Written by Ben Ellison on Apr 29, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

In my opinion it was the Garmin GMI 10 that trail blazed the wonderful world of color NMEA 2000 all-in-one displays, but it’s gotten major competition from the Raymarine i70 (comparison here), the B&G Triton (first look here), and the Furuno RD-33 (hand’s on here). And when Garmin demoed its new 800 Glass Bridge Series in Miami, the GMI 10 also installed on the dash looked decidedly out of place. So it was really no surprise when they announced the new GMI 20 and its GHC 20 sibling last Tuesday. It will be interesting to see if they’ve outdone the competition but that’s hard to judge as these all-in-ones can potentially do so much, though not necessarily exactly what you want…

The features that Garmin emphasizes in that press release are the extra bright 4-inch bonded screen with wide viewing angles and new night color schemes like the green on black seen in the screenshot below (which is in the GMI 20′s native QVGA resolution of 320 x 240 pixels). That all sounds good but I’m not sure it’s significantly different from the competition.

Then again it’s amazing what a good graphic designer can do with so few pixels, as seen with that nice count down timer on the sail racing screen above or the trouble-light icons on the engine screen below. While these are examples of the fixed graphic choices that every all-in-one display has, they vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and I’m not sure that any but Garmin has the trouble lights yet…

But then again I’ll bet that only a few engine models currently output the N2K messages (PGNs) that can make use of those trouble lights. The manual isn’t up on the GMI 20 product pages yet, but that will help to clarify just which “100+” N2K data values it can decipher and how it can display them. It costs $550, by the way, and is supposed to ship very soon. Also note how it comes with both black and silver snap-on trim pieces intended to match either the Glass Bridge Series MFDs or their predecessors.

Above is the matching GHC 20, product page here, and its screen illustrates the rich colors these displays can show as well as some fancy moves the Garmin autopilots can make. To the best of my knowledge N2K autopilot heads only work with the same manufacturer’s ap system though they should be able to get, say, wind information from any N2K sensor. In fact, both the GHC 20 and GMI 20 also have NMEA 0183 inputs as shown in the booty shot below, though I’m not sure how that data is used because I don’t think it gets bridged onto the N2K network (as a Furuno RD-33 can). Most boaters get instrument displays that go with their existing MFDs and/or sensors and asides for aesthetics and customer service that makes sense because it’s good to have something aboard that can update their firmware, but do note that Garmin has an $80 N2K Updater as well as a variety of analog-to-N2K Adapters, and that they update their gear at a fearsome rate. Just check out the GMI 10′s recent change history.
Gizmo currently has up-to-date GMI 10, i70, Triton, and RD-33 instruments installed, and I’ve been giving them a real workout as I’ve added several new and less common sensors and I’m also experimenting with bridging the boat’s two N2K networks. (There are also both Maretron DSM250 and DSM100 displays, which I consider a somewhat different category, though not in a bad way.) At any rate, there will be coming entries about N2K tank and temperature sensing, but it’s additionally possible that I can test some combination a reader is interested in; just speak up. And how to think Garmin’s new instruments stack up?

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Written by Ben Ellison on May 3, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

That screen above makes me so happy!  I had been reluctant to give up on Gizmo’s standalone tank monitoring system but circumstances forced a change. Had I realized how easy and relatively inexpensive it was to switch the tank senders over to BEP CZone NMEA 2000 monitoring — and how accurate and flexible the output would be, even to the point of custom (and juvenile) tank labels — I would have made the leap a long time ago…

Aside from the Volvo Penta engine panels the Wema Tank-level Indicator is the only remaining gauge from when I bought this boat in 2009 and it was probably there when she was launched in 2000. If it works don’t fix it, right? But in fact it never worked very well; I just didn’t realize it. The Poop Tank in particutlar was highly inconsistent, staying at “0″ for unreasonable periods and sometimes jumping to “4/4″ seemingly overnight, but didn’t it make sense that even a specially protected sliding level sensor might fail after so many years in those conditions?

The situation took a bad turn last September, just before I headed south. Suddenly the fuel tanks showed significantly different readings than they had the day before even though the engine had not even been run. That got my attention and though the readings got consistent again once we started bouncing around a bit yours truly also got more consistent about logging miles, engine hours, and tank in use, and I took further measures, so to speak…

Yup, I started using a weighted line to occasionally measure fuel tank levels and felt fortunate that the boat’s short, straight filler hoses make this easy and fairly accurate (I think). I also think that the tanks are rectangular, which would make a linear measurement equate well to volume, though I avoided assumptions that could get me in trouble. I intended, of course, to replace the Wema gauge or try something else, but didn’t actually do anything until using the gauge became a matter of jiggling the on/off knob just so and then it died completely early in the trip north.

Also on the (very long) to-do list was testing some BEP CZone modules, including the Signal Interface which is purportedly capable of reading 240-30 Ohm tank senders like the Wemas. The hardware install could not have been easier. I just snipped the blade connectors off the tank and -12v wires that once went to the Wema gauge  inserted them into the SI’s removable terminal strip, added a NMEA 2000 drop to the boat’s SimNet network and that was about it. In the photo I tried to show how the module is designed so that you can wire up the gasket and terminal strip away from the module and then put it all together in one easy move. Nice!

Then there was the CZone Configuration Tool, which is a Windows PC program that connects to the modules via a USB CAN Adapter. It seemed daunting at first but I’ve now managed to configure a few modules with it and I’ve hardly cracked the manual. I should do some reading though and I already see that there are impressive capabilities I haven’t tried yet, but let’s focus on the tank configuration screen above. What I love is shown in the bottom window where I am about to set a calibration point using “live data” from the sender. That means I’ve already been able to set tank percentages based on string measurements made at the same time and when I find a very patient fuel dock I’ll be able to set or edit as many points as I want in terms of gallons.
But equally important, I think, is that this live calibration feature has let me easily observe the sender states. What I’ve learned so far is that all the Wema senders, even the one submerged in Black Water, are remarkably consistent day-by-day for a tank that hasn’t been used and seem to make good sense about what is used. The only exception I’ve seen so far was a 8-25% wobble in the starboard fuel tank when it was down to 3.5-inches and the boat was rolling mildly, and I seem to have improved that with another level guesstimate. And the story gets even better…

CZone is thought of primarily as distributed power and digital switching system (as discussed after the Miami Show) and that stuff is done using proprietary NMEA 2000 PGNs. That means you can only make the switching work using a CZone display or a Simrad MFD (because Simrad and BEP have a partnership). I can confirm that as I also have a CZone Output module in operation (slickly), but the monitoring modules output standard PGNs as seen on the Raymarine i70 above, as well as on a Garmin GMI 10, a Maretron DSM, a Furuno TZT (fuel only) and elsewhere.
What doesn’t carry across the system are the custom labels. In other words “Black Water” is a tank level category built into NMEA 2000 but “Poop Tank” is a custom label only supported so far by Simrad (though I believe that custom label concept is in N2K, just not widely utilized). At any rate, I’m delighted with what I’ve found so far, and there’s much more yet to report. For instance, those temperatures seen on the NSS8 GoFree screen below are coming from a Maretron TMP 100, and that “Engrm” one, actually block temp, could proof itself invaluable. But consider this: when I do a major fuel fill in New Bedford tomorrow I should be able to see what’s happening on an iPad. And whereas I also use fuel and waste tank levels to keep Gizmo trim — they’re all outboard — I’ll be able to use the same screen when pumping overboard (where possible). I don’t think I’m going to replace the broken Wema gauge.

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Written by Kees Verruijt on May 13, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Today is an excellent time to look in more depth at the Lowrance HDS Gen2 Touch, a slightly awkward name for six products that form the “top end” of the Lowrance multifunction display range. The reason is the recent release of the 2.0 software version that brings GoFree functionality — as seen above — and much more to both the Lowrance Gen2 and Gen2 Touch range. Last year I upgraded my HDS Gen1 to a HDS2T and in this entry I will compare the HDS2T to other Navico options, give you the reasons why I like it and of course discuss the new features in the 2.0 software.

HDS2T and its family members

As regular Panbo readers are aware the Lowrance HDS series shares a very high commonality with the other Navico chart plotters — the Simrad NSS, NSE and NSO and B&G Zeus and Zeus Touch (ZT) systems. All of them use a common operating system named Navico Operating System (NOS), based on GNU/Linux, Qt and the NOS application. As Ben reported in March, the range subdivides into three target markets, with Lowrance focussing on fishing, Simrad on sport fishing and cruising and B&G on sailing.

In the early days of NOS the devices all ran on different hardware. The NSE/NSO/Zeus class is based on an x86 VIA processor, whereas the HDS Gen 1 ran on an low power Freescale i.MX ARM processor. The NSE is quicker, but uses a lot more power. Nowadays the newer displays (NSS, HDS2, Zeus T) all run on a Freescale i.MX51 ARM processor which still hasn’t got the CPU power of the VIA C7 but also uses significantly less power. On digging into my HDS2T I found it runs a single core processor at 800 MHz, has 512 MB RAM and a 1 GB flash memory. To put that in perspective, it’s 1/8th the CPU power, 1/4th the RAM and 1/64th of the flash memory of my Android phone.

Still, the touch class systems have quick enough redraw rates and enough memory to process even complicated chart areas. The Freescale processor also contains hardware support for video compression, which makes GoFree remote Viewer/Controller apps are possible over the restricted bandwidth that WiFi offers.

If you look carefully you will find that 90% of the functionality in the range is shared, like the generic chart plotting, sonar, radar, Sirius weather, SonicHub audio control and maybe even the CZone digital switching which Ben has recently begun testing (CZone is not mentioned anywhere by Lowrance, but it appears in the HDS2T 2.0 advanced settings menu). The differences between the different NOS products (that I am remembering now) are:

• HDS can have more fishing hardware (Broadband sonar and/or StructureScan) built in. Simrad and B&G need extra black box hardware to offer the same functionality (the exception being the smaller NSS/ZT displays, which do have an internal Broadband Sonar module).
• Simrad and B&G have a (Simrad) autopilot control feature.
• B&G offers specific sailing calculations and displays, as discussed here on Panbo.
• HDS can’t control multiple SonicHub zones at different volume levels.
• HDS has a different look & feel compared to Simrad and B&G.
• HDS Gen2 Touch has a wide screen instead of 4×3.
• Some broadband radar features, like 4G’s independent dual ranges, are only supported on the x86 class products (NSE, NSO, Zeus).
• HDS may have fewer CZone features, or at least it is de-emphasized in the documentation and website.

A HDS Gen2 has upgraded internal components compared to Gen1, so it is faster and has more RAM. Other than losing the round control ring which wasn’t as useful as was claimed there is no real difference in external hardware. It looks as if the Gen1 is at EOL (end of life) and won’t receive any major software upgrades beyond the current 4.1 software version. The Gen2T models have basically the same hardware as the Gen2 but have a wide, touch enabled screen, can have the StructureScan module built in and a 2nd Ethernet port and video input on the 9″ and 12″ models (like the one seen below).

Why I like the HDS 2 Touch

For me the important difference between the Lowrance and the Simrad/B&G is the different look and feel of the UI. The extra screen width provides for more pixels in the 7″ and 12″ versions (but not the 8/9″ size) horizontally, of which good use is made by a soft menu on the right side.

The extra width of the wide screen allows the HDS2T to show a soft menu on the side, which in most cases infringes little on the display. It can easily be swiped away to offer a full screen view. In fact this main menu is very well executed, and usually contains exactly what you need, with the other menu items easily accessed by a swipe down on the menu bar.

I also like the HDS data overlay better than that of the Simrad & B&G units. On the Simrad version you can have a single row of data values at the top of the screen. If you need more you can have two alternating rows with one displayed at a time. This I found very distracting at night when standing watches in the wee hours. Also, it takes away valuable screen space. Also, it took me 4 watches before I found how to modify the databoxes (without a manual.) The HDS method of floating data boxes that can be adjusted in size and location is, in my opinion, easier on the eye, doesn’t hide as much of the chart and is much more flexible.

Touch control

In general, the touch control on the HDS feels very polished and robust. I was worried that it might be executed the same way as a normal tablet, but it seems the engineers have tuned the minimal duration and location of a touch such that accidental operation is minimized. Over the last two months I found that I hardly had a case where the plotter did not do what I want. One helpful feature of the touch interface is what is called “Cursor Assist” mode. If you put your finger on the screen it is hard to see exactly what you are “touching”. If you keep your finger on the screen a “looking glass” appears on the screen immediately above your finger. This cursor stays immediately above your finger, allowing you to place the cursor at exactly the right spot.

