List of Antenna only Radars which work with Opencpn under Windows?

[Hakan]

Originally Posted by rabbi

Earlier this year I bought a 2008 Lagoon which came with a Navman radar & 8120 MFD. I never heard of this brand before. I was confused to find a crisp radar image, excellent short distance performance and very low power consumption. Just like the broadband radar...

Later I found some tiny evidence on the internet that a guy at Navman called "Greg" was the original inventor of the Broadband radar technology. Navico bought Navman in late 2008 or so and sold the broadband radar as BR24 (the Navman 8120 MFD became the Simrad NX45).

Seems Navico hasn't changed much of the Navman technology in the first years. The latest Simrad NX45 firmware still fits my Navman 8120 MFD.

Because of this I suspect the 2008 Navman broadband radar should work with OpenCPN just as the Simrad BR24 but I haven't had the time to try (I use OpenCPN only on Android so no radar plugin).

Maybe someone else has already tried to access the original Navman broadband radar from OpenCPN?

rabbi..
Very interesting information. Never heard of anyone testing a Navman antenna and BR24radar_pi. I you've the opportunity please make a try and report back.
Thanks
Håkan

[ejs]

There is a version that works with the Simrad Halo series open array radars as well. I'm using a Halo-3.

Eric

[Hoghead]

I would love not to buy another Ray/Zeus MFD, but I cannot find a Windows tablet with a screen bright enough to see in tropical sun.

Unless someone has found a solution, it looks like back to the high output screens of a MFD

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by Hoghead

I would love not to buy another Ray/Zeus MFD, but I cannot find a Windows tablet with a screen bright enough to see in tropical sun.

Unless someone has found a solution, it looks like back to the high output screens of a MFD

As always: It depends.

As a radar only solution I would be OK with something under deck (OK, I have a catamaran, so its not down but just inside).

As far as I remember there was something about radar that required a wired ethernet connection and would not work over Wifi, something with UPD forwarding. Unless this has changed you need something under deck anyway.

Anything that can run Windows should be OK to run OpenCPN. It can be pretty small, just make sure it has a decent screen resolution. Brightnes is not an issue inside.
I would go for HD resolution at least. Otherwise it will look blurry and some apps may not be happy (e.g. dialogs too big to fit the screen)



For outside viewing my phones and tablets (Nexus 5, 7 and 10) are all OK except in the full sun, but then I am not doing well in the full sun either. So just move it a bit into a shady spot.

As Hakan mentioned remote access VNC seems to be OK now, so just give it a try with.
My own experiments were two or three years ago, and while not satisfactory back then things might have changed in the meantime.

[Hoghead]

Inside is not the issue - it is outside in the sun
Perhaps that is why the MFD's are so expensive........

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by Hoghead

Inside is not the issue - it is outside in the sun
Perhaps that is why the MFD's are so expensive........

Not a tablet, but look at Faytech touchscreens.
As mentioned here:
https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...rdware:screens

[Pizzazz]

I have been running a radar app (RayTech) on a small Windows 10 tablet and can share some experiences:

1) Most cheap tablets will do as they support OpenGL.

2) Higher resolution is not always better as the Windows interface on a small screen sucks. Focus on the screen brightness.

3) Industrial tablets running Windows 7 are great and can be had cheaply on Amazon every now and then.

4) The brightness issue for radar specifically is exaggerated. It is typically overcast or night time when you need radar. Therefore dimming is more important than brightness for me.

5) Avoid complicated setups such as remote desktop, etc. The latency from the router, wifi, remote desktop would slow down the updates dramatically.

In terms of radome selection, I think the Lowrance 3G is the best value today (plug and play with Open CPN) for close in work while magnetron radars are best for weather.

[Hoghead]

Originally Posted by Pizzazz

I have been running a radar app (RayTech) on a small Windows 10 tablet and can share some experiences:

1) Most cheap tablets will do as they support OpenGL.

2) Higher resolution is not always better as the Windows interface on a small screen sucks. Focus on the screen brightness.

3) Industrial tablets running Windows 7 are great and can be had cheaply on Amazon every now and then.

4) The brightness issue for radar specifically is exaggerated. It is typically overcast or night time when you need radar. Therefore dimming is more important than brightness for me.

5) Avoid complicated setups such as remote desktop, etc. The latency from the router, wifi, remote desktop would slow down the updates dramatically.

In terms of radome selection, I think the Lowrance 3G is the best value today (plug and play with Open CPN) for close in work while magnetron radars are best for weather.

Thanks for the input

What is holding me back, or more correctly forcing me back to Ray is my need to see the screen in tropical sun and there just does not seem to be a Windows tab way around this problem.

Night or crappy weather is a non-issue as you say

[Hoghead]

So how are you getting your 3-4G radar signal into the PC based network so that it can also be seen my a WiFi connected tablet?

I am looking at a VYacht based system but do not see how to integrate the radar into the network so that it can also be seen on the tablet.
No answer from VYacht...............

[Hakan]

Originally Posted by Hoghead

So how are you getting your 3-4G radar signal into the PC based network so that it can also be seen my a WiFi connected tablet?

I am looking at a VYacht based system but do not see how to integrate the radar into the network so that it can also be seen on the tablet.
No answer from VYacht...............

If you don' think VNC is a practical solution and want to try wifi read more here:

https://opencpn.org/wiki/dokuwiki/do...r24_radar#wifi

[Hoghead]

I am sold that I can make this work fine without getting stuck in the Ray trap

What is holding me back is a tablet screen that I can see in tropical sun.
Inside at the nav station no problem, in the shade less of a problem but still an issue, at the helm in the sun a big problem.

Sun when one needs radar is usually a non-issue, but nav functions and AIS are needed in the sun. If I must go to Ray/B&G etc simply to get sun function, then their built in wireless network will suffice

The sun issue is forcing me back to Ray