Bug list #1...Icom, Ray, Garmin, etc....a series?
I’m hesitant about using Panbo as a bug list, but, geez, I’ve been getting bombed with bug reports. So, here goes:
- It seems that some or all Icom 802s, almost undoubtedly the premier SSB marine radios, have a clipping problem as noted here at Lectronic Latitude, and here at Icom itself.
- A reader reports that his Raymarine E-Series Sirius Weather system messes up some NOAA buoy reports, specifically showing oddly high wind speeds. I don’t have a link to this but have seen correspondence with Raymarine which admits that it is their problem, not Sirius’s, and promises “to address it in a future E-Series software release” (which is less aggressive that the reader would like).
- Another reader reports another weirdo: apparently some older Garmins stop sending valid NMEA messages at 23:59:59 GMT. Pascal and others are on the case at rec.boats.electronics. I also got some graphics from a Panbot which showed how a certain BlueChart v8 Bahamas chart was out of whack, putting the routes he’d carefully collected on a Blue Chart v6 into foul waters. They are worth an entry one day to reinforce the point that more than one navigation source is always a good idea!
- Finally, the latest version of MaxSea apparently refuses to open virtual com ports created by the Bluetooth protocol stack, according to ShipModul which makes a nifty BT equipped multiplexer (I’ve been trying). Older versions of MaxSea supposedly do not have this problem.
Your right of course ... But, from my point of view, being in the software industry, the number of bugs I have experienced in marine electronics is pretty low. The key problem I see is the vast majority of vendors either lacking or having a poor ability to upgrade their products. For example:
- Ability to allow users to install upgrades themselves. "we are aware of that problem, please send the xxxx to us for upgrade"
- Intentional decisions to not support a cycle of continuous improvement. E.g. a feature comes out, and is never improved upon, future releases have new features only.
- Unwillingness to promise customers when fixes will be available. ("Sorry, I cannot tell you if the next release will fix this, or when that release will be, company policy")
- Bugs unfixable. ("I understand what your complaining about, but there is no ability for us to issue an update for this product ... yes, I realize we just sold it to you yesterday, can we refund your money instead")
I even had one cartography vendor tell me its not financially unfeasable to provide updates more than once every two years, and when we do, to support our commitment to our channel parters, we ask you to buy a new copy of our product at list price (no discounting) and send your existing product in for a (tiny) exchange/refund. Huh? This is for one of the possibly most simple products to update a writeable PC memory card.
b393capt