One thing which I did not really realize would make a difference is that it is now a lot easier to control the SonicHub audio interface. On my HDS 8 I had to long-select twice to move the selected window to SonicHub before I could adjust the audio volume using up/down. This easily took 6 seconds. Now it is a quick tap on the SonicHub bar and presto the + – buttons are the volume controller.

Bigger is not better in all aspects

A bigger screen is easier to read, and can show more detail. Just compare the 800×600 pixel 8″ HDS Gen1 screenshot above with the 12″ HDS2T screen below showing the same chart area but with 1280×800 pixels (click on both files to get the full size and compared them side-by-side).

However a big screen also has its disadvantages. The simplest is that it might just not fit the mounting location that you have in mind. Another that may play a role for sailors is the power consumption. Even though the latest plotters, in general, use much less power than their predecessors, keep in mind that a big screen still uses more electricity. My HDS 8 used 0.4 / 0.7 / 1.0 A at low (night), next-to-max and max brightness. In comparison I measured my new 12″ HDS2T and it uses 0.7 / 1.2 / 2.0 A in the same circumstances. A little bit (about a quarter of an amp) can be attributed to the faster and extended hardware, but still it is quite a difference. Note that the difference between the highest brightness step and just one level down is a huge reduction in power consumption of 40%. I imagine this will be true of any LED backlight, so just keep it (at least) one level lower than max if you are trying to make your batteries last.

GoFree: remote display & NMEA 0183 streaming

As the main reason for me getting the HDS2T, I was hoping this would work well. Luckily, it does! Still, there are some improvements that could still be made. You can download the free Simrad, B&G or Lowrance GoFree app from the Apple store. It does not seem that there are any functional differences between them — I get exactly the same controls and features in the Simrad app as in the Lowrance app.

I don’t have a Navico Wifi-1 module but my own Linux based router/server which uses simple Linux bridging and acts as a DHCP server, so all devices get an IP address. I’m happy to report that the HDS2T had no problems in working with the assigned IP address, and the GoFree app immediately found the HDS2T and connected flawlessly. I guess that Navico sells the Wifi-1 as a solution for a plug-and-play solution, I’ve heard that they don’t mind when the system is included in a larger existing WiFi system. This is great as it means you don’t have to switch between multiple onboard WiFi systems.

Once connected you can control all features of the chartplotter, and press all buttons. The plotter does become a bit more sluggish, so it’s definitely not a ‘free’ service in terms of processing power. This is most apparent when scrolling or using displays with multiple areas.

One issue I did find is that if you have accidentally started the GoFree app whilst still connected to the wrong network it will keep on searching that network even if you have since switched to the correct one. Stop the app completely by opening the multi-task bar (double click on Home) then click-and-hold until you see a red “delete” button attached to all recent apps, click on GoFree. After this you can start it again and it will find your plotter immediately.

The other issue is that there can be some improvement of the fidelity of the display. The HDS display in the GoFree app is a little hazy, as if too much compression has been used. Click on the top image of this entry to see what I mean. As my retina iPad has exactly double the resolution of the HDS, a cleaner picture is possible. What would be nice to see in the GoFree app is the option to tune how much compression is used, and be able to choose a pixel-perfect (but possibly slower) display.

In the menu I noticed that the 2.0 software comes with the ability to show the HDS IP address, what I think may be the capability to control Wifi-1 access points, and network testing tools. It even has an iperf server so you can test the bandwidth of the network connection. Using the iperf tool on my laptop and Linux server I found that the wired capacity was 77 Mbit/s and my wireless still managed 20 MBit/s, only 1 MBit/s slower than the wireless bandwidth directly to the router.

If you know your display’s IP address you can use a GoFree enabled plotter as an Ethernet TCP server for NMEA 0183 data. Go to Network > NMEA0183 > Ethernet for information on how to connect your app. My HDS is only connected to NMEA 2000 sensors, but it generates a full NMEA 0183 stream with all available data (sensors, GPS, AIS). It even includes a non-standard sentence so that air temperature, heel, trim, barometer and rudder data can be transferred. Very well done!

Navionics chart improvements

A whole ream of improvements has been made to the chart representation of Navionics charts. They may not be world firsts as I think I have seen every one of these features in other chart plotters, but it is nice to see Navico/Navionics play catch up here.

• The ability to hide rocks deeper than a particular depth. This declutters the chart in areas with many (charted) rocks like Norway.
• The ability to highlight a particular interesting water depth between a certain lower and upper bound.
• The ability to make very shallow water stand out using red dots.
• New on-chart display of tidal heights and streams.
• The ability to use a larger icons and fonts for chart data (Easy Read).

Whether and how useful these features are going to be will depend on your area and how detailed the charts are. Our home waters are so shallow that the “warn for shallow water” feature is useless, and we don’t have any rocks, but we do care about currents and tidal heights so I do appreciate these feature, shown to great effect in the screenshots above.

Other features in the 2.0 software release

I will just mention the rest of the 2.0 software features very briefly.

• Support for Lowrance Point-1 GPS (configuration.)
• 5 Hz update rate of the internal GPS.
• Support for Insight Genesis (for creating your own hi-res depth charts) and StructureMap HD.
• Chart sharing across the network (long overdue!)
• Simultaneous display of two different chart providers.
• PDF viewer for manuals and such.

Here’s Lowrance’s HDS2T 2.0 download page with detailed release notes.

For the HDS Gen 2 this is an even bigger release (download and notes here) as it brings it fully back to par with the Gen 2 Touch:

• Similar icons and button use
• Similar custom split screens
• Export user data based on region
• StructureScan Auto Contrast
• More tanks and engines can be shown in the instrument display
• Support for the standard PGNs for AIS class B static information

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Written by Ben Ellison on May 23, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

I’m embarrassed about how shabby Gizmo’s fly bridge electronics panel has gotten, but isn’t it great that with the arrival of the Garmin GMI 20 all four of the major manufacturers now have similarly large, bright NMEA 2000 all-in-one instrument displays? Oh, there are subtle differences on view — like how the Raymarine i70 seems to have a little less black/white contrast but also seems to have a slightly larger active screen, and how it and the B&G Triton nicely de-emphasize decimal depth — but the main thing is that many boaters can have a highly versatile display that matches your other Big Four brand gear. Or, since most of the data displayed arrives in a standard protocol, we have four quite competitive all-in-ones to choose from (plus N2K displays from Maretron and others). Of course there are many, many more subtleties and that’s what I looked for on the test GMI 20. I discovered some mysteries too…

Above is the GMI 20 set to green night mode, which I find quite attractive (and which can be used during the day too since brightness is controlled separately). I like how the white needles stand out and I appreciate that some developer realized that I care about three of the tanks getting low and one getting full. But I was especially impressed with how Garmin handles the naming of tanks beyond the generic categories provided in the N2K standard…

The GMI 20 not only gave me a long list of possible fuel tank labels like ‘Port’, ‘Center’ and ‘Aft’ but also summarized the finished labeling with N2K source manufacturer and instance info. This is the sort of nuance that will make installation and trouble shooting a lot easier, especially as more and more systems sensors get on the N2K bus. Of course the ideal is custom labeling, preferably done with a keyboard, but I’ve only seen that so far with BEP CZone, source of the tank level info, and with Maretron gear, which is doing digital switching and much more on Gizmo these days. But those custom labels only show up on the displays of the specific developer or partner, and even the fuel tank “Port” and “Starboard” designations possible with the Garmin GMI 20 and Furuno TZT (just discussed) do not travel around the network well. I believe that custom labeling is built into the NMEA 2000 standard but hasn’t been utilized; can anyone elaborate?

But I digress. Another nice nuance I noticed on the GMI 20 is Profiles, which let you pick a whole set of screen pages by boat type or your main data interest. Then when you customize a profile you can select from pre-built “fancy” screen pages related to surface, wind, etc. and you can also reorder pages within a profile. I’m not sure that any other manufacturer has made it so easy to set up the screen selection(s) you want.

I don’t yet have Gizmo’s engine sensor data translating into NMEA 2000, but it’s getting toward the top of the to-do list and I suspect that the GMI 20 may be the easiest display to see it on. For one thing, the list of engine related data that it can display is long (which I also noticed on the Raymarine i70). Plus when I put an N2K engine simulator on the backbone (thanks again, Lowrance), the Garmin offered to adjust its fancy gauges screens (which were discussed when the GMI 20 was introduced). And when it saw RPM information, it asked if I’d like to enter the full throttle value so it could built its digital tachometer gauge to suit. Nice!  (In my experience Maretron is the king of highly custom digital gauges, by a long shot, but they do take work and you won’t get fancy gauge clusters.)

How about engine and/or trim tab pop-up windows, so the information is only taking up screen space when it’s changing? I think they were available on the original GMI 10 — as other of these 2nd generation display features may be, since it received LOTS of firmware updates — but does any other display have them? I also noticed that you can specify how much angular change triggers the pop-up and how long it stays up once you’ve stopped changing the angle.

Now to the surprises. I’m pretty proud of sleuthing out the screens above. In regular mode the GMI 20 with its current software doesn’t mention its NMEA 0183 port. But in Demo mode there’s a setup routine for an anchor windlass and if you dig around you’ll also see related display values. So let’s be clear: the GMI 20 does not yet support windlass rode and speed display. But the evidence is strong that it will, and I’ve got a good hunch about the specific hardware/software that will make it possible. Check out the AutoAnchor 601 “Black Box” from Kiwi Yachting Consultants and recall that Garmin bought Nexus from the same company. So I’m also guessing that the 0183 port will eventually be used to integrate the wide world of Nexus sailing instrumentation with at least the GMI 20 and maybe beyond. (Unfortunately, it seems that the appropriate boast — “Elementary, my dear Watson!” – may be mythical.)

The last screen I don’t understand at all. What the heck is Clubhouse Wind? And if it’s a wind value from shore, like it sounds, how would it get to the boat? Will the GDL 40 cellular NMEA 2000 connection, as I’d hoped, finally be used for something besides weather (which it does well)? And why would you care what the wind was doing at the clubhouse anyway, if you have a clubhouse? I’ll close with a photo showing some of the fancy screens the different N2K displays are capable, some of which are unique (and should perhaps be copied on the others). If it ever stops raining here, I am going to do some cleaning and touch up that black paint.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Jun 3, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Two recent experiences make me particularly excited about the Maretron SMS100 announced today (and already shipping). During the trip north I learned to appreciate the sophisticated “Alert” features built into Maretron’s various NMEA 2000 displays and I also enjoyed some benefits of the Siren Marine cellular monitoring system. In fact, Gizmo’s refrigerator currently contains two temperature sensors, a Maretron probe for on board monitoring and a Siren probe so I can keep an eye on the system from afar (even from Korea, by gosh). While the standalone and economical Siren system will definitely remain appropriate for some boats (and Maretron probably has an SMS learning curve to climb), I’m really looking forward to having virtually unlimited N2K monitoring on my phone…

So let’s take a look at what Maretron terms Alerts because they are usefully sub-categorized into Alarms and Warnings. An alert can be created for any value in the system based on data “trigger” conditions such as High, Low, Inside/Outside Radius, On/Off State, Direction and Time. An alarm based on a predetermined time from an N2K source like a GPS might otherwise be known as an alarm clock ;-)

There are also a few special triggers like GPS Quality and the Anchor Watch alert that pairs with the DSM250 screen above (which is also available on the 250′s much less expensive little brother, the DSM150). There are arguably better anchor alarms — like the Vesper WatchMate AIS with its plotting feature or the Boat Monitor app that let’s you input the bearing and distance to your actual hook instead of creating a radius around where the boat first settles — but I’ve gotten very fond of Maretron’s. Probably the main reason is that Gizmo now has an ALM100 Alarm Module mounted on the main panel near my berth and that sucker can bring me up from the deepest sleep.

Besides blasting an audible alarm or warning (if I want), Maretron alerts also flash on whatever DSM screen is active, as shown above left. A tap on the enter button takes you to the screen above right, where you can quickly mute the sound and where you’ll also see some of the sophistication underlying the whole Alerts feature. The Description and Location, for instance, are fully customizable fields that carry themselves throughout the system, including the SMS100 text messages

I used the DSM250 emulator that is part of the free N2KAnalyzer program to make the screens above illustrating the Alert creation process (clockwise from top left). Note how they have a priority value so that if more than one is active, the right one shows on screen and the ALM100 makes its particular sound (from a choice of six). Note too how the whole Alerts system has four modes (including disabled) so, for instance, it’s easy to arm Gizmo’s navigation light low current and block temperature alarms by simply setting the mode to underway. A user can also specify which Annuciators respond to a specific alert, so I can keep my middle of the night anchor watch to myself instead having the fly bridge ALM100 also go off.

