I ordered one via the beta test program at a discount rate.
The first unit died within one week of activation. Maybe not perfectly sealed so
water got in.
Received a replacement unit that still works OK. (I just remember I forgot to send the defective unit back... oops!
)
This summer I played a few times with the device but actually used it very little. We had only short passages and used the Panan only on two nights. During these two nights we had three false alarms.
One was repeatable because it was the maximum range of the device. That distance was about 9m air, some fibreglass and one human body. Maybe that would improve if I loose some weight
On two occasions we had false alarms while the MOB device was less than 2m away: phone in stb aft
cabin with the MOB device just above at the
helm. Of course this happens when you are just falling asleep.
After the first false alarm on my phone (Google Nexus 5) I switched to a
Google Nexus 7 tablet on the next night. Same story: a false alarm after a few hours. Both are running stock Android 6.
IIRC I read somewhere on the Panpan website that additional MOB beacons extend the range because each unit repeats the signals of the others in some sort of mesh
network. Of course we can't try this with just one device.
OTOH Panpan reported MOB
events reliably when I played with it. Jumping into the water or rowing away from the boat reliably triggered the alarm.
The
software has been remarkably stable, no strange hickups.
would I buy it again?
Depends... On our boat the night watch always carries a waterproof handheld
DSC VHF tied to the
lifevest. The onboard
VHF has a very loud
DSC alarm so the offwatch is awake seconds after pressing the MOB button on the handheld. The MOB
current position is on the
chartplotter and the MOB can talk to the boat and give directions.
In addition the fixed VHF periodically polls the position of the handheld in the background, and sends it to the
chartplotter which continuously plots the position of the handheld. So we always know where the handheld is (automatic
poll intervall is 15 minutes, or manual if required like in case of MOB)
In our case this MOB device serves only to notify the offwatch in case the MOB looses the handheld VHF or is unable to operate it.
So would I buy it again? Based on our use case and the rate of false alarms: No.
If we had no handheld DSC/GPS VHF the answer could be a yes. But then I would rather spend the
money on a decent DSC VHF handheld instead of the MOB beacon. A Lowrance link 2 VHF is ~200 Euro.
Panpan could be a device for keeping smaller
children or
pets safe, but the device is not exactly tiny. Its OK for
kids or large
dogs but maybe not for a cat.
The real use case I see is in case some
charter skipper does night
sails. In this case Panpan is certainly better than nothing.