NMEA 2000 has been working well on Gizmo this summer, making it easy to get heading, wind, depth, GPS, and more to all the MFD systems I've been testing. AIS over N2K has some issues, but then again the Garmin VHF 200 is good evidence of what's possible. However, I've just begun to explore how NMEA 2000 can integrate Gizmo's engine, tanks, batteries, and other non-navigational systems. A few weeks ago, for instance, I plugged an Albatross demo case into the boat's backbone to see how data from those three Analog Adaptors above would display...
Yeeeeha, Simrad is introducing the interesting new NSE series today, and Panbo already has a pre-production unit installed in Gizmo's dash. Apparently it's not entirely coincidental that this NSE 12 model (there's also an 8-inch) fits fine in the hole once occupied by a now 'classic' Raymarine C120 (which wouldn't accommodate a new C- or E120W). Who wouldn't want a nice slice of that upgrade market, and the NSE may well earn one. For starters, that display is not only as bright and crisp as it looks in this not-fiddled-with photo, but it's backlit with power-efficient and cool running LEDs. And displayed on screen is another power-related feature I've picked up on lately...
A big thanks to both ScanStrut and SeaView for contributing mast mounts to the ongoing Gizmo radar testing program (will it ever end?). I found the SeaView SM-18-R to be as solid and easy to install as the ScanStrut. In fact, having just two feet instead of four might make the SeaView a little stronger and easier to align (though there may be a reason for the four-footed design I haven't understood yet?) SeaView also offers the optional canting feet shown attached in the photo above, which made the Gizmo flying bridge mount possible...
I can't quite grok that such a short summer is nearly over, but do realize that a moment like above may not come around again. That's the lovely day sailor Heron, Mark Island and the Camden Hills in the background, and several blissful tons of seal basking in the sunshine. But I am looking forward to the Camden Windjammer Festival this weekend, though partially because I plan to use the incoming fleet to test ARPA and MARPA...
It's a cruddy image, for sure...a screen shot taken at my desk as Raymarine's Jim McGowan used a web cam at his desk to walk me through a beta version of the new E Wide series which is being previewed today worldwide. But it does illustrate two critically important features. The E Wides are touch screen, using a much gussied up new interface, while they also retain the same soft/command key set that Ray developed for the C Wide Series (and will come in the same three screen sizes). You can do everything by touch if you like, and the weather permits, or run things the old fashioned way; Raymarine calls it "hybridTouch". Perhaps even better in terms of user choice: The E Wides can display both Jeppesen C-Map and Navionics cartography, of any format level, and even simultaneously...