But probably the hardest parameters to get one’s head around are the Re-trigger, Set, and Clear time periods. The former is simply an anti-distraction setting as it just re-fires an already Accepted alert if the condition remains the same for a certain period of time (leaving it at 0 leaves it off). Meanwhile the above diagram — found, like many of these screens, in the DSM250 manual you can download here — neatly illustrates the use of Set and Clear delays. The values are sort of like dampening on instruments and they are also more ways that Maretron lets you hone alerts until they work exactly as they should. In my experience boat alarms that go off too often when they’re not really needed get turned off permanently.

As for the SMS100 itself, it’s certainly neat that it has a display because of its DSM association. That screen above, for instance, shows not only signal strength but also recent incoming texts so you can easily test both outgoing and incoming transmission. And I like the sound of a six frequency band modem supporting 2G GSM/GPRS/EDGE and 3G UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA protocols because that covers so much of the cellular soup. But I wonder if Maretron’s plan to have users or installers provide their own SIM cards will cause difficulties. It makes sense on a global basis, but then again I know that Siren Marine has done a lot of trouble shooting to make their SIM cards mostly trouble free.
The SMS100′s ability to process text commands is also paltry compared to the Siren. As shipped users will only be able to text it a “Status” message and they will only get back the info seen below. However, Maretron tells me that eventually we’ll be able to design custom commands on a DSM that will not only call forth any info on the system but also permit actual control commands like DCR100 digital switching via phone. I’ve always fancied the idea of turning on boat lights before taking the tender out into a dark anchorage, but I’ve resisted having to install single purpose gadgetry to do it. Looks like I won’t have to.  What can you imagine doing with Maretron’s powerful system?

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Written by Ben Ellison on Jun 7, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

I so appreciated getting to know Dr. Yung Ho Yu — known around the world simply as Dr. Yung — at the Korea Maritime University in Busan, and I think you will too once you realize how much he and his programs are doing to advance marine electronics and improve the standards that make them inter-operable. For starters, take a close look at the NMEA 2000 teaching lab surrounding the good Doctor. The twenty work stations are all gatewayed to an extensive N2K sensor network so that students can experience and even interact with the protocol right down to the bit level as the instructor demonstrates from his work station. I’d like to be wrong, but I doubt that there’s a similarly powerful teaching and research tool anywhere else on the planet…

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Before going into more detail about Dr. Yung’s programs, let’s look at the environment he works in. Korea Maritime University (KMU) entirely occupies a lovely island at the mouth of Busan’s main harbor (except for the military and vessel traffic service facility perched on top of its sharp peak). If you wander around the Google Map above you’ll see that the Busan area is full of commercial shipping facilities and over to the southwest on Geoje Island you can also view the Daewoo Shipyard where gCaptain John Konrad recently toured the world’s largest ship, scheduled to launch later this month. You’ll see some of the intriguing coastline — think clear waters, scenic topography, and palm trees mixing with evergreens — that the Korean government intends to develop for cruising by their own people and visitors.

KMU is a major institution with over 3,000 students just in the College of Engineering.  Dr. Yung — who shipped out for enough of his youth to make Chief Engineer — is a Professor in that College’s graduate Department of Control & Instrumentation Engineering where he founded the Advanced IT & Ship Convergence Center (acronymed “AITASC” for some reason). He also directs the Korea Marine Electronics Industry Promotion Association (MEIPA), which is managed by Dr. Soo-jong Mo (purple shirt) from the same offices used by AITASC. In Korea, industry and academia, and the government, seem to work together more closely than what we’re used to here in the West.
Flanking Dr. Mo, myself, Dr. Yung, and Jim Fullilove in the photo above are two of about a dozen graduate students (and two dozen “company researchers”) working within AITASC. We’re standing outside the NMEA 2000 teaching lab which also serves as a test center for certifying N2K devices to the standard. AITASC has a web site, but I was unable to find the brochure which explains how it was funded in 2008 with 2.4 million dollars mostly contributed by the government’s Ministry of Knowledge Economy but also by 8 tech companies.

The ambitious goal of AITASC is to be a major R&D center behind e-Navigation — the IMO’s strategy to improve overall navigation, safety, and communications technologies in commercial shipping — by helping to develop both standards and real products. I’ve long heard that NMEA 2000 might eventually make it into the world of shipping, but Dr. Yung seems to have no doubts. In fact, it’s no coincidence that the diagram above, which dominates the AITASC office, strongly resembles the multi-layered network diagrams used to illustrate NMEA’s OneNet initiative.
In fact, Dr. Yung is a member of the OneNet working group and AITASC has volunteered to write the OneNet certification software. The Doctor is also working with the IMO and IEC e-Navigation groups and what you see labeled above on the Ethernet and PC level as MiTS — meaning Maritime Information Technology Standard — may well include OneNet.

Now, I have no idea what other technologies and/or standards are being contemplated for e-Navigation, MITS, etc and I’m sure that there are many other able parties involved besides NMEA and AITASC. So even if greater commonality between the recreational and commercial marine electronics worlds seems good for all, it may not get very far. It’s undeniable, though, that NMEA 2000 — which sometimes seems rather local to the U.S. and yachting — has gotten the serious attention of a very techy country on the other side of the globe. I gather that hundreds of students have been through Dr. Yung’s teaching lab, ranging from electronics and ship building technicians just getting an overview of N2K to the grad students who may understand everything on that slide above (in two distinctly different languages).

I suspect that the Daeyang Electric Gatero-2000 I spotted in the lab is what NMEA 2000 may look like on a big ship. You wouldn’t want to drop one on your foot. The inset of its backside suggests how it can gateway two N2K (CANbus) networks and an NMEA 0183 stream up to Ethernet. Daeyang is an AITASC sponsor and this device may have been developed in part right in this lab. Doctors Yung and Mo told us how MEIPA hopes to create a small industrial park and fit out a test vessel all to encourage marine electronics startups.

Seen above is equipment that AITASC uses to test and demonstrate the “4S” aspects of e-Navigation, where all the monitoring data collected at the lower levels gets communicated around the ship and to shore. The last picture requires some explanation but may draw a smile. When the whole system is being demonstrated a Maretron DST110 Depth/Speed/Temperature Triducer sits in the top of that tall aquarium and the bubbler is enough to spin the paddlewheel a few knots. That’s a Dr. Yung idea that may make it all the way back around the world to the Panbo lab.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Aug 1, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

When I wrote about seeing the new Garmin 8000 Glass Helm series in Miami, several knowledgeable readers commented about how it (and the GMI 20 I’m testing) would be used as part of a complete Volvo Penta engine/helm package. They were right.  Garmin announced the VP Glass Cockpit yesterday and it’s already up in detail at Volvo Penta. The main features seem to be great nav screen integration with joystick, trim, and autopilot controls plus a single vendor for all, but is this also what we’re going to see from all the glass bridge/helm/cockpit systems, and will it “trickle down”?

I don’t know the answer to that question. On the one hand Garmin announced a special relationship with VP two years ago. On the other hand, since then we’ve seen the emergence of Furuno NavNet TZTouch and Raymarine gS Series systems with similar high-end glass style and integration capabilities, and I’d bet a box of donuts that Simrad has something beyond NSO systems and monitors in the oven. Might Volvo create glass bridges with other electronics companies or Garmin with, say, Catapillar? Can all the engine and electronics manufacturers get to better compatability without it being a big deal?Afterall, one key to tight integration between your propulsion and nav systems is simply passing the monitoring data over NMEA 2000 to nav screens that can display it better than dedicated gauges. That’s been theoretically possible for about a decade, but remains quite rare for what seems like many possible reasons. The standard N2K messages may not support every engine and trim data field yet, few engine manufacturers have enabled N2K output — maybe because they wanted to sell their own screens or maybe because they feared problems, or some combination of both — and hence there hasn’t much reason for MFD developers to put much energy into their engine screens.
So Volvo Penta is using big, beautiful Garmin 8000 screens instead of their own guages — and you can see how informative and responsive they are in this excellent Randy Vance video – but will there be downside to this? Will the Glass Cockpit be even more expensive than the Glass Helm? Will Garmin updates and accessories get to Volvo Penta customers as quickly?

I was pondering these questions as I unpacked a Garmin 8212 in the lab yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the triple CANbus/N2K ports I spotted on the black box models are also on the MFDs. It seems very likely that the Volvo Penta engine and trim systems plug into that yellow Engine port and are thus separate from the boat’s regular navigation NMEA 2000 network. I’m not convinced that’s necessary — especially since the Garmin portion of the Glass Cockpit does not seem to actually control shift and throttle (also theoretically possible with N2K) — but I can picture how it’s more reliable to have just two developement teams working on a sub-network even if they’re using a multi-manufacturer standard. (And isn’t it fun to imagine what Garmin has in mind for that “House” port?)

The 8000 series certainly seems built to heavy-duty engine-like standards. In fact, I was amazed to find that the separate card reader has a 7.5 amp power cable until I realized that they are simply using the same power cable for it, the 8212, and also the GRID keypad. Note the blade fuse, cable/plug color coding, right angle connectors and snap-on outer rings that I first spotted on the 7000 Series. When I visited binnacle and pod manufacturer Edson Marine in May, company president Will Keene told me that he wished electronics companies would make cables with a narrow connector on one end and a right angle connector on the other. Garmin seems close but I wonder if Raymarine’s new RayNet Ethernet cabling isn’t even easier to run with no extra parts to worry about.
The way the Ray gS Series card reader gets power and data via a single waterproof USB cable — discussed here on Tuesday (it’s glass bridge week!) — also seems like an easier install, but then again I want to loadly applaud the working side of the 8000 reader seen below. Garmin is using full size SD cards, which means they can be clearly labeled and they are less likely to blow overboard than the micro variety. Plus a micro SD card can always be put in a full size SD slot, with an adaptor, but not vice versa. Garmin also numbered the card slots, which will be useful when a user makes decisions like which one to save routes and tracks to, and they even indicated the correct card orientation. Anyone else have an MFD that could use these nicities?
Excuse the sidetrack, but even the biggest systems are at least in part a conglomeration of details that can make your boating simpler, or not. Anyone excited about the Volvo Penta Glass Cockpit, and/or the prospect of such propulsion control integration coming to other and maybe smaller screens?

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Written by Ben Ellison on Aug 27, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

I ended my entry about Vesper Marine’s excellent AIS collision avoidance software with tentative enthusiasm about the company’s next generation WatchMate Vision transponder.  Well, a test unit has been installed on Gizmo’s dash since mid-July and, frankly, it’s spectacular. While it certainly offers the AIS target filtering and alerting genius previously discussed, now these talented developers have put maximum AIS utility into a 5.7-inch touchscreen while also creating what could the central WiFi link between a boat’s fixed sensors and a boater’s mobile apps…

Just one example of the clever interface is how the screen range is handled. Normally, there’s just that minimal “+/-” button seen at lower left below, and then when it’s tapped you’ll get the substantial range slider seen above along with the “Return” and “Accept” buttons. After a pause long enough to finger the new range easily, the slider dissappears so you’ll have as much target screen as possible. But the Return and Check buttons remain onscreen indefinitely, waiting until you decide whether to return to your previous range or stay with the new one. In other words, the interface takes you right to the point where it can’t know what you want to do next, and doesn’t make you take extra steps. I see this sort of thoughtfulness throughout Vision.

The screen above also shows the main menu icons that only stay visible briefly after you tap the upper right button. The top one lists the 19 current targets on the left (as seen below), and the list can be expanded full screen and sorted by range, cpa, tcpa, etc. as desired. The second button is for full target screen, currently enabled as indicated by the extra blue border. Buttons 3 and 4 put alarm or your own GPS data in the left panel instead of targets and the bottom button is for system stuff. Tapping on the “WatchMate Wheel” just right of the screen gets you a context menu you can roll through with the wheel or tap on screen (if, say, you want to change from ‘Anchor’ mode to one of the three alerting setups). The touch commands take a bit of force but that’s not a bad idea on a boat and, that said, I think most users will get the hang of Vision quite quickly.
Note on the top screen that the Vision’s build-in shoreline map depicts the island paradise to my east quite accurately — when I zoom in on a vessel I can usually visualize right where it is — but let’s also note the map’s failure to properly show Camden’s Inner Harbor on the second screen.

