Radar to Laptop

[SaltyMonkey]

Don't even need a remote waterproof monitor. Just put a decent porthole in the cockpit area where you can see the monitor....ummm need a waterproof mousey though =).

wonder about the humidity in the air for all these laptops and monitors though - plus power consumption.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by SaltyMonkey

Don't even need a remote waterproof monitor. Just put a decent porthole in the cockpit area where you can see the monitor....ummm need a waterproof mousey though =).

wonder about the humidity in the air for all these laptops and monitors though - plus power consumption.

Actually, if you get the good components you can make a really good PC, as good and reliable as any "marine" equipment.

Not easy to waterproof the PC but it is easy to rig an external, remote monitor that you can waterproof. Then you can have a system where you don't pay a marine electronics company a huge premium for them to sell you NOAA charts that they get free and encode in a proprietary format.

On many boats its not possible to mount units inside and see them outside, especially bigger boats.Good waterprrof, sunlight readable display are often more expensive then a MFD.

I have built a couple of what I regard as suitable marine PCs, fanless, 12 V powered, solid state drives etc. Its not cheap and a garmin unit can be had for less money.

As for charts, well thats a fine comment in the US, but for the rest of us we dont have any free charts so the difference is moot.

Im not knocking PCs but I would always have one MFD on board and not rely totally on either the PC or the MFD. I remain very skeptical of PC only solutions as out of the box, Pcs are simply not up to the demands. ( nor were they ever designed to be)

Dave

[S/V Alchemy]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Actually, if you get the good components you can make a really good PC, as good and reliable as any "marine" equipment.

Not easy to waterproof the PC but it is easy to rig an external, remote monitor that you can waterproof. Then you can have a system where you don't pay a marine electronics company a huge premium for them to sell you NOAA charts that they get free and encode in a proprietary format.

Exactly. I could build a fanless mini or pico-ITX format board, throw in flash drives instead of HDs and stow it in a waterproof box somewhere and run USB/IR out to the pilothouse. Conformal spray on monitor components and some non-corroding plugs and you're good to go. You can buy this stuff easily and it requires little skill to assemble, some skill to design.

[goboatingnow]

Sure you can make a musical instrument by drilling holes in cooper pipe. .....

Dave

[S/V Alchemy]

No, I can't do that. I can assemble a computer, however. Been doing it for 20 years.

[svtadpole]

quote > Koden RADARPC is the RADOME that connects to your network and then you can have a PC get the RADAR image: Marine Electronics Products | Koden Electronics Co., Ltd. <

Now this looks like the bizz ..... radome to little black box to computer

I will never buy a stand alone chartplotter ... big bucks .... I know laptops don't last well but if all you want is navigation / ais / radar / grib & other simple functions then any cheap refurb with a P3 chip or better will do ( thousands of them on ebay ) .... I carry 2 backups sealed in ziplok bags & one in use .... all 3 are loaded with OpenCPN & all necessary programs .... total outlay $300 ... how many chartplotters could you buy for that ?

[lookoutnw]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Actually, if you get the good components you can make a really good PC, as good and reliable as any "marine" equipment.

Not easy to waterproof the PC but it is easy to rig an external, remote monitor that you can waterproof. Then you can have a system where you don't pay a marine electronics company a huge premium for them to sell you NOAA charts that they get free and encode in a proprietary format.

Why not look at an ITRONIX? I will be buildig a MICRO ITX with solid state to be down below. Then I have WIFI to my ITRONIX. Cloning software shows me what is on teh lower unit, and I can make all nneded adjustments from above. Also my 22" HD LED TV screen on a homemade mount allows me to see it from the galley, the nav sta and the cockpit. The itronix just gives me the ability to control the lower unit.

[Jubilee39]

as a comment on computers, I have sailed from St Maarten in the Caribbean to Fiji with the same Gateway all in one Mounted at the chart table. About 7 years in use. I run it from a dedicated 12V-12V convertor and the only problem has been the optical drive. I have also built and sold several Mini ITX based computers and have a couple of laptops and netbooks for backup. Having worked and configured quite a few nav systems on boats I find that the dedicated chart plotters while maybe give a sense of security to some are a way for vendors to soak customers for more money when they change formats. I have had customers needed to change a complete library of charts because the upgrade in equipment from the same manufacturer does not feature backwards comparabilities. An added advantage of PC based navigation like Open CPN and others is the ability to easily share or fine tune charts via Google earth and forums like this.

[Jubilee39]

Originally Posted by Patrick_DeepPlaya

I'm not 100% sure you got what I said.
You CAN do exactly what you're saying.

Koden RADARPC is the RADOME that connects to your network and then you can have a PC get the RADAR image: Marine Electronics Products | Koden Electronics Co., Ltd.

That's what I bought, but have yet to install yet.

-p

Have you tried this out yet? do you need the nav package software listed on the website or does it come with software to display and control radar image on PC?

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by lookoutnw

Why not look at an ITRONIX? I will be building a MICRO ITX with solid state to be down below. Then I have WIFI to my ITRONIX. Cloning software shows me what is on the lower unit, and I can make all nneded adjustments from above. Also my 22" HD LED TV screen on a homemade mount allows me to see it from the galley, the nav sta and the cockpit. The itronix just gives me the ability to control the lower unit.

Actually I'm pretty happy with my current solution and like the KISS setup. I may build a Micro PC for the nav station or just got with a net book. Either way, a PC below with a 25' VGA extension cable to the sunlight viewable screen in the cockpit. A second screen for backup and one or two back up PCs ready to plug and play.

[S/V Alchemy]

Yeah, that about covers it.

[sovereign]

The latest offering from Nobeltec - Trident Time Zero - appears to be the result from the Furuno takeover and adopts the Maxsea TZ engine whilst retaining the direct radar overlay support using Insight radar

Nobeltec Navigation - TimeZero Trident

And whilst on Topic of PCs on boats I have found this which looks to be a great solution that can be built with a touch screen and act as a server for other equipment on a local network, e.g. Pads or whatever.

Fit PC2 Ultra | Fit PC | Welcome to the Green PC Revolution

Dont know if there are other suppliers elsewhere other than the UK but this is tink and only uses 6W and has SSD so no moving parts.

[mkjhartmann]

I am tinkering around with Nav software running on a ruggedized CF 19 laptop, and have the laptop run Splastop Streamer which shows me everything on my helm mounted Android tablet that is in a waterproof pouch, and can control the software below. And when done, we just take the tablet down, end of story. And I can run my FLS and any other black box I want into the PC and just switch between windows. Works well.

[lookoutnw]

My Glaxy Tab 2 in a 1 gallon zip lock bag, in the cockpit running VNC shows and controls my lower PC with VNC, that also can show on the 24 HD TV, I can see it from the cockpit easily, buut when the weather is bad, the Tab 2 is the ticket.