Category: Navigation

Coastal Explorer Express & 2011; hello subscription model

Oct 6, 2010
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Rose Point Navigation showed off numerous new products and features during the NMEA Conference, as mentioned on Tuesday, but it make take a while for me, or anyone, to sort them all out.  This is especially true as the company has both a "relaxed" marketing style and a tendency to put product perfection over actual shipping dates.  For instance, a week after issuing a stack of press releases, there's not yet a peep about them on Rose Point's home page, but instead a link to a "sneak peak" (sic) at Coastal Explorer 2010, a product that will never actually be released!  What is new on the site is info about the heavily stripped down new version of CE called CE Express, which was announced last February in Miami but in fact is the first CE 2011-style software to ship.  Except that the Google Earth-like chart zoom slider seen above in the copy of Express I downloaded last week has already been replaced in the ongoing CE 2010 beta...

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Geonav, the giant roll out

Sep 24, 2010
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Geonav has been talking about a Fall U.S. roll out for some time, but now it's turning out they have a lot more to show than the G12 and G10 MFDs introduced in Europe last year.  Seen in the photo above is an even newer model called the GIS10, and while it and the 12-inch model include most all the features seen online for the G series, they also support NMEA 2000, Gigabit Ethernet, and, yes, the Side Imaging technology pioneered by sister company Humminbird.  And how about those sexy MID 110 multifunction instrument displays (and the matching autopilot head)?

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B&G Zeus, Simrad NSE for sailors

Sep 22, 2010
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Though it's not mentioned anywhere, there's no question that B&G's new Zeus multifunction displays are re-branded Simrad NSE MFDs, with some special software sauce on top.  But that's a good idea.  NSE has a lot going for it, and the more ways Navico finds to expand its scope -- like the Simrad NSO system, also "soft launched" in Newport last week -- the better for everyone, I think.  Besides, has there ever been an MFD that can do jobs sailors usually use PCs for -- like animating GRIB weather files, displaying data strip charts, and calculating laylines?

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Simrad NSO, the NSE series goes big

Sep 17, 2010
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This week in Newport, and in Southhampton, Simrad introduced the NSO Navigation Series, a black box version of the NSE system, and while it's hard to imagine an MFD faster than an NSE, even the prototype NSO I fooled with yesterday seemed so.  The processor box is, in fact, the same as the one used on the GB40 Glass Bridge system, only with a new 80 gig hard drive and all new software from Linux on up.  There will even be an upgrade path for GB40 owners, and I suspect that will be tempting...

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Garmin radar features, a hit and a miss?

Sep 13, 2010
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Here's a nifty feature I'd never seen before.  I had already realized that if you click on a nav aid when making a route on a Garmin MFD, the waypoint gets named after the aid.  I find that useful, even if I first came across the feature years ago and think other current MFDs and charting programs include it (anyone remember which ones?).  But I was darn surprised yesterday morning to see that the Garmin 7212 can overlay the nav aid's complete icon and label on its standard radar screen, if desired.  I like that a lot...

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Garmin GHP 12 autopilot, hello sailors!

Sep 9, 2010
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Yup, that's a Garmin GHC 10 autopilot head steering to an apparent wind angle, along with one end of a linear drive typically used to control sailboat rudders, but never before supported by Garmin.  Announced today is the GHP 12 sailboat autopilot system, which will work with a choice of two linear drives designed to handle sailing vessels from 20 to 70 feet...

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Raymarine introduces thermal cameras, but FLIR Nexus still open

Sep 7, 2010
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Given that FLIR, the big daddy of thermal imaging, purchased Raymarine in May, few will be surprised that Ray is introducing its own thermal cams.  In fact, I think the Raymarine T300 and T400 model series will simply be re-branded FLIR M-Series cameras, though the control and integration possibilities are interesting.  For owners of Raymarine E Wide and G Series MFDs, the joystick control above will be optional; the first group will be able to pan and tilt the camera using their touch screens, as shown, while the latter can use a G's detached keyboard.  And while the short initial press release doesn't say anything about niceties like automated target tracking, we already know that the Nexus operating system FLIR builds into these cameras offers such capabilities...

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Simrad NSE Autopilot, hand's on #1

Aug 31, 2010
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A couple of weeks ago I replaced Gizmo's older Simrad autopilot with the latest generation, which turned out to be easy even though I've never installed an AP before.  It helped that there was no drive involved, just wire swapping, as the AC12 processor simply controls a solenoid plumbed into the boat's engine-driven hydraulic steering system.  Plus the existing Simrad rudder sensor wired to the AC12 without trouble, and I already had a SimNet backbone in place. So I replaced the old AP11 control head at the lower helm just by plugging an AP28 head into SimNet, and did nothing on the flying bridge (except replace the existing AP11 with an extra instrument display) because I no longer need a control head up there.  That's because I'm using the new NSE autopilot mode that was announced in Miami as part of its 2.0 software update.  I like it a lot...

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Furuno GP-33 GPS, hand's on

Aug 30, 2010
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At the risk of sounding mean, what excites me most about Furuno's new GP-33 GPS sensor and display is what it means regarding the coming RD-33 data display we discussed a while back.  That 4.3-inch 480x272 pixel LED-backlit screen -- seen above in bright sunlight on Gizmo's flying bridge -- is pleasingly crisp and bright.  And note how legible and even handsome the screen designs are, and how Furuno has dropped some of the numerical over-precision that has drawn criticism from users of NavNet 3D MFDs and FI50 instruments. You get all that screen goodness -- 50% more area than a Garmin GMI 10, Furuno claims -- for a maximum of 7 LENS (350 milliamps) of 12v power off a NMEA 2000 backbone...

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MFD comparisons #3, chart plotting in 3D part 1

Aug 14, 2010
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If I can miss major ways that MFDs display currents and tides, lord only knows how much I might mess up a comparison of 3D charting.  There are so many aspects to 3D presentation, and virtually no bench mark as to what is right.  In fact, I'm running the Raymarine E140 Wide screen shot first because it illustrates one of the few things that's clearly wrong, I think, which is to put the vessel on center, so that you get the most detail of the waters you've already passed through.  But Raymarine has long offered good Look Ahead features in its 2D chart presentation (as seen in the left window, set at 2/3rds ahead), and I know that 3D Look Ahead is high on its list of planned software updates...

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