When you select a target from the list or screen you first get a compact description at the screen bottom that you can expand into the full detail box seen above. As with Vesper’s earlier displays, the target details are presented in a notably readable manner, and — another interface nicitie — once you’re using the full detail box you can select other targets on the list without going backwards. The “Gear” button is particularly interesting, as it let’s you disable all alarms for a specific vessel and/or give it a special proximity alarm, as explained here in the fairly thorough Vision online User Guide.
Note that S/V Huckleberry is a Class B vessel only transmitting AIS data at 2 Watts yet the Vision is seeing it more than 8 miles away from within Camden Harbor using a medium height and performance antenna, and ditto for Wild Thing, Seeadler, and Nancy Lu. We’ve heard a lot of harrumphing about Class B range over the years but in fact the Vision is often seeing Class B vessels at over 10 miles. Then again a test seemed to confirm the hypothesis that Vesper  I think that Vesper builds an especially sensitive radio. Gizmo has been equipped with a Raymarine AIS 650 for nearly a year, and this close relative to the Em-Track B100 and other SRT-built transponders is way more than satisfactory. Yet while Gizmo’s best antenna on the 650 yielded 34 targets with the Vision receiving 24, switching antennas put 35 targets on the Vesper and only 19 on the Raymarine. The same test later that day was 35 to 25 Ray to Vesper, then 35 to 21 the other way. Conclusion: antenna height and quality is very important to AIS performance but there can still be reception differences between two good radios built to the same strict standard.

But wait, the Vesper WatchMate Vision, and its blackbox sibling the WatchMate XB-8000, can distribute AIS info via NMEA 0183 (including USB), NMEA 2000, and/or WiFi.  The latter is a first for AIS transponders, I think, and also a big deal. Besides supplying AIS to every MFD on a boat, the Vision or XB-8000 can talk verbosely to Vesper’s own WatchMate app and can conceivably feed all of a boat’s NMEA data to third party apps and PC programs. Plus the Vision happens to be the first WiFi-enabled marine electronics device that I’ve gotten to work with Gizmo’s own WiFi system. While the setup is easier than, say, Navico GoFree because there’s no high bandwidth radar and sonar on the network, I still needed some help from Vesper about how to spec an IP address acceptable to my router.

WatchMate, which I can now run without changing hotspots, is very much an app in developement. It only shows a list of targets because apparently Vesper concentrated first on enabling all the setup and diagnostic functions a third party app will probably never support. The iPad screen at right above suggests how a user or installer can specify a Vision or XB’s GPS location plus vessel name, type, and MMSI.

Until the latest revision was released over the weekend, WatchMate only supported iPhone screen resolution, as seen on shots above. And so far the transponders are only WiFi distributing Heading info received from NMEA 2000 or 0183, but the plan is to add other data fields like Depth, Wind, etc. Eventually the WatchMate will be able to display AIS (and more) and control filters/alerts so thoroughly that an XB-8000 will have almost all the functionality of a Vision (there is an unresolved problem with firing off alarms while in the background on iOS, but apparently Android doesn’t present that issue).

Apps that already handle NMEA 0183 over WiFi well, like those recently discussed regarding GoFree, seem to do well with the Vision output. The $10 SEAiq USA app, for instance, not only shows all the data (above) but also has terriffic diagnostics so you can see what’s going on behind the scenes. And the PC screen below shows how a free HW virtual serial port program can be used to get Vision WiFi data into a program like Nobeltec Triton TZ if the USB run is too long. Vesper has a list of compatible apps down the Vision product page, and I’m really looking forward to what they’ll do as Vision/XB capabilities expand.
Plus there’s more than data-rich apps that can happen here. These transponders are easily updated, I gather, and one possibility is support for the recent NMEA 2000 alarm PGN’s. Which means that the Vision could kick off Gizmo’s effective Maretron ALM100 modules or any other N2K noise maker that supports the right PGN. Though not yet even on the road map, the Vesper developers also like the idea of enabling these WiFi transponders to send target info to sites like MarineTraffic and AISHub (and hence app systems like SmartChart AIS) — no PC involved — and maybe even adding Web-collected AIS to their regular target display (in an intelligent way, I’m sure). Vesper indeed had a vision, and now it’s getting real.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Oct 1, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

I’ll write soon with NMEA Conference details of the futuristic (and unfinished) NMEA OneNet standard, but I also left San Diego with the strong impression that the good old NMEA 0183 standard is still very much alive. One interesting example is the new Digital Yacht GPS 150 DualNav, which earns its last name for its ability to receive more than one set of positioning satellites at once — already active GPS and GLONASS in particular, more coming — and to then deliver more accurate L/L, COG & SOG than can be gleaned from just one GNSS system.

Garmin already offers the similarly capable GPS 19X, and builds the same high-speed multi-GNSS technology into new MFDs like the GPSMap 741. With a 10 hz refresh rate and more satellites to look at, a user of these new generation GNSS receivers should get better performance plus the comfort of redundancy, if either GPS or GLONASS happens to fail in your area. It should also make recently discussed GNSS spoofing a lot harder. Thus, I suspect that what we see Garmin doing now will eventually become standard for all the major electronics manufacturers.

What Digital Yacht has done differently is to put GPS/GLONASS high-precision navigation data out over the NMEA 0183 standard with a lot of flexibility to work with various existing systems. Yes, indeed, inside the waterproof GPS 150 is a classic DIP switch, so that an installer can set it up without needing an attached PC or MFD. The many modes available (see the manual) include TurboNav, which outputs 10 Hz position and motion data capable of under 3-foot accuracy at 115,000 baud. Digital Yacht says that level of performance is getting the attention of sailors with older Nexus and B&G systems able to handle that sort of NMEA 0183 input. And with a price under $200, the DualNav is also a good candidate to replace deceased Raymarine RayStar 102/125 sensors according to DY, which has even put up a dedicated DualNav site.

I also attended a seminar in which various branches of the U.S. Coast Guard explained their involvement with marine electronics. For instance, Lee Luft of the USCG R&D Center explained how his team worked with NMEA, IEC, Inmarsat and others to create five new NMEA 0183/IEC 61162-1 sentences, which can “convey Maritime Safety Information (MSI) from Inmarsat-C and Mini-C shipboard terminals to other shipboard equipment” (example above and tech bulletin PDF here). Equivalent NMEA 2000 PGNS will follow, but presumably 0183 went first as that’s what most of the equipment can handle. (There’s also a useful sounding new MOB notication message, both for 0183 and for 2000.)

So NMEA 0183 is very much alive and kicking, even if I’m happy to have very little of it aboard my own boat.  I’m also fine with the concept of modern MFDs dropping 0183 support altogether, as Furuno has done with both its high-end NavNet TZT series and the value-oriented GP1670F and 1870F plotter/fishfinders I learned more about at NMEA (paper chart fans should know that you get NOAA raster charts via C-Map 4D on these bright, fast screens).
I hadn’t realized, though, that Furuno has also developed a small, reasonably priced NMEA 0183 to 2000 gateway to deal with mixed systems. The bi-directional IF-NMEA2K2 has three 0183 interface modes — the default at 4,800bps, high-speed (38,400) autopilot, and high-speed AIS — each with its own set of message translations and refresh rates (well explained in the manual). And if you could read the label below, you’d see that the high-speed modes are selected simply by cutting a particular wire loop bundled with the regular 0183 leads. It’s a fast, effective install solution that makes even a DIP switch seem high tech.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Oct 13, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

It’s great to test an unusual device that promises to do something new and desirable for the good vessel Gizmo and find out that it installs fairly easily and works quite well. That Actisense EMU-1 is now converting the analog gauge data from the boat’s 14-year-old Volvo Penta diesel into NMEA 2000 messages that can be displayed in multiple ways on most any MFD or instrument screen on board and can also be custom alarmed and logged. I’m going to be better informed about my engine’s health, which is very important, while also gaining some scarce helm panel real estate for better uses than dumb analog gauges…

I’m too conservative to totally remove Gizmo’s old gauges (like the set above at the lower helm), but I’m already confident enough of the EMU-1 data that I plan to move them to an obscure location when I do a “glass bridge” makeover this winter. Incidentally, one neat nuance of the EMU-1 is that each of its 6 gauge channels can automatically sense the presence of an analog sibling, adjusting its calibration curve to suit and also sending power to the sender if needed. If the old coolant temperature gauge (upper left) fails, for instance, the EMU will still deliver the temp information if the sender is working, at least theoretically…and if the EMU or N2K network fail, the gauge will still work. This is a semi-redundancy I like!  (The three trouble lights and their associated audio alarms are a different deal, which I’ll explain further down.)

The most tedious part of the install was attaching all those skinny alarm, gauge, and tach signal wires seen on the EMU-1 terminals (top photo) to the appropriate wires on the back of the old gauge panel. Removing the panel made the job easier, and I also used 3M Scotchlok IDC tap connectors that will eventually get their own Panbo entry. Then came the exciting moment when I fired up both the Volvo Penta (whose ignition now also activates the EMU-1) and the EMU Config Tool software above. (It’s necessary to have an Actisense NGT-1 Gateway between the boat’s N2K network and whatever PC you use, but there are numerous other good uses for the gateway, like feeding boat info to a compatible charting or instrument program.)

The Tool is pretty straightforward; drop-down menus let you specify which signal is attached to which terminal and then select possible gauge calibration profiles. There’s not much custom calibration possible until Actisense adds it (planned) but in most cases the digital signals seem to match my analog gauge readings pretty well. The exception is coolant temperature, which is reading about 15° high (I have a Maretron temp sensor on the block, which confirms the analog gauge). I look forward to getting the temp numbers right as the Config Tool evolves, but in truth, the number I’m getting is quite usable because it’s consistent. I also had to fiddle with RPM ratio until it matched (what I’ve always considered) tachometer reality, and that was it…

On Gizmo there are umteen ways to display N2K info, but for the real nitty-gritty there’s nothing like Actisense’s NMEA Reader (or Maretron’s N2KAnalyzer). All the PGN’s (messages) from SRC (source) 13 on the screen above are coming from the EMU-1 and the right-hand window is a breakdown of the “Engine Parameters, Dynamic” PGN 127489. Engine RPM, Boost Pressure, and Tilt/Trim are in the “Engine, Rapid Update” PGN going out every 0.1 seconds and naturally Gizmo’s Transmission Oil Pressure is in the “Transmission, Dynamic” message. This is a great way to see what a device like the EMU-1 is doing, and what else it could do (if I had the appropriate sensors).

Now here’s how fancy some of that same data can be displayed, in this case on a Garmin GPSMap 7212, which even asked me if I’d like to set the engine’s maximum RPM when it first saw the EMU-1 tachometer message. Newer Garmin displays like the GPSMap 741 and the GMI 20 Instrument (Panbo look here) will automatically select gauge types based on the PGNs received, though none would put up a Transmission Oil Pressure dial (even though the numeric data can be shown no problem). Garmin also lets you set limits on each digital gauge and is probably the best at deciphering and showing the “trouble lights,” which are associated with those alarm switch terminals on the EMU-1. (If Gizmo’s ignition is on without the engine running, the low oil pressure warning above “lights” up, and I was able to confirm the over temperature alarm by temporarily setting it to “low” with the Config Tool.)

But while you can’t change which gauges are shown on Garmin engine windows, you do all sorts of modifications to the Raymarine e7 screen seen above. Except that the only gauge for which you can customize the limits is RPM. Sometimes this is not important, but when, say, the fixed engine voltage dial goes from 0 to 60v, that’s not very useful for monitoring a 12v alternator. The good news is that every N2K display developer is doing a better job with engine info than they used to and that trend may even speed up as devices like the EMU-1 (and Ray’s new ECI-100) proliferate.

I haven’t yet fooled with the gauge capabilities of the Furuno NavNet TZT14, but I do like how it can display the engine’s “nickname” and also the look of the customized tachometer. And while I’m not sure why the TZT wasn’t showing oil pressure at the time of the screenshot, it does show fine on the Furuno RD33 screen (Panbo hands-on here). Neither will show Transmission Oil Pressure, but again, that’s probably something Furuno will add in good time (or I missed somehow).

While the Simrad NSS and NSE engine screen dials may be fixed, you can put any N2K data field available into a gauge and configure both its low and high limits and warnings. Nice! (After the screenshot I was able to program the left and right bar graphs to show Gizmo’s port and starboard fuel tank levels, and also to find valid data for those blank fields.)

