to your private connection. Our systems are capable of extending the signal at up to 1+ miles out to sea. Users can easily check email, news, weather, stock performance, or nautical maps while mooring on their boat."
Also today, D-Link has introduced the AirPremier DWL-2700AP, the first weatherproof 802.11b/g (2.4GHz) wireless access point for use in marinas or on large yachts.
"With a die-cast watertight housing and a built-in heater, the 11-by-6-inch inch device can withstand rain, snow, sleet, humidity and even a lightning strike, the company says. It draws power through an Ethernet network cable and is compatible with the latest network management and wireless security protocols. It has a range of nearly 2,000 feet, and available antennas can extend that even further."
Since I was discussing Bluetooth-enabled devices already, here is a round-up of different Bluetooth GPS receivers currently available. Although the review is focused on the use of these devices together with PDA's with streetmap software installed, they are compliant with NMEA standards. This means they will work with your Pocket PC navigation software as well. Just beware of the fact that they are not necessarily ready for use in a (harsh) maritime environment.
There is definitely a benefit in using this type of solution over using something like Mitac's Pocket PC with integrated GPS: "The major benefit of a Bluetooth-enabled GPS receiver is that it doesn’t have to be physically connected to the Pocket PC. That eliminates a tangle of cables that dangle in your way while you are walking or driving. In addition, Bluetooth solutions let you position the GPS receiver for optimal GPS reception, and your Pocket PC separately for the best viewing. Bluetooth can travel around corners, and through clothing and other material."
I've talked about the potential of radar and navigation capabilities on cellphones before, but in Japan it is already happening. Although currently meant for navigation in a city environment, it's a perfect example of how cellphones are becoming powerful enough to perform such functions. Combine that with the fact that both cellphones and marine instruments are becoming more and more Bluetooth-enabled, so they can communicate wirelessly, and you will realize that we don't need a dedicated navigation-PC anymore.... Just the monitor.
"Japanese firms Index and Jicoux have developed a navigation system application that runs on 3G GPS phones with digital compasses (which, at the moment, means KDDI's au service in Japan). It includes the ability to show a "radar display" of the location of nearby friends, places of interest, or bus and train stations useful in getting to your destination. There's also a B2B aspect to the service in that, as with most web-based map systems, it would be possible to pay to have your business location displayed on the radar."
I've been waiting for something like this, and I know I'm not the only one. To have easy access to a database with up-to-date and detailed marina information is a great step forward, especially when cruising in unknown areas. And it will just be a matter of time before innovative services will be offered as an add-on. I would not be surprised to see some community driven and/or open source alternatives very soon however.
"Coming soon to the site will be the ability to make slip reservations and other important arrangements right over the Internet, as well as direct to one's chart plotter. Users will also be able to store screen pictures and routes saved in the 'My Marina' section."
The BBC is running a story on the advances of in-car entertainment. It's not difficult to see how all of this can be applied to yachts as well. Especially the smaller, multi-cabin, boats will benefit from the economies of scale that are being realized in the automotive industry. It's not difficult, nor very expensive (Amazon), to create a personalized entertainment set-up in every cabin. And in the cockpit or saloon as well for that matter. In case you don't feel like any roof-mounted displays, why not use Sony's new wireless Air Board (LF-X1) which is for sale as of last Friday.
One other nice feature that is discussed by the BBC article is voice-control over all these entertainment devices. Again, the development in the automotive sector will create a precedent for yachting. Voice-control can not only be applied to entertainment, but to navigation as well, even more since PC technology is making a strong entry into the maritime environment.
"We're also building in 20GB hard drives Now you can take your home movies, and potentially other DVDS, record them onto a disc, record them onto a unit and keep them in the car. Now you don't actually have to bring in the DVD or the discs."
"A lot of it is voice-controlled and voice-interactive as well, the navigation systems, for example. But voice technology is far from perfect, and a screen can also be a life-saver. A rear view mirror can be connected to a video camera on the back bumper, or simply show an image of the backseat, obviously of potential use for baby monitoring."
Came across a company, Kent Modular Electronics, supplying marinised multipurpose LCD displays. They have a new 23.1'' model. Great for displaying instrument data, but even better for watching "A Perfect Storm" in the cockpit when anchored in a nice and calm Caribbean bay... Not sure if it is an NEMA 4/4X industrial grade monitor, but if it isn't you can always go for Stealth's 21'' monitor, which is waterproof.
