Panbo Forum

Mac Mini and MSTZ

2012-02-10T18:53:23Z

I'm thinking of moving MSTZ to a Mac Mini versus my Mac Book Pro. This will give me a better mounting option and hopefully similar performance.

My question for anyone with a similar setup is this: Are you running the Integrated Graphics chipset or the dedicated graphics chipset? And is the 256 mb of ram enough to run the program?

Thanks for the input.

HOLIDAY IN THE COUNTRY

2012-02-09T11:45:08Z

www.lopatnica.com

HOLIDAY IN THE COUNTRY, Lopatnica oasis of peace: beautiful unspoiled nature, clear streams, mountain rivers, clean air, spring water,
peace and quiet, traditional home cooking, friendly hosts.
Visit us, spend a pleasant holiday, recharge the batteries in the beautiful natural surroundings. Be our guests.
Sincerely, Lopatnica OASIS OF PEACE.
Visit us, spend a pleasant holiday, recharge the batteries in the beautiful natural surroundings. Be our guests. Sincerely, Lopatnica OASIS OF PEACE ...

HOLIDAY IN THE COUNTRY, Lopatnica oasis: beautiful unspoiled nature, clear streams, mountain rivers, clean air, spring water, peace and quiet, traditional home cooking, friendly hosts
VILLAGE and Lopatnica river, are located at 26km from Kraljevo towards Raska, IN THE VALLEY OF CENTURIES. At about half way between the monastery Zica and Studenica, near the medieval town Maglic at the foot of the mountain Troglav extends this beautiful landscape in which the word HOLIDAY ... get a real sense
RURAL HOUSEHOLD Vukicevic and Filipovic have more rooms and suites, furnished with taste, for everyone's soul and a pleasant atmosphere complements our friendly hostess who will do anything that you feel as if you come with friends or family. With home cooking and affordable your vacation will be enjoyable, relaxing and memorable. Once you come, will come ... always.
Facilities that provide you with accommodation, such as rafting on the Ibar River, 20km from the boat landing Maglic downstream to Kraljevo, walking and climbing up a mountain with a guide to over Troglav 1100 meters above sea level, trout fishing river which is our natural habitat, catching crabs in nearby streams or swimming in the beautiful landscaped or natural bathing and whirlpools in the river Lopatnica, enrich your stay with us. Riding bikes, visiting the nearby monastery, hunting and hiking are just some of the activities that you can afford here at very reasonable prices ...
Visit us, spend a pleasant holiday, recharge the batteries in the beautiful natural surroundings. Be our guests. Sincerely, Lopatnica OASIS OF PEACE

chart plotter features

2012-01-29T22:26:38Z

I'm look for a mfd that allows me to customize the depth contour colors.

My understanding is the raymarine products and simrad products are limited. By the navonicics charts that they use.

Having the depth contours at 2 feet above my draft helps my wife get more comfortable with navigation.

Thank you

Panbo Classifieds soft launch! Free ads!

2012-01-27T17:29:20Z

The Panbo elves have been building a new section called Panbo Classifieds and it's almost ready to be announced on the main page and get a spot on the top menu.

It's meant to give Panbo readers a free and easy way to buy and sell used marine electronics. And also to provide small manufacturers, apps developers, installers, distributors, etc. long-term exposure to Panbo readers at a very reasonable cost.

But in fact all ads are now free, and extra features are marked way down, while we beta test the site and gather an audience. Please visit the section; please put up a free ad for your product, service, or used electronics; and please give us feedback of any variety. Thanks!

Fan Belt Alarm

2012-01-24T13:52:09Z

I have a Perkins diesel with an alarm/buzzer that goes off if it gets too hot or the oil pressure is too low. Along with this buzzer is a red light that comes on if these problems occur. I installed an alternator warning light to come on if my alternator fails or if the alternator belt fails. This alternator belt also turns the fresh water cooling pump on the engine. What I would like to have is for this buzzer to also go off if the fan belt breaks. In the bright sun the alternator fail light is hard to see and if only takes a short time for the engine to overheat when the belt does break. If I had this buzzer I would know as soon as the belt breaks instead of when the over temperature sensor turns the buzzer on. This oil press/water temp buzzer goes off when it receives a ground from either engine sensors so ideally I'd like to build a circuit, or buy a unit, that would also put out a ground to this buzzer if the alternator fails (belt breaks). Any ideas of designs? JC

CES 2012

2012-01-18T15:59:53Z

Panasonic introduced an Android Tablet at CES; the ten inch Toughpad A1 display claims 500 nits, daylight readability,XGA (4:3) resolution, capacitive multi-touch with anti-reflective and anti-glare treatment and a built in ambient light sensor. It is priced at $1300.
Panasonic's idea of daylight readability differs from mine.

Tablets at CES

2012-01-13T16:49:07Z

nmea 0183 from 2000 on laptop?