I don’t think that any company offers as much gauge customization as Maretron, but frankly all this experimentation left me wondering how much screen real estate users will want to give up in order to duplicate old style analog dials? Personally, I’d always like to have a good tach in view, but I wonder what happened to space-efficient gauge ideas like what the Simrad CX sported in 2006? I’ve also come to realize that well-defined alarms that really get my attention are way better than numbers or needles that I’m supposed to monitor. Maretron is ahead in this department, too, and I’ll explain the niceties of the righthand screen above in a future entry. But I believe that sophisticated and flexible alarming will come to many N2K devices eventually. In fact, I think it’s quite possible that Actisense will eventually add custom N2K warnings and alerts right into the EMU-1 box. There’s so much possible when a PC programmable box can put simple analog data into meaningful NMEA 2000 messages.

That’s not to say that the Actisense EMU-1 couldn’t be very useful on many boats right now. Gizmo has had two major engine coolant failures during my four years of ownership, and either one could have cost me a great deal of money had the engine overtemp alarm not warned me at the last moment or if I’d been in a less friendly spot to shut down and cool off. With the EMU-1 and a custom N2K alert system (like Maretron’s) I can get an early warning of engine temperature just above normal. Ditto for engine and transmission oil pressures, which I can also now monitor on the flying bridge (instead of this). And note that I think the EMU-1 can even support added sensors, like perhaps a redundant temp probe on block, and will be able to do even more once the two auxilary inputs are enabled.
As for competition, I haven’t heard anything recently about the Albatross Control Systems adapters I tried in 2009 and apparently Rose Point Navigation has decided not to release the analog engine adapter for which I saw neat calibration and gauging back in 2011. On the other hand, the NoLand RS11 CANbus Engine Data Converter that Panbot Adam Block once wrote about is now NMEA 2000 certified and sounding pretty powerful. It has, for instance, a way to reset the engine hour field it sends out after install, a feature I hope Actisense will add.
I suspect that the $455 EMU-1 is easier to install than the $280 RS11 (and it has more inputs), but then again, I probably spent nearly a day getting the one on Gizmo working right. In fact, this type of device seems like a good opportunity for professional installers who could probably get the job done quickly and well, once they understood all the steps (Gemeco, which also stocks all this gear, can help). There are a lot of analog marine engines out there that could use better attention in their waning years, and a lot are on boats that already have displays that could at least do some of the monitoring job now and will likely get better at it in the future. 

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Written by Ben Ellison on Nov 15, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Perhaps, coming soon to a marine electronics store near you (though not yet online) is a fairly complete line of NMEA 2000 cables and connectors under the well-known Ancor brand. I particularly like how the kits and explanatory packaging will encourage consumers to set up their own small networks. The 2 and 5-meter cables, for instance, are sold as Backbone/Drop Cables, while the 10-Meter is simply a Backbone Cable (because a spur shouldn’t exceed 5 meters). I saw the preview Ancor line above at IBEX, but learned more about it in a special Soundings Trade-Only advertorial publication designed for next week’s METS show…

One notable feature of the Ancor N2K cables is that they use 18 awg power wires instead of the conventional 22 gauge, which means less chance of unacceptable voltage drop if the network grows large. They’ve also developed a tee connector with a built-on 1-meter spur cable that I’ve never seen before (though some other parts, like the multi-tees, appear to come from a source used by other N2K distributors). We don’t yet know how Ancor pricing will compare to the competition, but I like to think “the more the merrier” in that regard. I was also pleased to learn from the Trade-Only page that in 2014 Ancor is adding back “200 products that had previously been rationalized out of” their catalog. (Thanks, incidentally, to reader Butch for sending me to the related Continuous Wave discussion.)  

It will be particularly interesting to see how Ancor pricing compares to Maretron’s MID size cables, which also employ 18 gauge power wires. The pile photographed on Gizmo last spring is now a color-coded backbone, snaking from engine room up through both helms and back to the antenna mast. I know that some people wail at the costs — which range from about $26 retail for a .5 meter to $51 for a 10 meter — but I thought it a reasonable investment for high quality data/power cabling that will never be obsolete, no matter how the electronics change. It’s also worth noting that the last remaining proprietary NMEA 2000 connector and cabling system, Raymarine’s SeaTalkNG, also features 18 gauge power wires and is also designed with a color-coded backbone. But I digress. 
   The facing page in the Trade-Only pub advertises a new line of bus bars, fuse holders, battery switches, etc. from Ancor sibling company BEP. Fortunately, the Pro Installer line is well documented online, but I’ll add that the gear looked very well made and smartly designed at IBEX (I thought) and I suspect it will be of interest to both real pros and informed do-it-yourselfers. Then again, Blue Sea Systems is also very strong in this area. The more the merrier!
   By the way, I will not be at METS myself, but I will be covering some major electronics introductions there and Kees Verruijt will again report after a show visit.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Nov 18, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Garmin is purportedly announcing nearly fifty 2014 marine products today!  A lot are related to the company’s new ability to offer the high resolution down and side scanning that’s become so popular with freshwater and near coastal fishermen (and curious gunkholers like myself). Soon the relatively easy-to-understand (and fit-on-a-small-screen) down view will be available in new echo dv fishfinders and echoMAP dv fishfinder/GPS combos that will then better compete against similar products from Lowrance, Humminbird and Raymarine. Moving up the cost curve you’ll find CHIRP-assisted DownVü and SideVü, which look wicked sharp in the screenshot above (imaging what’s likely the remains of a bridge in a man-made lake)…

CHIRP assisted SideVü and DownVü originate in the GCV 10 black box above, which is obviously networkable. In fact, the GCV 10 probably explains, at least in part, why Garmin put a second Ethernet port on last year’s new GPSmap 741 Series (Panbo discussion here). Garmin’s fully networkable systems — like the 6-, 7- and 8000 Series – are not yet listed as compatible, but it certainly seems possible (and desirable). I haven’t yet found photographs of the 12-pin 455/800 kHz DownVü/SideVü transducer that comes with the GCV 10 or the 8-pin “all-in-one” 77/200 kHz sonar/DownVü transducer that comes with the various new echo dv fishfinders, but I imagine they are half-tube shaped and will come as transom mounts with thru-hull options later (as all the down and side view manufacturers have done). 

HD-ID sonar/DownVü is also a built-in choice for the new GPSMAP 1040sx and 840sx, though they can also support traditional 1 kW sonar and CHIRP. These are non-touch displays with an 8-softkey and dedicated button interface quite similar looking to the 6000 Series.  Both models come loaded with both LakeVü HD maps and BlueChart g2 coastal charts and can handle both BlueChart g2 Vision and the new LakeVü HD Ultra regional cartography packages. Meanwhile, the new GPSMAP 1020 annd 820 lack the built-in fishfinding and charts but offer “Special Sailing Features,” including “laylines, enhanced wind rose, heading and course-over-ground lines, and true wind data fields” (no screenshots yet; please holler if you see some).
   All these new MFDs offer “select networking capabilities that allow you to share features with other compatible GPSMAP units, such as radar {all models}, GCV 10 DownVü and SideVü scanning sonar, supplemental maps, and user data, such as waypoints, routes and tracks.” In other words, I think, Garmin is sticking with its strategy of limiting the network abilities of less expensive MFDs like the popular 700 Series, but a lot less so :-)

Garmin also has new GMR 18 and 24 xHD radomes, both of which are 4 kW with purported 48-mile maximum range. Both are also dual speed with automatic control, can work at dual ranges simultaneously and feature dynamic gain and sea filtering, all rendered on screen in “vibrant 8-bit color for greater detail of weather patterns or obstructions.” I think that this is an important update for Garmin as their radomes (not their xHD open array radars) seemed weak in the comparative HD radome testing I did a few years ago. Hopefully, next season I’ll get to see if they meet or even exceed the competition (and whether they’ll network across fully and selectively networkable Garmin MFDs, which seems like a “maybe” at this point).

And how about Garmin Meteor 300 black box audio system that’s sort of like Navico’s SonicHub, but based on newer Fusion technology? So, it has Bluetooth streaming and control, and it can be accessorized with a NMEA 2000 remote and/or an Apple-connector-change-safe and Android-friendly dock (note that Lowrance and Simrad have also added SonicHub support for the Uni-Dock). Many GPSMAP models will porportedly be compatible with the Meteor 300 over N2K, and if that interface is like what I’m seeing with Fusion-Link on a Garmin 7212, which is very likely, it will be a fantastic way to run your stereo when you’re at the helm.

Almost finally, the relationship between Garmin and their sailing instrument developer, Nexus Marine, has taken an interesting turn. The new gWind sensors, both wired and wireless, at least look exactly like the unique Nexus design I first saw at METS in 2006, which is just fine because it’s earned a good reputation and, even better, Garmin’s version comes with a GND 10 Black Box Bridge that apparently integrates Garmin’s NMEA 2000 data system with the 0183-based Nexus Network. The box, which is available separately, even supports PC applications like NexusRace and Expedition, and is apt to make some sailors with existing Nexus systems very happy (and more likely to be Garmin customers if they aren’t already).
   Finally, I think, there’s the new free Garmin Helm app, which is not really a surprise. I don’t have screenshots yet, but how nice that it became available on the Apple App Store today. So far, only Garmin’s GPSMAP 8000 series is compatible — and you’ll need a WiFi Adapter Kit (which I still think will be replaced eventually with a better Garmin-built model) —  but it seems safe to presume that smartphone and tablet mirrorings and control will come to other Garmin MFDs in due time.
   I’m sure I’ve missed many details of all these new products, but hopefully, people visiting METS (like Kees), or those otherwise in the know, will fill in.
 

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Written by Ben Ellison on Dec 9, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

OneNet is the NMEA’s ongoing effort to create a subset of Ethernet and Internet Protocol (IP) standards for marine electronics. It won’t be fully released for two more years, but I liked what I heard (and could understand) in a September seminar delivered by NMEA Technical Director Steve Spitzer. When I first wrote about OneNet, for instance, some skeptical commenters could only envision it as a way for the major manufacturers to keep small developers out and profits up. But that seems paranoid when you consider the wide variety of organizations who are volunteering time and expertise to create OneNet…

The team working on OneNet ranges from numerous small companies up thru the Big Four (Furuno, Garmin, Navico and Raymarine) and on to IP giants like Cisco and Microsoft.  Also included are Coast Guard groups interested in general marine safety and the safe, efficient performance of their own fleets, as well as the forward-looking engineers I met at South Korea Maritime U. last June.

Spitzer began his presentation rather boldly, with first this slide suggesting that OneNet is “Staying Ahead of the Curve” and then another stating that “The World has finally caught up with the Marine Electronics Industry”!  He seemed to be grinning — at the skeptics? — as he said that, but I can’t think of a similar technology niche that’s trying to integrate its specialized data and environmental conditions into IP standards like this. You can download the OneNet slide show PDF at the NMEA.org (along with other 2013 Conference goodies), but I’ll try to cover Spitzer’s main points below.

Steve spent a lot of time discussing the Internet of Things (IoT), which is sometimes alternately called the Industrial Internet or M2M (machine to machine). No matter what it’s called, it’s getting pretty obvious that all sorts of devices are going to get on the Internet one way or another — like 50 billion by 2020 in Cisco’s estimate –and Spitzer also had some startling numbers like the brontobyte to describe what that will mean in terms of needed IP storage, unique addresses, etc.  All of which is vastly more complicated in the world of marine electronics where major systems must keep on working when not connected to the outside world, or with much reduced bandwidth…and in damp dynamic conditions.

All the IoT talk seemed, at least in part, a justification for NMEA’s decision to skip IPv4 altogether in favor of the rapidly emerging IPv6  protocol. I don’t know much about the intricacies of IP, and Wikipedia claims there’s only 2% Google IPv6 access right now, but Spitzer seemed to make a good case for how well IPv6 will work in the boat world. Plus, 2% is not actually a small number if it’s four times more than the year before, which I guess is a reason why a OneNet standard that won’t hit the docks until 2015 can still be “ahead of the curve.”

The proposed waterproof OneNet connectors and cables are a lot easier to understand, and they look good, I think. You can already find d-coded M12 Ethernet cable that will be standard for less-than-100Mbs OneNet. Like NMEA 2000 DeviceNet cables, they’re not cheap, but also like N2K cables, they’re both rugged and reusable, and there is a competitive marketplace. Plus, you can always adapt to regular RJ45 Ethernet cabling if you want. X-coded m12 Ethernet cabling is more exotic, and it’s still only a OneNet “Recommend” mainly because the IEC hasn’t yet elevated it higher, but committee member Molex makes x-code sound very capable.
While I think “recommend” does mean that a manufacturer could use a proprietary OneNet connector on their device, NMEA probably has time to come up with a “Standard” high-speed OneNet connector and besides, I doubt any manufacturers will make the same mistake some made with NMEA 2000.  Afterall, there’s only two proprietary N2K cabling systems still in production – Raymarine’s SeaTalkNG and Fusion Audio’s - and I’m not sure either company is happy with the situation (though adapter cables can handle both). At any rate, isn’t it nice to think of a future where you could buy, say, an IP navigation camera and have it plug’n'play with whatever OneNet gear you already have on board (and possibly older Ethernet gear that’s been updated to OneNet)?

