Technology is entering the boating world in many ways. The city of Amsterdam just announced (in Dutch) they will collect harbour/water taxes by SMS, cutting back on administration efforts and increasing ease of use. A similar system would of course be great for collecting mooring fees as well, in the same way that you can pay for your parking tickets in many European cities already.
Came across the new Sony DSC-T1 digital camera. The world's thinnest 5MP camera in the world. Furthermore, Sony released a marine pack which makes your camera water resistant to a depth of approximately 120 feet.
"I see a lot of Gadgets, but honestly when I opened the box of the Sony DSC-T1 removed the handbooks and CD and was looking at the tiny Digital Camera I got a really big smile on my face. This Camera is not only thin but it is actually looks very small to. And this big screen (2.5") is out of this world."
In Ocean Navigators' eNewsletter EPIRBs (emergency position indicating radio
beacons) are explained. A very interesting read (not online yet), and a necessary one if you're thinking of buying/using one. It stresses the importance of registering your beacon for verificaton purposes. More then 90% of calls are false, and without any verification there is little hope you will be rescued.
"Let�s look at how 406 and 121 EPIRB signals are handled. A 406-MHz signal is picked up by a worldwide network of orbiting satellites generally within a couple minutes of activation. The 406 transmits the electronic serial number of your EPIRB. A GPS EPIRB adds GPS position of the unit to the transmission. Without GPS information, additional satellite passes are necessary to triangulate the location of the distress signal.
Think of it this way: The 121 says, "HELP." The 406 EPIRB says, "This is the vessel Serenity, and I need HELP." The 406 GPS EPIRB says, "This is the vessel Serenity; I�m at 40 degrees 50.223 minutes, 61 degrees 19.456 minutes, and I need HELP." Position can be determined without the GPS information, but it may take 30 minutes or so for 406 and several hours or more for 121."
A bit of legal/political news, but still relevant. This trade agreement will, in the end, make marine electronics cheaper and sooner available on the market. Furthermore it will make it easier for some innovative, but small equipment manufacturers to broaden their market potential.
"The EU and the U.S. signed a mutual recognition agreement on marine equipment. Under the agreement, marine equipment certified as acceptable in the market of one party will be able to circulate in the other market without additional testing or certification. The agreement covers 30 types of marine equipment, including life-saving equipment (distress signals, rigid life rafts), fire protection equipment, and navigational equipment (GPS receivers, echo-sounding equipment)."
I raised a question about the rise of the NMEA 2000 standard on Google Groups and got some interesting (but technical) answers that might help you decide on whether or not to spend your time and/or money on this subject and related electronics...
Meindert Sprang: "My biggest problem is the cost involved. To get your first product on the market, you have to buy the standard documents and test suites and apply for a vendor- and product ID. This will cost $10,500 total, quite a hurdle for small manufacturers. My 'all time favourite' would be a marriage between NMEA-0813 and SeaTalk and some other features.
Joe Wood: "Therefore, my favorite solution is NMEA 0183 sentences, text readable ASCII and all, over IP multicast Class E addresses with some entity keeping track of an IP address registry. At 100BaseTX rates each device can put out whatever sentences it wants at whatever rate it wants and the consuming devices can simply subscribe to those multicast IPs it is interested in. Streaming video and all. The silicon is there; the software is there, too."
Thinking about installing an AC on your yacht? If you have several cabins and a living area on board, but you do not manage the climate properly, it might be a very heavy burden on your power resources. What might help prevent this, is something called 'zoning'. Although this can be a very expensive solution, there is a nice open source project that will allow you to install such a system for about 10% of the cost of a 'professional' system. If you have the skills of course...
"The existing zoning systems were built by companies that have been on the market for a long time, have established operating procedures, trained personnel, quite possibly they have grown beyond the ability to change. They do stuff a certain way "just because we always did it this way". They completely ignore the progress in the embedded systems and still rely on low integration specialized chips to manufacture their controllers, and miss the opportunity to utilize the power that embedded microprosessor based systems offer."