2011-12-24T05:04:48Z

has anyone heard of a translation program that will run on a pc? i've got an airmar nmea2000 to usb converter, but want to use polarcom, which only talks 0183. it seems to me that getting a hardware bridge, then an 0183 to usb adapter, to get 0183 onto the pc is somewhat ridiculous. i would consider costal explorer express, which Does speak 2000, but it has no instruments.

ultimately, i'm looking to utilize a chartplotter program and make use of an airmar pb200's data. while the PB comes with Weathercaster, which is nice on it's own, it doesnt appear to lend itself well to sharing a screen as well as polarcom's instuments.

anyone been down this road?

TIA,
matt

Calibration of CS4500 Ultrasonic Speed

2011-12-22T06:51:41Z

In a followup further question regarding the CS4500 ported into an NMEA2000 network, does anyone have any specific experience regarding it's calibration?

IO read DDW's comments from 2009 regarding their calibrating one through the Raymarine Speed Pod and an ST70, but I'm wondering if there's an absolute need to buy an ST70 to get menaingful speed readings?

We run Maretron DSM250 displays, and I don't really want to buy an ST70 just to calibrate the CS4500.

Maybe the CS4500 doesn't need in-situ calibration? Is it good enough off the shelf?

Anyone have any good advice?

Merry Christmas,

Paul.

Android Tablets and Navionics

2011-12-21T23:58:34Z

I was primed to get an Ipad and Navionics Charts for the Caribbean. Then I found you need the 3G cell version to get the internal GPS. So I looked around some more and found the new ASUS Android Transformer Prime sports a "brighter" display at a much lower cost. But Navionics does not list even the earlier Transformer as "compatible". Or the newest one.

Can anyone tell me if I should expect Navionics charts to work on the Asus Prime?

Thanks, Bob
M/V Mar Azul
Marigot Saint-Martin

Habey PC with CANBUS header

2011-12-21T20:56:20Z

I got a press release from Habey today about the BIS-6625 PC which amongst other awesome things, also has a CANBUS header on the board. CANBUS is the automotive standard that NMEA was dervied from, so I assume the wiring is very close.

This looks to me like the first step toward a PC connected direct to NMEA2000 without a gateway!

Any of you more knowledge about the standards know how compatible the pinouts\wiring are? Of course drivers would be needed, but that's the easy part (says the software guy).

-patrick
Anchored at Isla Parajores waiting for the dredge to get out the channel so we can enter Marina El Cid, Mazatlan.

Broadband Radar vertical beam width?

2011-12-21T14:47:48Z

I have bought a Simrad 3G radar and am trying to figure the best height to mount it on the mast. According to the 3G/4G manual it is best to mount it so that you get a clear view from the radar beam at a 25 degree angle down. Less acceptable is an angle from the radar of 12.5 degree according to the pictures. So to me the specs should be a vertical beam width of 50 degrees not the 25 degree that is listed?

For the Simrad 2K radar the specs say it is a vertical beam width of 30 degrees and their pictures show that the radar should have a clear view of 15 degrees. If this is correct it appears that the broadband has almost twice as much vertical beam width. Does this seem right?

Last point, if this is true then I would guess that broadband radar would be less susceptible to heeling affecting the quality of the radar signal? If so I would be more likely to go to a fix mount vice self leveling.....

thanks for any input,

Richard

Connecting the Airmar CS4500 Ultrasonic speed sensor to N2K through a DT800

2011-12-21T09:39:51Z

Hi all,

I love the idea of an ultrasonic speed sensor because of all the issues everyone is aware of with physical paddle-wheels, but it looks like the Airmar NMEA2000 version of this isn't going to be forthcoming anytime soon.

However, I came across an Airmar "Smart Sensor" document entitled "Smart Sensors: Smarter and Well Connected" which says:

"• Smart™ depth transducers can accept input from Airmar's analog speed sensors which eliminates the need for an NMEA combiner and requires only one cable to be routed to display screen"

Basically they are saying that their analogue speed sensors can connect to an N2K network through a DT800 sensor. The example they give is an S650 speed sensor connected to a DT800.

Has anyone confirmed that this is possible?

Has anyone tried it with the CS4500 (Dan, that's you're cue :))?

I know that some of you have used Raymarine's Speed Pod to connect to N2K, but this would be a much cheaper and more elegant solution if it's true.

I've emailed Airmar with the same question, but thought it'd be interesting to get Panbots' views from the practical world.

Cheers, and Merry christmas all,

Paul.

Problems posting replies on forum topics

2011-12-20T03:08:58Z

Hi,

Sorry to use a post for this, but not sure how else to bring it up. I've posted 2 replies to the "PB200 question for Dan Corcoran" topic on the Installation forum. (1 was an attempted repeat when my first one seemingly wasn't posted).

On the Forum's main page, it shows that there are new replies, but when I go into the topic I can't actually see the replies.

Is this a problem just for me, or a general problem.

Anyway, I thought I should post it for Ben's attention. I've posted this to the same installation area, although it should probably have just been to general. Sorry if I've used the wrong process to bring this up.

Cheers,
Paul.

NMEA 2000 Data Logger

2011-12-12T23:24:56Z

Are there any NMEA 2000 modules that log the data from the network and are also powered by the network (i.e., they don't draw much power).

I am finding leaving on the PC just isn't practical for me so I'm looking for some other data logging ideas.

Thanks!
-p