Of course there’s more to plug’n'play than connector compatibility, but Steve Spitzer had good news on the software front as well. In fact, the committee is hopeful that OneNet will be the first, or one of the first, to support both leading “Discovery Services” at once.Thanks to sharp marine developers at Vesper Marine, zapfware, Navico, and PocketMariner, I’ve already experienced how nice and easy it is to connect iPad apps to boat hardware with Apple’s Bonjour version of zero-configuration networking. Apparently, Microsoft and other non-Apple companies tend to use the Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) and/or Universal Plug’n'Play (UPnP) with similar results, and — blessed be! — NMEA wants OneNet to work with all the software ecologies.

OneNet’s main goal, though, remains the safe passage of NMEA 2000 data messages and commands (aka PGN’s) out to a boat’s OneNet (Ethernet) system and beyond, plus moving data in the opposite direction. I think I’m already enjoying the “Internet of Things” when Gizmo’s Siren Marine system sends me an email and text every morning reporting on temperature and battery states (that’s how I know that the solar panels are trickle charging through white shrink wrap). What the heck will it be like when every OneNet device on our boats has its own Web page like the one proposed below?

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Written by Kees Verruijt on Dec 22, 2013 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

At the METS 2013 show in Amsterdam last month B&G unveiled their new H5000 range of sailing instruments and auto pilots. Unlike the Triton range which is meant for recreational and club racers the H5000 series is designed for high end cruisers and all levels of racers (from club to round-the-world), and replaces the H3000 series. B&G’s racing reputation stems from the capability of their systems to make corrections to the raw sensor values and deduce derived values at high rates. Cruising systems do basic smoothing of raw sensor values (wind, boat speed) and some computations (remember the Panbo discussion on calculating true wind?) but nothing else. The H5000 range can do much, much more. For instance all systems compensate the wind speed for heel and trim angle, there are advanced MOB features and the autopilots have special gust and high-wind response modes.

Processor

The way that this was implemented historically was a central processing box that the sensors were connected to and then the box computed the improved values. This has not changed, and the same performance levels are available as before. The three levels are:

• Hydra (€ 1290 – $1499 – ROW $1649)
• Hercules (€ 1890 – $2399 – ROW $2749)
• Performance (€ 3690 – $4599 – ROW $5299)

What’s different is that the actual physical processor remains the same and apparently you can upgrade to a higher level via a software update. Previously the PCB would have to be swapped. The setup has been dramatically simplified by including a web server in the CPU box. You can use a computer or (if you have the GoFree WiFi or your own router) a tablet to perform functions such as set-up, calibration, commissioning but also backup/restore and diagnostics. You can expand the capabilities of the processor by adding expansion modules. The current list includes a 3D motion module, a barometer module, a network alarm module, a serial expansion module and an analogue value module.

The “basic” Hydra level has NMEA 2000, dual NMEA 0183 and Ethernet interfaces to integrate with your computers and other navigation equipment. It supports wind heel compensation, and has a special Performance Wind Filter that aims to optimise wind angle stability. It also has an advanced MOB function which keeps a dead reckoned position of the MOB based on tide or as as updated via AIS SART. It supports most expansion modules and many of B&G’s existing sensors. In addition, the processor provides advanced MOB function with dedicated MOB button input and dead reckoning of relative MOB position, allowing for tide, based on the initial MOB position or as updated via AIS SART with compatible equipment.

The next level, Hercules, is specifically designed for racing yachts, adding more accurate data and more race specific features. If you add a “3D Motion Expansion Module” you get a motion compensated wind value — ie. it compensates for rolling, pitching and yawing. It would be interesting to compare a Hercules system with this module to a system equipped with the Airmar PB200 — which Dan Corcoran reported as motion compensated as well. The H5000 also allows you to upload polar table data to the CPU that provides target boat speed, target wind angles and performance monitoring. It also allows heel/linearity correction of boat speed and increased sensitivity of boat speed data to real accelerations / decelerations by better filtering. Hercules also provides enhanced communication, Polar table configuration and Start Line information.

The highest level, Performance, is meant for complex yachts that have items such as dual wind sensors, dual rudders, dual or triple daggerboards (providing a calculated depth below the daggerboard). Further functionality delivered by Performance includes the tracking of ground wind speed and direction, Rate of Turn and enhanced polar performance targets.

Four styles of display

The H5000 range includes two new displays and carries over two existing ranges. First and foremost there will be a H5000 Graphic display, at around €/$ 1000, that looks like a Triton on steroids — a big bold 5″ colour screen using the same UI style as we already know from Triton. I felt right at home with it, and it was easy to use. Like all B&G displays it uses a fully bonded LCD which means there is no air gap between the front glass and the LCD. This has the advantage that it is impossible for condensation to penetrate and show up on the LCD. Whereas Triton is able to show depth and wind history plots, this also includes special sailing pages, a start line page and the sail steer page that we’ve seen first on the Zeus MFD.

Next up is a new H5000 Race display, using a segmented black/white display that uses a little less power (but not much), is a little cheaper, but more importantly might just match your boat or racing style. It has a small bar graph on the left side of the display that can be used as a visual indicator.

What I also liked that these displays will just drop in for the older H3000 (or even H2000) displays as they have the same physical dimensions, so cutouts as well as the overall feel remain the same. The H5000 Race display will look familiar for H3000 owners but I guess that a lot of owners will prefer then new H5000 Graphic display, which boasts a very bright 5″ color display. With their fully bonded (no condensation) graphical displays the data that can be shown is much more useful. The H5000 graphic display copies the sail steer and start line pages that we know from the Zeus MFD and the windplot display seen on the Triton T41.

The H5000 system also supports the existing HVision 10/10, 20/20, 30/30 and 40/40 mast displays with prices from 500 to 4000 €/$, with more functionality than H3000 did as the new processors can send alternating values (Hydra) or even dynamic sets of data (Hercules, choosing automatically beween pre-start, upwind, reaching and downwind) and 10 Hz update (with Hercules.)

The analogue displays were updated to NMEA 2000 / Simnet a few years ago for use with H3000, and as they are classically styled they just carried over.

Autopilot

The H5000 autopilot shares the hardware with the recent Simrad AC70 computer but runs B&G software which offers dedicated sailing steering modes – gust response, recovery and high-wind response. I guess most sailors won’t miss the removed fishing patterns… B&G claims excellent response for sailing boats, and a win in the latest Vendee Globe.

There is also a new controller that I liked as it is almost as small as the Triton controller but still includes a small B&W LCD display. I asked whether you could mix and match, and use the new controller with a Simrad autopilot computer, but my feedback is that this is not supported.

I’m sure some people out there wouldn’t mind if Santa brought them a H5000 system… Alas that won’t happen as the product availability is still one or two months out.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Jan 9, 2014 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

When I first wrote about Maretron’s FFM100 fuel flow monitor, I was enthused about both its advanced sensor technology and the possibilities of a system designed from the ground up for NMEA 2000. Now that I’ve installed the system on Gizmo and tested it a bit underway (before the weather closed in), I’m even more impressed. But I have also learned how difficult it can be to accurately measure how much fuel a diesel actually uses in real time… 

I was apprehensive about cutting the fuel lines to Gizmo’s one and only engine, but in fact the hardware install was quite straightforward. The flow meters themselves are small and there’s no need for in-fuel-line accessories like return coolers or pulsation dampers. But you are required to mount the sensors so that their twin “positive displacement” volume measuring rotors — as opposed to a flow speed measuring inline turbine — have their shafts parallel to the water surface (manuals here). Thus that white Azek PVC board ended up screwed to the inside surface of the engine stringer.
    I also had to source the nipples (from Racor) and I wished the sensors were surface mounted instead of being bolted from behind, but those are trivial issues for the pros who would normally do this sort of install. In fact, some Wayfarer Marine techs checked out my finished setup and seemed quite impressed with Maretron’s simple and compact system design.

One interesting feature of the FFM100 black box is that it can handle the two flow sensors in independent or differential modes. So what you’re seeing in the two top data boxes above are the independent fuel flows into and out of my 450 horsepower Volvo Penta, and — HOLY COW! — look how much diesel is running through even at dead idle – 567 RPM (and no load)! Maretron carefully warns that while an independent meter is accurate to about 0.25%, diesel differential mode adds a significant error factor.
  You can probably intuit the problem from the screen above, though a video would be better as you’d see how the flow rate numbers “jiggle” (even nearly 30 gallons an hour or 0.5 a minute is hard to measure consistently in two second intervals). Consider that what you’re really trying to measure is the approximately 0.7 gallon actually being burned, and you realize even tiny errors in or out get badly compounded in this situation. Maretron estimates that most diesels only burn 25% of the fuel supplied — which seems about right given that my preliminary max speed rate is about 19 of the 53 gallons coming through (ouch) — but the idle burn percentage shown above is about 2%.
   I don’t know if other engines are like mine at low RPMs, and as I’ll discuss further down, I’m pretty sure that the Maretron system is doing well even with what may be its extremes, but doesn’t this illustrate how difficult it is to measure diesel fuel burn rates? On the other hand, I was also pleased to learn that even at low speeds Gizmo’s fuel is being run through the filters at a fairly high rate, and I’ve already used independent mode’s Trip Fuel Used to perfect my technique of trimming ship by using the fuel return valve to move diesel from one tank to the other.

Above is a Maretron N2Kanalyzer screen showing FFM100 calibration details, all of which you can also do on a DSM250 or 150 display, though not as easily. Because there’s a lot going on even if you click it bigger, I highlighted several areas of note. The first is where I’ve switched from independent to differential mode, which is why many of the Channel #1 values are grayed out; the FFM is taking in the measurements of two sensors but outputting only one flow value. (Incidentally, this same hardware setup could measure fuel flow for two large outboards and has a retail cost of $1,385 for the mid-size sensors. Maretron has various well documented FFM system examples here.)
   The second highlight is a bit of magic called the K-Factor. I don’t know what the “K” means, but Maretron puts every sensor through an actual flow test and prints a calibration factor on its label (and if yours truly had read the manual about inputting the K-Factor during installation, I’d already have more valid testing data to share :-). Highlights 3 and 4 are somewhat extraneous but suggest how a label typed into the configuration can be useful elsewhere once you “put config to device”… 

When I slapped together a DSM250 screen to illustrate the FFM100′s ability to also measure fuel temperature, those labels were quickly available even though the PC was shut down (a nifty feature throughout the Maretron line). In fact, I think I’ve already changed that screen again because I can’t think of why I’d want to know fuel temps. The real point is that though fuel volume and hence, measured flow changes with temperature, the FMM100 can and does correct for the differences. And I guess the screen also shows that fuel economy — the precious calculation of differential flow versus SOG or STW (speed through the water) — is zero when the boat is tied up.    