"KME has ruggedised a high resolution TFT panel and a versatile analog-digital converter board. A milled aluminium front plate gives exceptional stability to the construction. Brightness is dimmable for night operation by rotary control on the front plate. The AC power indicator (LED) luminance is controlled by a photo-diode for automatic dimming as the ambient lighting reduces. The Dimming Ratio is > 2000:1. Resolutions up to 1600 x 1200 pixels can be displayed with superb image quality. A multi-layer coated toughened glass panel gives contrast enhancement as well as protection to the TFT panel itself. The MP version will also display PAL/NTSC signals."
Earlier this week I posted about two high-end marinized PCs that recently got on the market. Stealth's LPC-401X and Capax's IPC-2402-MARINE-P4. Since I had no experience with either one of them, I let the experts do the talking. Gizmodo tipped Stealth as the winner, and Glenn Ashmore provided a compelling case for this machine as well on Google Groups.
"The Stealth is an extremely ruggedly built industrial computer and with audio, USP and Firewire on the front panel and the back it is a lot more
convenient to use. While it is not IEC-945 certified it is desighed for mounting on machines in a factory environment and would meet the vibration and shock load test better than the CAPAX. The only question I would have is the requirement for 10 minutes of 2KV 2.5Khz pulses into the supply line. That spec looks like it is to test normal mains 120/240V filtered power supplies and would probably not be appropriate for 18VDC supplies."
"If you are on a 75' or larger mega yacht that otherwise qualifies for SOLAS, the CAPAX it may be worth it but for a typical 40-50' yacht constrained for space and power the Stealth would definitely be a better choice."
Maptech introduced a new product callled i3 which is basically a touch-screen interface to all important navigation data. It looks very good, and from a usability perspective this product is a nice example of a trend that will hopefully continue.
"If seeing is believing, then Maptech believes that just OneTouch of the i3 will introduce you to a totally new and exciting way to navigate. The i3 is an all-in-one solution that is built around OneTouch options. The sunlight viewable large marinized color touch-screen display lets you view and change charts and create a route and a lot more by just touching the screen."
Stealth Computer has come out with a nice new small form rugged PC, named LittlePC. Perfect for an install in a small environment close to a navigation table. Specs look good, but I don't think it's tested according to the IEC 945 standard like the marinized PC we mentioned yesterday. But then again, the price probably isn't the same either.
"The LPC-401X is an Intel Pentium-4 based small form computer system that is part of Stealth’s growing family of LittlePC’s. Housed in a rugged extruded aluminum enclosure this powerful & versatile machine runs a screaming 3.2GHz Processor and yet it can fit into the palm of your hand. The LPC-401 measures out at only 10" x 5.8" x 2.8" (about the size of a hard cover novel) and offers features that have only been available in traditional bulky desktop PC’s."
Finding a PC that can be used in the harsh marine environment is already difficult enough. But to find a marinised PC that rivals the performance of most regular High-End PCs was supposed to be impossible. However, a specialist company called Capax has one on offer. The "IPC-2402-MARINE-P4 - 4U IEC 945 Marine approved computer". Sounds impressive, and it is. Up to 3.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 with 800 MHz bus, a 10000 rpm SATA HDD and up to 15 RS-232/422/485 com ports. More importantly it is tested, and approved, according to the IEC 945 standard (and the Lloyds ENV2 specification), which was developed by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), as a means of testing whether computers are able to function in the maritime environment. Apart from the obvious rocking of the ship, the computers must be able to withstand the vibration, power drops and power surges. It must be able to high humidity and condensation, and be resistant to radio disturbance from other electrical equipment nearby.
So far I haven't been able to figure out what the price of this machine is, so if anybody knows, drop me line.
Over at Google Groups a discussion is going on that focuses on LCD displays that are able display NMEA data.
dbp:"With the cost of instrument maxis (mast displays) so high, has anyone out there come up with a simple solution? It seems like it would be fairly easy to have a program to read and direct the NMEA sentence to a commonly available LCD display. Use a plam pilot or similar to run a selection of what to display and to direct the info to a display. Any ideas?"
Glen \"Wiley\" Wilson:"...Don't forget to get something seriously water resistant as well. At least one of my customers uses a standard external lcd dsplay with his laptop and my program. He uses a bracket to swivel the display into the companionway for viewing, and out of the way when not needed. It's protected from the weather and direct sun by the companionway hatch cover when in use. It should be visible from the helm on most boats. Whether the trimmers can see it or not depends on the boat."
Interesting story in The Digital Ships' January newsletter (pdf) about the deployment of a 'Voyage Management System' that has a wireless (Wi-Fi) extension. This deployment is done on a large vessel, but some elements will definitely be useful on smaller (private) yachts as well. One of the more innovative features is that, via the handheld, the crew can check where passenger are in emergency situations using RFID tags. That, in combination with another feature mentioned below, makes it a great Big Brother tool...:
"The pocket computer can also show CCTV pictures from cameras around the ship, and history of where the ship has been and the alarms which have sounded. It can also serve as a trigger for the ship security alert system, so that seafarers anywhere on the ship can sound the alarm if the vessel is in an emergency. (Furthermore,) the wireless communications technology can carry voice communications, so the handheld device can effectively act as a radio."
