Humminbird's SmartCast Fish Finder Watch has been out for a while, and I've written about it before. But here is another link to it since a new weblog called Wrist Dreams has found out about it as well. They also highlight some other watches for marine use.
"The sensor reads water depth up to 100' with a 90� sonar beam to find the sport where fish hide. All controls are operated from the one-touch wrist unit, including the fish proximity alarm, sensitivity level, depth range, and fish identifier. The remote sensor provides 400 hours of continuous usage, and automatically shuts off after it is removed from water to conserve battery life." (Humminbird's Smartcast at Amazon.com)
Not a first of its kind, but German firm NAVCOS has launched Yachtwatcher YW 5000, which sends a text message to a yacht owner's mobile phone in the vent that it is broken into or it should leave its moorings. Besides that, you can even send individual control commands via your mobile phone and turn on or off the refrigerator or the bilge pump for example.
"After activating the Yachtwatcher YW 5000, on board sensors are used to monitor the status a yacht, and GPS measurements are taken at regular intervals. The same system can also be used to activate equipment on board the yacht, such as a bilge pump, or a refrigerator. The YW 5000 features a 12 channel GPS receiver, integrated dual band GSM modem, power management system for lower power consumption, and can store 32,000 positions, which can be accessed and analysed to determine the route taken by a boat should it be stolen."
So when you're list of on board electronics and gadgets looks like a summary of this website, how do you make sure interference won't be spoiling the party? Well, start by reading John Payne's electronics column in DIY boat owner magazine's 2004#1 issue.
"Noise sources on a boat are often classified as radio frequency interference (RFI) or electromagnetic interference (EMI). They are major enemies of electronic systems, corrupting your GPS position fixes, degrading radio communications and causing general electronics performance problems. RFI is essentially interference and noise that is superimposed as a disturbance or voltage transient either on the electrical power supply or the data and signal lines. This is then processed along with the good data to corrupt or degrade the processed information."
A new solution from WeatherData for those of you who prefer to sail the coastal waters, since it won't work if you are to far away from land... Apparently they have some special marine features as well, but it was originally developed with land based applications in mind.
"Special features will be available for marine use including marine charts for the U.S. and surrounding coastal waters, and reports on wave height, buoy observations, high surf advisories and tide data tables. A future version of Storm Hawk will also offer predicted radar that includes the location of storms ten to 30 minutes into the future and will provide the location and prediction of cloud-to-ground lightning with up to 97 percent accuracy, a WeatherData exclusive service."
A quite funny quote from a Netstumbler forum thread shows very well that the combination of Wi-Fi and boating is still in the early adopter stage, and that 'wardriving' has its equivalent at sea....
"WARBOATING!!!! It was actually sort of tough to set this up (see photo below). The boat has a double door that snaps open, so I used the double doors to hold tight the NiteIze case flap. The case flap has a metal insert in the back and this is very strong. It held the Jornada, PC card adapter, Orinoco Gold card, yagi antenna, and wires in place for our entire four hour ocean voyage. I set the 8dbi yagi to point towards the shore. When we neared any boats I'd turn the yagi around if need be. (Or is this warshipping? Is that praying?) We received several pings from shore locations, but when we were passed by a police boat we also got a ping! Seems the sonar ping sound is perfect for being on a boat. I checked just now to see if we did indeed get a ping off the boat, it is WEP enabled for Seal Beach police. Good going guys! You're secure! (Warcopping?)"
Nowadays wireless LCD TVs still have a few disadvantages, but on a boat they could provide more flexibility when it comes to entertainment. Plug all your video sources (DVD, STB, aerial) in the base station, and use your wireless display everywhere. Its range of 50ft should be perfect for on board viewing, wether on deck or in a cabin. Let's just hope battery live will improve rapidly.
