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Obren, Mark
9/22/2009
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Navigation Software
Ken,
When you originally commissioned Sans Sourci you had MaxSea software integrated with Furuno's NavNet 2, which I gather you found cumbersome. You have mentioned in the past that you were running Nobeltec VNS 9 software (17 July 2008, etc) during your GSSR passage. Did you update your MaxSea when you went to NavNet 3, or have you dumped it competely?
Mark
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Block, Adam
1/13/2010
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| Ah, I may have misunderstood. I just put MaxSea TZ on my laptop and plugged in a $30 GPS puck. It works fine for COG and SOG though of course the apparent heading at zero speed jumps around crazily.
In general I have found, and have confirmed with others, that the raster charts in MSTZ are better than the vector (for the U.S., anyway). I'll be curious to hear what you think of your Japanese charts and hopefully the Nobeltec acquisition means we'll see C-Map data on MaxSea/Navnet before too long. | | |
Williams, Ken
1/13/2010
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| Adam:
I'm in Mexico and my boat is Japan, so I can't try interfacing Maxsea Timezero and Navnet 3d. I'm not sure how much work it will be. I'm a computer-geek, so I assume I'll be able to figure it out, but I also suspect it won't be as easy as I'd like.
TimeZero is new software, and the manual seems good, but first generation. Navnet 3d is also new. Both are very cool, and I love them, but I consider myself as on the 'bleeding edge' of technology. I'm not sure I'd encourage all cruisers to try interfacing TimeZero and Navnet 3d themselves.
Ask me again a few days after I get to Japan (first week April). My guess is that I'll be struggling, but will figure it out after a few days...
-Ken W
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Block, Adam
1/11/2010
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| Hi Ken.
Saw in your latest GSSR post that you have settled on MSTZ. Were you able to address the issues you had with connecting to the NN3D radar? If so, are there any connectivity tips worth sharing?
Thanks!
/afb | | |
Block, Adam
10/7/2009
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| Sam, good question. There are no standards for putting NMEA 2000 (or the older 0183) data on an Ethernet network (wired or wireless). (There are some published approaches for 0183 data used by programs like MacENC, but they don't include radar or [I think] AIS).
However, this new version of MaxSea does allow an interesting, if proprietary, alternative. If you have a Furuno Navnet 3D MFD (plotter), the MFD hardware can put any data passed to it (either NMEA 2000 or 0183) onto the network in a Furuno-specific format that can be read by MaxSea running on a PC (or multiple PCs) also connected to that network. So to the extent that Navnet 3D can show AIS, radar, heading, COG/SOG, sounder, etc. data collected from various sensors on the boat, you can now view that data on a PC anywhere else onboard.
I have deliberately not made a distinction between wired or wireless ("wi-fi") Ethernet, because the software shouldn't know or care about the difference (assuming there is sufficient wireless bandwidth for high-volume data like radar returns).
That's all the theory. I'm looking forward to getting my copy of MaxSea TZ so I can try this all out in practice.
/afb
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samlandsman@comcast.net
10/6/2009
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| Is there any way to distribute GPS, radar, AIS, depth, heading, etc over WI-FI? I've never heard of it before, but it would be cool (although I'm not sure if there's much practical value) to be able to be on your laptop (or iPhone or ?) anywhere on the boat with all the navigation information that's available in the pilothouse.
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Williams, Ken
10/6/2009
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| Adam:
That's great news! And, Furuno just wrote to say that Japan is now available.
I'll check out Maxsea TZ immediately.
-Ken W
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Block, Adam
10/6/2009
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| Ken, you probably already know this but the new MaxSea TZ that was just released (today, basically) is the same software that's on your Furuno NavNet 3D, only it runs on a PC rather than proprietary hardware.
While I can see a variety of reasons (redundancy perhaps at the top of the list) for not just dumping Nobeltec straight out, it does seem like adding the new MaxSea to your buildout would offer some interesting capabilities (creating routes on the laptop and then pushing them to NavNet 3D, viewing radar overlay on the laptop while you're not at the helm, etc.).
I'm hoping to get a copy soon for testing.
/afb
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