If you are considering a PC for on board use, please have a look at the FlipStart Mini PC. Over the years there have been several attempts at producing such a small laptop, without giving up on performance. It looks like someone finally succeeded. It is a very portable one and allows you to connect wirelessly to any network, which is a huge advantage.
"Additionally, the unit will ship with MobileMail which "enables a more efficient email experience on low bandwidth connections while preserving battery life", and MiddleMan navigational software, which most likely refers to navigating on screen (scrolling and the like) which is aided by the scroll wheel on the right side of the unit."
Wireless displays have a bright future in yachting
Feb 16, 2004
Wireless displays, not Tablet PC's which are PC in themselves, will definitely have benefits when used while sailing. They will easily decouple the display from a computer that is used for navigation and all other kinds of purposes. Especially when they are water-resistant they should allure to sailors and Panasonic Toughbook MDWD Wireless Monitor is a good example.
"While not specifically designed for boats, this innovative addition to the Toughbook line will interest navigators who want flexible access to a yacht’s PC system. It weighs only 1.5 pounds, and its 8.4-inch, 800x600 pixel, color touchscreen LCD is both transflective and powerfully backlit."
Sailing World is running an article on how wires are being obsoleted by some interesting wireless technology developments. This could save cost and improve sailing performance at the same time.
"Is it far-fetched fantasy? Nope, we're talking here and now. With advances in wireless technology driven by worldwide market demand, racers can either equip their boat with a complete wireless system or upgrade existing instrument systems for wireless data retrieval and display. Wireless technology will allow racers to shave weight all over the boat. There may even be cost savings in boat construction, as boatbuilders will no longer have to spend precious time leading wires."
bodes well. Also at CES, Spot announced a 
improvements besides a major size reduction (though that folding antenna is still large enough to impress the swabbies). Globalstar has 
I've been evaluating Xenarc's 10" touchscreen monitor for the past two months, having purchased it from 
some awesome electronics. 
even on cloudy days. I got it from Hoodman but now they only seem to have a 
Yesterday 
At METS, the U.K. company TackTick—a prior 
Whoa, things are happening even faster than enthusiastic yours truly 
n NMEA 0183 format (or 2000) via bare wire, standard serial plug, USB, Bluetooth, etc. etc. I have a cheap 
The marine electronics industry is not a big nasty monolith out to do you you harm. It’s comprised of tiny to medium size companies, and a lot of generally decent people, competing to make products that make money. If one thought it could do that peddling a generic radar sensor, for instance, there’s nothing to stop them from trying. (I wish this would happen too, Don, but don’t see anyone to blame). And what is value? Getting a powerful system cheap, even if you have to do a lot of friggin around to make it all work? Getting a proprietary system that works pretty well and is all supported by one company, though expensive? There are many angles on this subject. Don, for instance, is using an expensive SeaView computer monitor (right) that came out a few years ago with much hoopla (so waterproof that it was exhibited in a fish tank). The brand didn’t last much longer than a year, and I’m not sure Don can even get his repaired at this point. Was that good value? Unfortunately this sort of thing has happened fairly often with marine computer gear, which has turned some boaters off on that choice. (I’m seeing boaters who used to navigate with laptops switching to plotters, because they’ve gotten so much better, and in a situation like Don’s—a 42’ sailboat—they can be mounted and used right at the helm). At any rate, I don’t get the anger, but will deal with more of Mike and Don’s feedback soon.