"When the signal is solid, the picture is terrific, with a wide viewing angle, high contrast and defined images characteristic of Sharp's outstanding approach to LCD (viewing on the sun deck at high noon isn't recommended, though). The issue is whether cable-free living and potentially dicey performance is worth twice the price of a wired 15-inch LCD TV."
Great to see that more and more marine electronics and communications functions are being integrated. Not only on a hardware level, but definitely also on a software level. What I really like about Uniden's MYSTIC, a full VHF/GPS Mapping Marine Radio, are simple functions like having a buddy list. Product design that starts with user needs is something we don't see often enough.
"Uniden is making an emphatic comeback with its new Mystic, a strikingly original and well-executed marriage of a full-on Magellan hand-held WAAS-GPS plotter and the first portable DSC-VHF radio with advanced functions like buddy lists. The two work together, plotting the origin point of incoming DSC calls and including your position with your outgoing calls (for fun or in distress). In my testing, the submersible unit demonstrated long battery life and solid performance. It comes with U.S. street and buoy maps and supports Magellan's full-detail BlueNav charts. The Mystic, which is 13" tall and lists for $699, is not a trivial gizmo to clip on your belt, but -wow!- is it capable."
Carl, who told me to about wireless anchoring solution, also pointed at eDigitalWireless, a company selling several outdoor wireless solutions. Amongst which the new SureShot, a 200mW NEMA 4X rated, ruggedized, weatherproof 2.4gHz radio solution. The reason Carl mentioned this company however, was because of their 12dBi high performance omnidirectional antenna. It performs great, or in Carl's words:
"This is simply awesome for picking up wireless networks - with the omnidirectional antenna you get a range of up to 1000M - it was working for me when I tested it in the middle of San Francisco bay."
A couple of weeks a go I mentioned Ascend Marine's Deep Blue Marine's Anchor Alert, a wireless anchor monitoring system. To make the anchoring experience completely wireless (except for the anchor chain...), I got a tip from Carl Midson on Coastline Technology's Windlass Radio Remote. Carl claims it's brilliant if your shorthanded on board, so check out this review in Power & Motoryacht.
"Sometimes it�s easy to inadvertently activate foredeck-mounted windlass footswitches, and cabled remotes can restrict movement around the area and often need to be passed up through a hatch, which is inconvenient at best and can be dangerous under harsh conditions. The Windlass Radio Remote allows you to control your windlass from anywhere on your boat, no matter what you�re doing and regardless of the conditions."
When I was going through the log-files of this website I noticed that many people come here searching for rugged cellphones. Fortunately, Siemens unveiled the ruggedised M65 this week. Not sure if it's really rugged up to the level you would require in a marine environment, but it is a start.
"The splash, dirt and shock resistant M65 sports a 2.1in 132 x 176, 16-bit colour display, backed by a 640 x 480 digicam for video and still photography. Stills can be edited using on-board software, with special effects filters built in too. The handset supports 40-voice polyphonic ringtones, a customisable user interface, Java games - four titles are bundled with the phone - and instant messaging. The tri-band GSM/GPRS handset comes with a 750mAh lithium ion battery - enough, said Siemens, for five-and-a-half hours' talk time and 300 hours' standby time."
Humminbird's SmartCast Fish Finder Watch has been out for a while, and I've written about it before. But here is another link to it since a new weblog called Wrist Dreams has found out about it as well. They also highlight some other watches for marine use.
Not a first of its kind, but German firm NAVCOS has 
So when you're list of on board electronics and gadgets looks like a summary of this website, how do you make sure interference won't be spoiling the party? Well, start by reading John Payne's electronics 
A new 
A quite funny 
Great to 
Carl, who told me to about wireless anchoring 
"This is simply awesome for picking up wireless networks - with the omnidirectional antenna you get a range of up to 1000M - it was working for me when I tested it in the middle of San Francisco bay."
Carl claims it's brilliant if your shorthanded on board, so check out this 
When I was going through the log-files of this website I noticed that many people come here searching for rugged cellphones. Fortunately, Siemens