Well, it seems that new Raymarine research pretty much obliterates concerns about the battery life of their LifeTag MOB pendants. A note from Product Manager Paul Tiller says that “…following exhaustive life testing by the engineering department, they are happy to report that the LifeTag tag battery will last for over 2000 hours of continuous usage, equating to 83 days or almost 12 weeks!” His excitement is understandable; that’s ten times longer than the previously published estimate! Plus, this morning, when I took the LifeTag innards shot above (bigger here), I did a little testing myself. I opened and shut the case ten times and then vigorously drowned the unit in a bucket. It survived fine. (Though the server support personnel I was day dreaming about probably would have sputtered some!)
Yipe! As many of you noticed, Panbo went off the air—”Forbidden.…You don't have permission to access / on this server.” etc.—last Saturday. I will not bore you with the gruesome details, but it was actually my hosting service that shut Panbo down, without warning or even a “suspend notice” until 24 hours after the fact. It seems that the old spam comment issues were still affecting server CPU usage, though totally without my knowledge. The two+ day getting-it-fixed saga featured horrendously slow support response, misinformation, and hours on hold being serenaded by a looping schlock rock tape. I remained polite, but my inner very angry customer really wants to express himself! However, just to be on the safe side, I will not name the offending host service until Panbo has a new one. This incident really brought home to me how much I value and enjoy this blogging part of my work life, and I’m more fired up than ever to improve the site…stability included! But first I have to catch up on work, and get ready for Miami. Back to business!
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.
In a week or two, yet another ECS, Tiki Navigator, will add AIS targeting and it looks well done. Note in the screen shot (bigger here) how the red target is being DR’d, its last actual update shown by a little circle and the time of that update shown in a window just below its position. I know that some may find this is too complex, but I think it might be useful, especially with slow Class B data updates. Tiki can also draw a target predictor line based on ‘x’ minutes of speed/course, and it scales vessels if they’re sending dimensional info and if you’re zoomed in enough. Included in the demo file will be some charts of the Seattle area and a NMEA 0183 data file showing real AIS traffic. Simulation is valuable as a lot of navigators have yet to experience AIS in action. You may recall that Capn Voyager can read a web stream of live AIS targets, which is even better than simulation (though I’m not sure that feature is still available). And Fred Pot at SeaCas has set up a way you can replay a voyage, AIS targets included, in Coastal Explorer (or Maptech Navigator Pro). Look for the “To see a demonstration” link at the bottom of this SeaCas page. I’ve tried it and it’s cool, including a close quarters “start the engine!” situation and AIS targets seen 30+ miles away, and on the other side of islands, all using Fred’s 300 model mounted on the stern rail. By the way, I have heard that Class B AIS is selling well in Europe but not a darn thing about approvals and availibility here in the USA. Anyone?
improvements besides a major size reduction (though that folding antenna is still large enough to impress the swabbies). Globalstar has 