I’m back in Maine, but unfortunately won’t be able to make the 
I particularly wish I could make Bruce’s “Truly Offshore Seminar” on Sunday, which will include a discussion of electronics and “trouble-shooting and repairs on the run”. I got aboard OP in 2003, after the Around Alone race, and know that Schwab removed the Furuno radar and fixed PC/monitors he had then in favor of a lighter laptop with a Nobeltec PC radar dome. Many people think such a setup unreliable but it apparently held up fine on the grueling Vendee course, though there was a problem with the scanner’s tilt mount mechanics. Bruce’s posts describing how he amazingly got to, and fixed, the mount while underway are 
Comar
Nobeltec just announced an 
One problem with putting together a high power 
In addition to Kees’ report 
I’d never heard of this Nasa AIS “Engine” before, but oddly got two e-mails yesterday that referenced it. It seems almost too good to be true: a simple AIS listener that can feed ship information to a PC’s serial port for a mere $200 (plus cost of VHF antenna). It’s sold by a U.K. firm 
This is the first NMEA 0183 multiplexor I know of that can automatically switch to a back up input for any one of three reasons — “a failure to send any NMEA data, an invalid NMEA sentence checksum, or if the validity flag(s) contained within the NMEA sentence indicate that this data is not valid and should only be used with caution (for GPS and Depth data)”. In other words, you could have 4 GPSs (or, more likely 2 GPSs and 2 sounders) feeding the best available data to, say, a plotter and a PC…no manual backup switches needed. Very slick. Actisense’s site has lots of good information on the 
Instead of buying this extremely pricey Itronix GoBook III I wrote about 
I have to agree with Gizmodo's 
SAIL Magazine 
Over at the World-Cruising Yahoo Group someone is 
If you're considering to install a PC at the hart of your boat's systems, may be Stealth's new fanless 
Some nice 
JLT is a supplier of rugged 
-“It’s the autopilot that’s the most important thing,” he says. And for autopilots, Kinney selected two Furuno NavPilot 500s and added a SC 60 GPS satellite compass."
The early adopters of marine electronics can be found in the competitive fishing scene. Here's a story on a guy who outfitted his boat to the fullest extend. Like the 
This may sound, and probably is, a bit far fetched, but heads up displays are 
Following up on a 
This one looks like it could have been a good case modding project from a navy adept. But the specs will show that, if you require a PC on board, this one is built for it. It can be shock mounted and is sort of mobile as well...
Miltope's Centrino 
My personal 
Not sure if it is water resistant, but this 
Yachting World's May 
For more reviews of this interesting system you can visit 
In an 
"CommBox is designed not only for today's data communication requirements, but also with the future in mind. Anything that can communicate through the Internet can communicate through CommBox. CommBox supports all standard mail clients. It can run as a stand-alone e-mail server or as a mail relay server to enhance the performance of existing mail systems. CommBox utilizes dedicated black box technology for superior stability compared to software solutions. Configuration is easy as any user with privileges can control CommBox from any computer in the network with a web browser. CommBox supports all dial-up connections, MPDS and leased line."
Although there has been a lot of 
It's not because the are the best or the first, but the 
"The computer giant on Thursday unveiled a rugged notebook PC and tablet PC designed to absorb punishment from vibration or shock, repel water during inclement weather--and keep on working. "After listening to customers in industries such as the public sector, government and law enforcement, we're responding to their needs by bringing rugged, mobile solutions into the mainstream.""
The concept of marinas offering Wi-Fi internet access will by now be clear to most. Fortunately, more and more service providers are popping up, all over the 
Also today, D-Link has introduced the AirPremier DWL-2700AP, the first weatherproof 802.11b/g (2.4GHz) wireless access point for use in marinas or on large yachts. 
Since I was 
I've been waiting for something like 
One other nice feature that is discussed by the BBC article is voice-control over all these entertainment devices. Again, the development in the automotive sector will create a precedent for yachting. Voice-control can not only be applied to entertainment, but to navigation as well, even more since PC technology is making a strong entry into the maritime environment.
Came across a company, 
"KME has ruggedised a high resolution TFT panel and a versatile analog-digital converter board. A milled aluminium front plate gives exceptional stability to the construction. Brightness is dimmable for night operation by rotary control on the front plate. The AC power indicator (LED) luminance is controlled by a photo-diode for automatic dimming as the ambient lighting reduces. The Dimming Ratio is > 2000:1. Resolutions up to 1600 x 1200 pixels can be displayed with superb image quality. A multi-layer coated toughened glass panel gives contrast enhancement as well as protection to the TFT panel itself. The MP version will also display PAL/NTSC signals."
"The Stealth is an extremely ruggedly built industrial computer and with audio, USP and Firewire on the front panel and the back it is a lot more 
Maptech 
More importantly it is tested, and approved, according to the IEC 945 standard (and the Lloyds ENV2 specification), which was developed by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), as a means of 
Interesting story in The Digital Ships' January 
If you are considering a PC for on board use, please have a 
"While not specifically designed for boats, this innovative addition to the Toughbook line will interest navigators who want flexible access to a yacht’s PC system. It weighs only 1.5 pounds, and its 8.4-inch, 800x600 pixel, color touchscreen LCD is both transflective and powerfully backlit."
"Is it far-fetched fantasy? Nope, we're talking here and now. With advances in wireless technology driven by worldwide market demand, racers can either equip their boat with a complete wireless system or upgrade existing instrument systems for wireless data retrieval and display. Wireless technology will allow racers to shave weight all over the boat. There may even be cost savings in boat construction, as boatbuilders will no longer have to spend precious time leading wires."