Another Friday LED wonder: this shot of Lopolight’s production line suggests the extra high quality construction of these Danish-made navigation lights. The internal electronics are next potted in epoxy and a machined aluminum top plate finishes off the package. They are expensive but may indeed “work forever” on very little power. Note that you need to use Internet Explorer, not Firefox, to get beyond the home page of Lopolight’s Web site.
One of the things I enjoy about the marine industry is how an inventive boater—there are lots, particularly sailors for some reason—can still get a product to market. You’re looking at the world premier of Navlight Indicators…Larry Schaffer sitting in a rented booth at Strictly Sail Miami, ready to explain his very clever navigation light accessories. He has since put up an informative Web site, so I’ll just note that he’s created little LED’s that will show you just how your running/anchor lights are switched, plus a current sensor system that will make them blink if a light fails. You can get a dedicated panel that showcases the idea, or parts so you can upgrade an existing panel. Good job, Larry!
Tip of the hat to Scuttlebutt for today’s kind News Brief about Panbo. It’s been crazy here, it’s Friday, and I’m going to keep it quite light. So meet LightCap, a 32 oz water jug with a solar panel, Ni-Cad battery pack, and both red and white LEDs built into its top. It sounds like a foolish thing but I’m liking the prototype Sollight sent over. You can’t quite read by it but there’s a wonderful shimmer created by the light passing through the water, which also gives it some stay-put heft. LightCap could definitely add a little more magic to a balmy summer evening spent relaxing in the cockpit.
Do unto others dept: visit Zephyr, a newish blog pleasantly probing “sailing culture for voyagers, zealots, poets and populists”.
I've seen through-hull underwater lights before, and from the same supplier (Underwater Lights USA & E-Fish TV) there is now a through-hull underwater video solution. Streaming right to your LCD screen in de salon so you don't have to dive in order to enjoy great marine life...
"This $1,835 waterproof camera from Underwater Lights USA can be set up for any zoom angle from 35 to 70 degrees and can send broadcast-quality, 470-line-resolution output to any number of monitors (in NTSC or PAL formats). Three and three quarters inches long with a diameter of 13'4", it fits in any of the company�s underwater light housings for steel, aluminum, or fiberglass hulls and thus is serviceable from inside the yacht."
Unfortunately, and I can speak from personal experience, theft of marine electronics is a big problem. So hereby I welcome any good solution, especially when it's a relatively simple one...
"But, by using one of DuraSafe's new GPS/Depth Finder Locks, you can thwart a thief's attempt to make off with your valuable electronics. The DuraSafe Lock replaces one of the standard knobs that attach a GPS, depthsounder or VHF radio to its bracket. There are seven different versions to fit the different knob thread sizes used by major manufacturers of marine electronics, such as Raymarine, Lowrance, Eagle, Garmin, Humminbird, Navman and Furuno." (DuraSafe at Amazon.com)
Using a PDA to navigate while it's connected to a GPS receiver via Bluetooth demands a lot of your batteries. Solar power is a solution many boaters are already used to, and this little product is a nice example of how it will be used even more. I highlighted a similar product, the Notepower portable solar module, a while ago.
"Folding open and close like a laptop, the charger can slurp enough power in four or five hours to fully recharge two cellular phones (or PDAs, or digital cameras, or what have you). Bic Camera intends to sell the Pocket Chargers for around $215."
How important it is that your EPIRP works correctly is proven many times a year. This spring only, NOAA satellites were key in saving 54 lives in 27 potentially deadly situations throughout the United States. So when McMurdo beacons are under fire again, this is not good news for the manufacturer. They even ordered a recall of their products.
"Doug Ritter, executive director of Equipped to Survive Foundation, announced today that he would be conducting an "independent evaluation" of McMurdo's GPS-enabled 406 MHz distress beacons. This announcement came in response to McMurdo's July 7th press release saying that its FastFind Plus PLB and Precision EPIRB performed "faultlessly" in recent tests, a few months after Ritter found performance problems."
Yachting and Boating World (YBW) comes away moderately impressed from MAATS (Marine Aftermarket Accessories Trade Show) and in their newsletter they mention some of the highlights. Besides the one I liked best, EchoPilot's CASS (Collision Avoidance Sonar System), they have some other tips as well.
"For example no less than three stands were devoted to devices to keep birds off boats � everything from whirly solar-powered helicopter-like blades to moving owls to clip on trip lines for boat rails. Hmmm. Items more effective at catching my eye included a neat car-toppable pontoon you can rig out on a lake or riverside using screw-in oil-rig style legs, a new waterproof switch panel from BlueSea with great design detail and fuse-blown indicators, and very nicely engineered polypropylene-moulded dinghies with modular RIB collar and sailing rig options from Walker Bay."
The Marine Aftermarket Accessories Trade Show was held last week in Las Vegas. Two interesting marine electronics won a Marine Manufacturers Association Innovation Award during that event.
"EchoPilot's CASS (Collision Avoidance Sonar System) is a wideband active surf zone sonar based on military research that can see floating and semi-submerged objects up to 1,200 yards ahead of the boat in real time. The system transmits using multi-frequency (a "swept chirp" of 20 -80 KHz), which ensures greater performance in rough waters, according to NMMA."
"Equally impressing to the judges in the Aftermarket Electronics category was Vexilar�s AlumaDucer, the only transducer designed to transmit through aluminum with zero signal loss. Built like other transducers, it is designed to automatically compensate for the loss of signal strength when mounting a transducer on an aluminum hull, the association reported."
A couple of months ago I mentioned Ascend Marine's Deep Blue Anchor Alert. MegaYacht.com has a short article (free subscription required) on this product as well.
"The components housed within the anchor unit include the accelerometer and transponder. As the anchor moves, the accelerometer calculates the severity of the motion, rating it on a scale of one to eight. This score is then relayed ultrasonically from the transponder to the boat where it is received by the transducer. It is then transmitted to the display and shown on a bar graph."
Tip of the hat to Scuttlebutt for today’s kind 
Unfortunately, and I can speak from personal experience, theft of marine electronics is a big problem. So hereby I welcome any good solution, especially when it's a relatively 
and 
So when McMurdo beacons are under fire 
Yachting and Boating World (
"For example no less than three stands were devoted to devices to keep birds off boats � everything from whirly solar-powered helicopter-like blades to moving owls to clip on trip lines for boat rails. Hmmm. Items more effective at catching my eye included a neat car-toppable pontoon you can rig out on a lake or riverside using screw-in oil-rig style legs, a new waterproof switch panel from BlueSea with great design detail and fuse-blown indicators, and very nicely engineered polypropylene-moulded dinghies with modular RIB collar and sailing rig options from Walker Bay."
Two interesting marine electronics 
The system transmits using multi-frequency (a "swept chirp" of 20 -80 KHz), which ensures greater performance in rough waters, according to NMMA."
A couple of months ago I