Radar Data Access

[einstein]

I’m looking to purchase marine radar that will allow me to access raw (doppler) radar data. I’m most interested in weather-related data.

I’m planning on relaying this data via 3G to my servers for processing.

Any particular brand/model you would recommend that will allow me access to this data? I’m partial to Furuno (or ONWA) but I doubt that their data formats/protocols are open.

I’m an engineer and open to doing a bit of hardware and/or software hacking to make this work.

I’m new to marine radar. I cross-posted this question in the marine electronics section — I hope this isn’t frowned upon.

[merrimac]

This is going to be more than 'a bit of work'. Over 3G means you will have to downsample (which is ok, you don't need a new image every 2.5s for your purpose.)

The only doppler radar that has been reverse engineered is the Navico HALO radar, but we have not yet mastered how it does doppler. This is waiting for a volunteer, which could be you.

The best codebase to look at is the new 'generic all-brand-radar plugin' at https://github.com/opencpn-radar-pi/radar_pi/ that some people (including me) are working on. At the moment we are waiting for the Raymarine guy to show up (or some other volunteer(s)) as the Garmin xHD and Navico work is pretty much finished.

[einstein]

Any idea what operating systems the displays typically run? I'm specifically thinking of the Furuno WR-2100 weather (X-band) radar or any Furuno marine radar really, but other brands will do as well. I'd bet that most displays among the various brands run the same OS.

I'm considering a different way of doing the reverse-engineering.