I’m off to Las Vegas so early tomorrow morning I want to weep. But I’m looking forward to being one of the BWI writer/judges for the Marine Aftermarket Accessories Trade Show (MAATS) Innovation Awards. There were sixty products entered, and while I can’t reveal names, I can tell you that lots of them are electronical, and even some of those I’d never heard of before I got the judging packets. Here’s the exhibitor list; and here’s some info on the big ICAST fishing show going on in an adjoining hall. If you see something I should be checking out at either venue, speak up! I’ll try to post from Vegas, but no guarantees. The last, and only other time, I visited was in 1969, and I saw very little besides the holding cell of the city jail (long story). I’d rather be a judge.
Last week I got another brief look at Slancha’s Garmin 18” HD radar in action, only this time I got this screen shot showing its MARPA abilities in action, bigger here . But I’m still a bit puzzled about the implementation, and, as noted in the earlier entry on this unit, can’t find a thing about it in the manual. My guess is that the projected point and time represent the calculated CPA relative to your boat, not relative to the chart. Let’s consider the top right target first, and note that the arc represents where Slancha could be in 3 minutes at this speed. CPA, of course, is figured on the current speed and heading of your boat and the target. So I think that the Garmin is telling us that in 1 minute and 13 seconds the target will be a close as it’s going to and it will be broad on the starboard bow (but when this takes place we’ll be nearing that next bathy line and the target will be near that 11’ bump).
Demonstrated at the Miami Boat Show, and scheduled to ship this Fall, Yanmar’s Smart Check looks like a gem of an engine monitoring system. You will need to have one or more Yanmar diesels with electronic interfaces and a NMEA 2000 connection to a Raymarine E-120, plus about $800 for the software (loaded into the E from a CF card), but, wow, you even get detailed alarms with trouble-shooting suggestions, and a maintenance log with reminders. And of course the gauges are complete and handsome, as you can see in this press release. But I want to focus on Smart Check’s fuel management features, which are the most sophisticated I’ve seen so far.
I’ve been meaning to post this photo, bigger here, for a while, as indicated by the snow in the background! It shows how the Garmin Colorado 400c screen—despite the somewhat anemic back-lighting I once bitched about—looks quite good in direct sunlight. I was also going to write a bit more about the big “Rock 'N' Roller thumb wheel/cursor thingy” that’s both quite an interesting technology (the control signals are transmitted magnetically through a waterproof shield), and the doorway to an interface I’ve come to like quite a lot. But, dang, Garmin has just announced yet another marine handheld, the similarly powerful Oregon 400c.
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:
If you'll take a moment to read Ben's comments on Panbo, you'll understand the problem. There is data on the NOAA charts that is not on the NN3D raster chart view. There is a problem with the conversion from the Maptech format to TimeZero format.
Geez Louise! I may not have expressed myself well, but that’s not what I wrote about Furuno NavNet 3D chart issues last week. And the post above is just one of many that I think are way wide of the mark. According to some on Hull Truth the NN3D raster and vector charts for the U.S. are both useless, it was actually Navionics vectors that was shown at the boat show demos, the MFDs show less chart data than the Black Box because of video chip differences, etc. It’s mostly baloney, but Furuno USA has been paying attention to early user dissatisfaction with the vector charts. In fact, I got a call today from Camas with the news that Furuno will be selling U.S. NN3D vector charts based on Navionics data by early 2009. But let’s break that down:
If a man must be obsessed by something, I suppose a boat is as good as anything, perhaps a bit better than most. — E. B. White
Some days I could be content just checking out the activities and links sent in by various Panbo readers. Who I like to call Panbots, somewhat in the spirit of Steve Roberts, the inimitable gizmologist with a knack for names. Yesterday Steve emailed notes on installing a Simrad AP20 (SimNet/N2K) autopilot he’s already dubbed “Tina” (as in Turner!). It went aboard his 44’ steel motor-sailor, the S/V Nomadness, which will have quite the systems when done. Steve’s blog has all the gory details, including a run down on the temporary electronics set up above (and the fuller White quote). You see he’s one of those frustrated folks waiting for a Furuno NavNet 3D delivery. {Meanwhile, a few of the Hull Truth posters who aren’t liking NN3D charts have gone around the bend into crazy conspiracy territory, even misinterpreting my entry on the subject; oy!, and more tomorrow.}
Consider this test a work in progress! (Bigger photo here.) Those are two FloNet N2K interface boxes that FloScan loaned me with built-in simulation of something like a big sportfishing boat blasting along on a plane. I can modify the simulated flow value somewhat using the calibration controls built into the box, which also has an “instance” switch so that the left one (instance 0) is set up as as the port engine and the right one (instance 1) represents the starboard engine. As noted on first sight, FloScan has designed this adaptor so that a special display is not needed to manage all its calibration and flow meter diagnostics; all you need is a display that understands what to do with a fuel flow message(s). Well, easier said than done, particularly when you throw twin flow values at those displays first, and read the manuals later!
My first screen shots of Slancha’s Garmin 18” HD radar drew a lot of interest and I look forward to more experimenting with it later this week, but the real subject of the shot above, and this entry, is the fuel management information shown on the bottom bar. The boat’s owner, Peter Smith, installed a GFS 10 fuel sensor on the system’s NMEA 2000 network, and he’s tickled with the results, particularly the miles-per-gallon info, which has shown him where the sweet spots are on his power curve. That “Economy” number—a calculation based on flow versus Speed over Ground (from GPS) or Speed through Water (your choice)—may change with the boat’s load, bottom growth, sea conditions, or engine tune, but he’ll be able to see it happening.
quite good in direct sunlight. I was also going to write a bit more about the big “
