Guest Entry by Dan Corcoran ---
Following up my earlier evaluation of the Airmar Ultrasonic Weather station here on Panbo (actually there is more to come), I have another Airmar ultrasonic product to tell you about. It's the CS4500, an ultrasonic boat speed sensor that I've been using for the past three years, and I'll be covering it in a three part series.
Being a natural born optimist, the longer Garmin took to solve its
route planning problem, the cooler I hoped the solution would be. We won't know
for sure until the November release, but HomePort is officially
announced, and judging from the product page and these screen shots, it
looks like a nifty tool for $30. If you own a G2 Vision card, you'll
be able to access many of its features right on Windows PC (no Mac
yet), and take the resulting plans to the boat, or just up to the
bridge, on the card. If you only own regular BlueCharts or G2's
imbedded in your plotter (the good idea that created the problem in the
first place), you'll first have to copy them to a blank 2 gig SD card...
I first saw a working FLIR M-626L thermal camera in Miami last winter, and am keen to try it on my own boat in familiar territory. Obviously the shot above was taken from my mooring float before the daylight faded completely, but it does hint strongly at what I'll get at night. After all, the image seen on the Raymarine C140W above is all about heat, not light. Click on the photo and compare thermal to visible spectrum. (Note that I added the black marks at top to show the slightly-panned camera's field of view, and that everything is slightly widened because I used the Ray's widescreen aspect ratio to fill the screen.) See how 'hot' humans on the docks and even in the distant head-of-harbor park show up clearly, as does the south-facing brick wall of the library and the similarly heat-holding ledges up on Mt. Battie? When I get a chance to try the FLIR in pitch dark conditions, I hope to see lobster pot buoys -- the bane of night running around here -- pop out clearly. In the meantime, here are a couple of neat M-Series installation details...
Sorry I've been such a tease about the radar testing. Since entry #4, the wet edition, there's only been a mention of dome changes and a peek at Broadband on the new Simrad NSE. Frankly, I'm a bit overwhelmed by the research I've done so far -- which includes hundreds of photos and screen shots -- and I still haven't spent enough time underway, particularly in rain and fog, with the four systems currently installed on Gizmo (above). Patience, please!...
First Raymarine E-Series Wide, then Simrad NSE, and now the Geonav G12...three new and different multifunction displays announced in three weeks...did marine electronics miss the "economic tsunami" somehow? Unfortunately, though, the G12 is not going to be distributed in the US, at least at first, despite the fact that Geonav became part of Johnson Outdoors in late 2007. The press release issued this week (not yet online) says the G12 will be introduced at the Genoa Boat Show next month, along with new autopilot, HD radar, and AIS transponder products. As you can see at the G12 teaser site, it sure looks like a major refresh of the Geonav line, with possible collaboration from other Johnson Outdoors resources, like Humminbird. Will we eventually see a G12 with the side imaging I went gaga over this week, or a new Humminbird SI MFD as sexy seeming as the G12? And what the heck is that camera button? We should know much more in the next month or so.
I finally got the loaner Humminbird 1197c SI installed on Li'l Gizmo, and am pretty darn impressed with its side scanning abilities. But before I get into that, check out that hi res map of my local Lake Megunticook. Yes sirree, Navionics recently updated their Premium and Platinum Hot Maps to include the data I helped collect one crazy day last fall. Frankly, the Megunticook map came out better than I expected. I know how fast the surveyors crisscrossed spots like this, and how far apart their tracks were, but I've sonared a few miles of lake bottom right alongside the new map, and have yet to encounter a serious surprise (though I'm doubting that particular 'HAZARD' warning on the screen above). Going from the old sketch chart to plotting on this level of detail is a giant leap in situational awareness (and possibly fishing success), and adding the side scan view is another big step...
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...
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...
Things didn't work out as hoped for yesterday -- via Nexrad the rain cells appeared to dissipate well to the west, and then when it did pour unexpectedly (the Camden Hills really limit our western view here) I wasn't ready to get underway -- but I did get a taste of how the four 18-inch radomes handle precip, and I did get wet. It seems to me that radar should ideally do two somewhat contradictory things in rain: cut through it to show real targets, but also show distant cells so you might maneuver around them. The Furuno DRS2 did quite well on both counts...
I'm beginning to feel a bit different. Who else was pleased to see the fog roll back into Camden yesterday? And what other boat has four 18" radomes mounted, one with velcro...