Finally, though not surprising, it was nice to see the FFM’s flow values show up on various NMEA 2000 displays around the boat, including the Garmin 741 above (which just got an amazing software update). As with the Actisense EMU-1 that’s getting that RPM value out of my mostly analog engine, I’m becoming persnickety about virtual gauges. For instance, I’d like more tick marks on that gal/hour dial to the right (which is why I had its range set to less than Gizmo’s WOT burn). But serious display testing will have to wait until spring, as will any further efforts to figure out if the FFM100 is truly accurate.
   I did get in one test trip after I applied the K-Factor, and the general results were surprisingly close to the numbers collected when Pat Ricci plugged his special Volvo Penta software into my ECU while we ran RPM scales. I published that graph when first discussing the Maretron FFM100 (and also the uncertainty of engine generated flow rates). But there were unfortunate aspects to the November trip – it was rough, the flow and economy numbers were jumping around, and I was alone. The results were just preliminary, but I did notice how the miles/gal changed depending on Gizmo’s relationship to wind and wave, which is just the sort of info that can make the system worthwhile.
   And just before hauling the boat I realized I could get easier to record and quantify results by setting the data dampening period to 5 seconds (see config screen), which I tried out at the dock. I believe that one of the first things experts look for in instrumentation is linearity, and isn’t that pretty darn good linearity shown in the graph below. It’s a limited sample, but it’s also in the range where the FFM is trying to measure a tiny fraction of the fuel both sensors are seeing. I’m looking forward to spring testing of course, but maybe as much to sharing some major Maretron product news in a day or two.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Jan 13, 2014 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

I find Steve Dashew’s latest FPB 78 long-range powerboat design so intriguing that I won’t link to it until the end of this entry for fear of losing you!  The relevant detail in the rendering above is Steve’s plan to occasionally use that giant 65-inch 4K resolution TV monitor so he can still see his radar and Maretron N2KView monitoring info as he moves about the vessel’s giant main cabin while underway. I got to spend time with the Dashews on their original FPB Windhorse, and it’s one heck of an equipment endorsement to be chosen for the next one. I also know that Steve’s expert evaluation of Maretron’s hardware and software systems came before the major and excellent-sounding N2KView product changes I’m about to outline…

On January 1st Maretron N2KView changed from modularized PC software that could cost nearly $3,000 for the works —  monitoring plus device control, fuel management, sophisticated alerting and video integration — to a $995 package with all modules included, plus a new BNWAS feature (Bridge Navigation Watch Alarm System). Before Jan. 1st, running the N2KView Mobile app on or off your boat required another license, if you wanted the PC version running at the same time. Now it’s free. And that, as they say, is not all…

Maretron also replaced all three of its dedicated N2KView PCs with hardware that’s more reliable and arguably less expensive. Yes, the MBB200C black box is pricier than its predecessor, but it includes the entire N2KView software suite, and it can work with two independent or redundant NMEA 2000 networks through two CAN ports (and adaptor cables). The major change, though, is that it works directly with N2k at all… 

The original N2KView architecture — seen on the right side of the diagram collage above — was to have the PCs connected to a boat’s NMEA 2000 network via Maretron’s IPG100 Ethernet/IP gateway and the vessel’s router/switch. That has caused problems that didn’t have anything to do with N2KView or all the N2K devices it can monitor and control. Apparently, it’s gotten to the point where the first question asked of a customer calling in with an N2KView PC that suddenly doesn’t work is something like, “Have you or anyone else added or changed an Ethernet system that’s attached to your boat’s router?”
   The new N2KView system architecture keeps the dedicated PCs inside the N2K network(s), immune to DNS problems and other issues that can mess up an Ethernet network…

So, redesigned hardware like the new TSM800C and TSM1330C touchscreen N2KView displays are more like dedicated marine MFDs than ever. Yes, there’s Windows running inside and your monitoring can still connect to the Internet through an IPG100 and router, but it’s no longer dependent on that connection to operate properly. 

The screens above describe N2KView’s new Bridge Navigation Watch Alarm System (BNWAS) feature. It’s something like an elaborate snooze alarm that watch standers can’t turn off and that escalates to more “buzzers” the longer it’s left unattended. But, in fact, Maretron implemented it to commercial marine specs and boats that already have N2KView and one or more ALM100 NMEA 2000 network “buzzers” can now have BNWAS with just a free software update.

Unfortunately, BNWAS is not designed to work with N2KView Mobile, but it seems that any boat with a NMEA 2000 network and an IPG100 can enjoy many other benefits of N2KView on their Android or Apple mobile screens without further expense. Note that the integrated video also requires a dedicated N2KView PC (which have Ethernet ports just for IP cameras), but I think that “free” N2KView is great news for boats around the size of Gizmo (and owners who are cheapskates like myself ;-).
   I’m already quite pleased with lower level Maretron monitoring and control devices that I’ve installed, like engine block temperature monitoring and circuit switching. N2KView running on phones or tablets won’t be essential but might be some delicious icing on the cake. Now, how about a look at how Steve Dashew used Maretron gear on Windhorse and his incredible visualizations of the FPB 78 Dream Machine.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Jan 16, 2014 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

The photo could be sharper, but I like it for two reasons. First, it’s confirmation that an ambitious product, which doesn’t even have a manual yet, actually works in the field. Second, it’s doing interesting work on an intriguing new vessel that has deep Panbot roots. You’ll learn much more about the boat on February 4th when we celebrate Panbo’s 10th birthday, but today, please say hello to the Victron Color Control GX…

While the Victron Color Control GX may look like just a particularly nice power data display, it is, in fact, a tiny Linux PC with a whole lot of connectivity and a very low power draw. The diagram above, which you’ll find in this datasheet PDF, only shows some of the possibilities. Either one of the “VE.Can” ports, for instance, can connect to a NMEA 2000 network with just an adaptor cable. 

By the same token, these screens are just a small selection of what’s possible. And to fully appreciate the “overview” power flow graphics check out the Victron blog video that shows the animations. As you learn about the Color Control, you’ll realize that it is designed as much for terrestial solar panel installations as for boats, but I suspect that also accounts for its 500 euro retail price (about $680 U.S.) and check out all the boat specific future items — like tank monitoring and integration with electric drives — in this blog entry by Victron principal Matthijs Vader (who called me from Holland recently).

Understanding how the Color Control will eventually monitor tanks requires a side trip into Victron’s NMEA 2000 strategy. For the most detail, check out the data communications piece at  Victron white papers. The essence is that even the other two VE protocols supported by the Color Control, VE Direct and VE Bus, can become N2K with the help of Canbus interfaces. That’s how Victron integrates with Raymarine and EmpirBus in the diagram above, and also a way I could get the Victron gear on Gizmo talking to both my display network and to the Color Control.

There’s a good reason to want the Control Control even if I had, say, my charger/inverter info showing on existing displays, and that’s VRM.victronenergy (Victron Remote Monitoring). The Ethernet port (and eventual WiFi) on the GX is there so that it can connect to the Internet when possible, where it will supply a free private site keeping track of your info. You can see demo Color Control installations there now, and obviously, more data is coming as the little PC learns to read tank, GPS and other feeds.
   Victron even hopes to make the Color Control open source so other developers can use it, and Matthijs has apparently already contacted the BoatLogger folks about integrating with their project. He also told me that eventually the device will be able to serve live and historic data, just like the web site does even when a boat is not online. And of course, there is already a mobile app. It’s all a bit unfinished at this point, but do you see the bright future I do?

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Written by Ben Ellison on Jan 22, 2014 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

It’s great that boaters on research missions are constantly (though quietly) digging through the Panbo archives (or using Google’s neat site search with the same intent). But when one is inspired to write a detailed, articulate rebuttal to a stand I took years ago on a subject that’s still relevant, it deserves special attention. Bo Collier is working hard to figure out a new electronics system for his 53-foot 1978 Hatteras LRC trawler and he takes exception to my notion that NMEA 2000 certification is not an absolute must when choosing devices that use the data standard. What follows is his argument with my retorts interspersed and plenty of room at the end for you to add your opinion…

Ben, today was one of those occasions when I awoke at 1:30 AM and felt compelled, for God knows what reason, to pick up my iPad. Bouncing around your site I found “NMEA 2000 certification, the elephants in the room“ and after reading it and all the posts felt that I must pen something from the perspective of a recreational user. The NMEA Certified and compatible issue struck me a bit different than it seems to have struck you.

Having read enough blogs I know that any posting of my comments will surely bring about a reprimand about being dependent on electronics. Enough please! Anyone that leaves port without some sort of paper chart and compass probably deserves whatever eventuality they get should the sea gods frown on their day of good spirits. Yes, I can read a paper chart and use a compass to plot a course. I can apply emergency measures to get me home if needed. I plan, plan, then plan again; which my wife believes is only done for the sake of driving her batty. I want comfort and safety when on the water. Let me rephrase that, I want safety then comfort when on the water. But, who in their right mind wants to pilot a 53-foot, 75,000 pound, 8-knot trawler through treacherous waters with a compass and chart? I like keeping a chart open at the helm to verify, but do we really want to return to the days of paddling at 20-degrees to the prevailing winds to find the next island? So, like my planning, I am spending hundreds of hours researching any equipment I put on my boat. And, that is where this whole NMEA 2000 stuff takes me.

Bo, You won’t catch me judging anyone’s paper chart habits. I think that there are lots of ways to navigate safely, plus lots of ways to do it badly, and that NMEA 2000 is key to the excellent electronic tools we now have available to use well.

I read over the NMEA Certification Process Overview on the NMEA web site. I gained a better perspective after reading all the posts resulting from your article. There are some very sharp folks that come to your site. But, it appears there are test methods and a verification process as outlined in the NMEA Certification Criteria and Test Methods (Appendix C in the Overview). There is a NMEA 2000 Certification Test tool which, from what I can tell, gathers specific data from a device so the data may be validated by NMEA. I am guessing that a NMEA representative doesn’t show up with a ball bat and begin beating the everloving you know what out of the device, as they attest to do at Underwriters Laboratory. NMEA publishes a set of criteria, provides a verifiable means of testing, and offers NMEA 2000 Certification should the device pass the tests.

As I understand it, the NMEA 2000 certification tool — which is essentially a special software program (that cost a lot of money to develop) — is only intended to test the behavior of a device on an N2K network. Does it identify itself properly? Does it send out data in the right way that won’t interfere with higher priority data-like switch commands? That sort of thing. But the tool does not test the data content of a particular device, which is a near impossible task if you think it through. So you could conceivably buy a certified NMEA 2000 depth transducer that did not output a standard N2K Depth message (PGN) or output one that was always wrong. Certification does largely assure that a product will not mess up a network, but the other issues are left for the market place to sort out :-) 

It would probably be a good thing if NMEA made public more of Appendix C in the Standard so that consumer doing serious research like you could better understand what is and isn’t tested.

With respect to companies (manufacturers) who put NMEA 2000 Compatible, it is my opinion that NMEA should give fair warning, then use the power of the court to go after any company that violates the registered entity of NMEA 2000. I don’t mean to sound harsh, and it appears that NMEA may have missed the boat (could not resist) by not registering the entire” NMEA 2000 Certified” name, to place the registered mark after the word “Certified” and group the statement, instead of after the 2000. I can bet dollars to donuts there is not a single recreational boater in my marina (mostly larger boats) that has a clue there is a difference between NMEA 2000 Certification and NMEA 2000 Compatible. Hey guys – yes, you guys that manufacture and go through all the trouble and costs of certifying a product – do you give a hoot about what happens should a non-certified device start throwing out odd sentences at our MFD’s here in the real world? Help us out here, please.

I don’t know about the details of NMEA’s intellectual property claims, Bo, but I do know that the organization has sometimes at least threatened action against companies claiming N2K compatibility. In fact, I took a lot of flak from some readers for defending NMEA in such a situation. Happy to add that the offending company not only “came to Jesus,” but is now an active participant in NMEA standards making.

How would Furuno, Raymarine, Simrad or others look at this? Not sure! From what I am reading they all have certified, non-certified, and certified but only compatible equipment. These companies know what they have. They know some of their equipment needs to be backward compatible, and they know NMEA 2000 is a voluntary standard. If I were king, I mean if I was a big wig at NMEA, I would gather all of the NMEA 2000 Certification members and let them know the perilous road NMEA is on if they don’t stop the misuse of the NMEA 2000 trademark. Remember, we recreational boaters quickly get an attitude about an entire product line when one device starts acting up.

The big manufacturers do not run NMEA and their relationship with it seems complicated, as I tried to explain once.  The issue of daisy chaining N2K instruments, which I’ve also covered, illustrates what I mean. Furuno, Simrad, B&G and Raymarine all sell instruments with two N2K ports, so that an installer can chain them together easily — as illustrated below in a 2008 Panbo entry called NMEA 2000 Outlaw!  – even though the hardware details in the NMEA 2000 Standard don’t permit it. NMEA explains why in this PDF. 

I believe that all the daisy chain instruments are what you term “certified but only compatible equipment,“ meaning they pass the certification software test but can’t be certified just because of the hardware issue. And I keep hoping that some compromise will be reached — like a sticker on every instrument warning about the danger of daisy chaining, which is completely optional. But so far the situation remains the same with neither side budging, and the Certification concept suffering.

That’s not to say that some very good NMEA 2000 compatible equipment is available from all of the manufacturers, I’m sure there is. However, my comments stem from a non-profit national certification association I sit on that aggressively goes after companies that misrepresent by misusing the certification logo or name. First a cease and desist letter and, if necessary, they will go to legal means. Personally, I like it. My twenty-person company invests thousands each year supporting this organization. We donate money, time and technical expertise in support so they may pay operating expenses and maintain a reliable certification standard. I would rather drive the bus, or at least have a seat on the bus, than to be standing on the sidelines as it whizzes by; that’s entirely my choice and goes to my point. Not only does my company benefit by advertising the organization’s logo (which goes directly to client and consumer relations), those seeking certification know the difference between Certification and Certification-like. There are some well-founded competitors who chose to go in a different direction. When one used the logo without permission they were slapped down pretty hard. The organization I belong to does, in fact, set the standard. So, why not allow the public to know there is a difference?

Again, I do think that NMEA polices the NMEA 2000 logo. I also think that most manufacturers large and small are honoring and supporting the standard more than ever. I just noticed, for instance, that a bunch of BEP CZone devices just made the 2014 Certified list on NMEA’s front page (even though they’ve been available for at least two years and work fine in my experience).  

Ben, I don’t know if there are products that “probably won’t work on a NMEA 2000 network” as purported by Steve in his article. I don’t disagree with your comments either. My entire point, and yes, there is one, is the National Marine Electronics Association needs to do a better job of protecting their name and logo. Do that and it seems most of this controversy would go away. By protecting their name they protect recreational boaters for whom the standard is maintained. I personally believe using the NMEA 2000 Compatible is sales trickery. Heck, unless I am really missing the point, it does not seem that difficult. NMEA created a specific standard that sets criteria for a manufacturer to follow and provides a testing and verification process. Either it meets the standard or it does not. Certification always attests to an established set of criteria. We don’t want to learn about “compatible,” “works with, ” or “NMEA Lite,” (I threw that one in…) after we purchase and install a device by reading the fine print too late or by being laughed at by a NMEA installer. The product that is compatible may work just fine, but by NMEA protecting their registered trademark and name it protects me and all other recreational boaters. And please, to every manufacturer’s sales rep and technician that may read this or see me coming to your booth at the next boat show: don’t make me pull my pants down around my ankles as you try to enlighten me. Believe me when I say I am all ears and want to learn more than you can imagine. So just be honest. Your products are, or they are not, NMEA 2000 Certified.

I stand by my original thesis. NMEA and NMEA 2000 are great for boaters, I think, but certification is not a black and white issue for the reasons I’ve mentioned. Marine electronics is a relatively tiny, but vastly complicated, industry and thus, almost nothing about it is subject to simple dictates. I know, for instance, that Larry Anderson — who was NMEA Technical Director during N2K’s early years and then a principal at Maretron until he retired — now feels that the “plug and play” aspect of N2K was oversold. Lots of do-it-yourselfers have had good experiences with it, but often a pro installer should be involved sooner rather than later. 

Finally, here is one example of how this concept, or point of mine, worked for me. I am currently installing Maretron digital gauge displays for Hercules and Big Boy (sorry, that would be my Detroit 4/53′s). After researching several alternatives to get analog engine data to digital I settled on Actisense. The EMU-1 that does this fancy work IS NOT, as I could find, a NMEA 2000 Certified product. However, my research found that Actisense has many products that are certified and they are listed as a NMEA member. This gives me comfort, and I am better prepared to make an informed decision. Not all recreational boaters are ignorant. We just need the facts, please.        Regards, Bo 

Well, Bo, that also seems like a good example of my attitude toward certification. In fact, I hadn’t even realized that the EMU-1 was not certified (yet) though I’ve trying to pay more attention to that and I’m a big fan of the device. At any rate, thank you very much for articulating your concerns. I’ll bet that you’ll end up with a wonderful electronics setup and that you’ll understand it. Now, I hope that interested readers will add their thoughts.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Jan 27, 2014 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

I think that Garmin hit a home run with the VIRB action cameras they began shipping last fall. I’ve been testing the regular model since late September and the Elite model since mid December, and I can picture all sorts of enjoyable ways to use either camera around a boat. I’m documenting a minor cruising adventure in the scene above, but could be remote controlling the camera to film my crew and me while playing a big fish or rounding a racing mark. However, I’ve also come to think of the entire “action camera” concept as a bit of a misnomer… 

When you check out the video above — and I hope you’ll try the full screen HD (1080p) version, if you have the bandwidth and display — notice how rock steady the image is. Yes, the Virb camera is securely suction mounted to Gizmo’s fly bridge windshield and the conditions are flat calm, but there’s something else going on here. The genius of the GoPro camera design that started the “action camera” craze is largely a very wide angle lens, which makes it easy to point it more or less in the right direction and also naturally stablizes the video.
  Garmin added a digital stabilization option to the mix; you can see a comparison in this well done video, but actually, I think some of my Gizmo flat water cruising clips demonstrate the effect even better. There’s an almost otherworldly serenity to the videos that is nearly the opposite of the frenetic action scenes you’ll see in all the marketing, but doesn’t it emphasize the joy that is smooth water boating?

But stabilization is just one small aspect of what Garmin brought to the action camera game. As I wrote last August, the Virb immediately joined Garmin’s ecology of handheld GPS devices and activity sensors, not to mention its vast software resources. In the first video, for instance, I’m using a quatix watch as a remote control, which was easy to set up and works fine, and there are various other Garmin devices that will do the job, plus smartphone apps for the Elite (which has WiFi).
  A key element, though, is the new Virb Edit software for PC and Mac that seems to be getting a feature update every week or so. You can edit Virb MPG4 files in any video program, but with Virb Edit it’s super easy to throw together some clips and post a finished video to YouTube. It’s also where you’ll see Garmin’s strategy of combining GPS and other sensor data with film. Note in the top screen, for instance, that when you watch a video in Virb Edit it can have a track-on-map overlay. Unfortunately, the map overlay is not included in finished videos — copyright issue perhaps? — but I’m hoping that will change eventually. In the meantime, the edit screen just above shows how you can custom overlay all sorts of data (aside from maps) on the videos you can make now. And note that you can do this with free Virb Edit using any MPG4 file and any GPX data file (at least in my limited testing). Thanks, Garmin!

One reason that it took me a while to write up this review is that the mounting accessory aspect is complicated, and I also wanted to compare the Virb to the GoPro Hero2 camera that I’ve owned for a couple of years. The prospect seemed daunting, but then lucky me discovered the amazingly detailed Virb review at DCRainmaker. The dynamo proprietor of that site, Ray Maker, has perhaps set a new standard for accurate and thoroughly researched reviews — along with a deep knowledge of the competitive gadget universe around his various sports passions — and there’s no need to repeat his excellent work (I’m also half hoping he never gets into marine electronics :-).
   At any rate, while highly recommending DCRainmaker for in-depth detail, I do have few comments on the collection of GoPro and Virb stuff pictured above. While the suction mount, handlebar mount, and headband mount were all designed for the GoPro, I’ve been able to use them fine with the Virb cameras because Garmin thoughtfully included an adapter (1). This also means I can use third-party mounting accessories like that RAM GoPro adapter (2). Note, too, the “Chroma” displays on the Virbs — one showing a live video preview and the other a handy level, because it’s Elite and it can — as compared to the sad little LCD on the Hero2…

Not only does the Hero2 have less display room for settings information, but you only get two buttons to manage the menus underneath. I found that interface really difficult to use and was tickled by Garmin’s 5 button system, which also uses plainer language like “Slow Mo HD” in addition to the resolution and frames-per-second figures. But maybe the newer model GoPros are different, and besides, I’m not really here to tear that brand down anyway. The bigger picture is that the Hero2 was an enormous success even with a difficult interface; doesn’t that suggest that an easier-to-use Virb might be for you? 

So how does Slow Mo HD perform? I haven’t used it around the boat yet, but this quick clip showed us that our 4-year-old granddaughter is getting some moves from her ballet lessons. And I mean quick. Slide the Virb’s big flashlight-style button to turn on camera and start video recording while pointing camera in general direction of subject. Later plug camera into home PC with USB cable and use Virb Edit, which starts automatically, to download and trim video and post on private YouTube site for sharing with family. A few minutes quick.

Virb Edit got a music overlay feature recently, and I hope I haven’t offended Bob Marley’s ghost by using a bit of his work to liven up the handlebar cam video above of a bike ride down the hill into Camden. The edit software still doesn’t support titles or smooth transitions between clips (as you’ll see at the end), but I imagine they’re coming. You could also use another video program for that sort of thing, but I thought I’d only post review videos that were made by Virb and Virb edit.

This one is a joke with a purpose. I did get Gizmo up to 16 knots, and the lack of camera vibration is striking, but the overlay speed, heading and altitude were collected by a BadElf Pro during an airplane flight. You can not only pair any GPX file with any film clip in Virb Edit (so far in my experience), but you can visually sync the two by sliding the start point along a track line overlaid on a map. Slick.

This video shows how well the Virb can do when handheld and will also be of interest to people to hear and see underway the Torqeedo 1003 electric outboard I’ve been long testing. The camera’s little microphone is on the back and doesn’t work too well for sounds from elsewhere, but I’m looking forward to trying a remote mic with the USB adaptor cable that’s among the many available accessories (you’ll see listed at DCRainmaker, where your purchases support the site).

Now this was a nice surprise. Plug the Virb Elite into a PC running Garmin Homeport and not only are the GPS track files easily accessible, but the still photos are automatically shown where they were taken. The same is true in Garmin’s free BaseCamp software, except that BaseCamp can’t show the LakeVu HD chart card I had inserted in the PC above. Incidentally, the photos and tracks above came from my Humminbird visit, which you’ll hear more about soon, with video. (I’ll cover the bridge repair, too.) 

I’ve just started to use the Android and iOS apps that can connect to the Virb Elite via WiFi. What they do works fine, but so far they don’t let you see what’s in frame while you’re recording video, nor can they capture video or stills to the mobile device, all of which is apparently possible with a GoPro these days. But obviously, that could change overnight.

And if Garmin can integrate Virb viewing and control into its Pilot iPad app, why not BlueChart Mobile (reviewed here)? I could mount a Virb at the masthead and use it as a lookout and cruise highlight recorder. Or maybe Garmin will incorporate some of these developements into fixed boat camera systems? It all sounds good to me, but I must observe that Garmin’s massive Virb development push has so far left out boaters a bit (even if the marine media guy is quite enthused). For instance, there are no Virb Edit data overlay templates geared to boating yet, and you can’t overlay speed in knots. Garmin could even support the depth and water temp data that’s included in GPX files generated with their marine displays (and easily managed with Homeport).

But I quibble. The Virb, especially the Elite, is a wonderfully easy-to-use and versatile “action” camera that also does a splendid job of capturing a slow harbor cruise. In fact, I set this video at double speed. The musical accompaniment is Charlie Byrd playing Indian Summer. Hope you enjoy it half as much as I do: 

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Written by Ben Ellison on Feb 6, 2014 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

When Standard Horizon introduced its Matrix AIS/GPS radio in December, we learned from a European reader that Icom UK was showing off a VHF with just about every feature a boater might desire (with the possible exception of a built-in GPS).  As hoped for, Icom America has now revealed its version of the IC-M506 and will be showing it in Miami next week. It turns out that at least here in the states the M506 will be available in five models so you can get the features you want without paying for ones you don’t…

So once approved by the FCC, the base model known as the M506 NMEA will be a conventional fixed VHF in terms of using NMEA 0183 to connect with a GPS for DSC distress calls and other functions like position sharing. But there will be kits available to add NMEA 2000 connectivity and/or a dual channel AIS receiver. The next models up include N2K with a choice of either front or rear mics, and the top two models add the AIS. Pricing is not set but may look something like $500 for the base model plus a $100 each for the two major options plus $50 for the rear mic. Icom has always been a premium brand and even the base model M506 seems to have a lot going for it.

For instance, the newly designed mic is purportedly louder while still including Icom noise cancelling improvement of both incoming and outgoing audio. And the big 132×96 pixel display looks good for the nav and AIS screens as well as for using the soft key and knob interface possibly best seen on this video from London Boat Show. The M506 will also support a second station Command Mic IV, apparently including the AIS functions. I have not yet tried Icom’s last call voice recording — first seen on the M73 handheld, and extended to 2 minutes on the M506 — but I liked the feature a lot when I’ve used it on other radios.
I have not paid attention to which VHF radios support a rear mic attachment, but now that I’m trying to design new Gizmo helm panels with more of a ‘glass’ look, I appreciate the rear mic possibility. (I also wonder if some MFD manufacturer will come up with a big screen VHF interface something like Fusion Link, but VHF regulations may prohibit that.)

Finally, while the M506 manual is not yet available, I don’t doubt this UK site’s claim that the radio can easily set up direct DSC calls to an AIS target (a feature so far still missing from the Simrad RS35 and Lowrance Link 8, I think). Afterall, the M506 can apparently interface with Icom’s own MA500TR AIS transponder. I wonder if a M506 N2K will display and make target calls using standard AIS data coming in via NMEA 2000. Any other questions I should ask in Miami? 

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