Cheap Chinese AIS Transponder

You are making it all up again, attributing your gibberish to others.

Here are details of the certification needed, again, :

http://www.allaboutais.com/index.php/en/aisbasics1/approvals-and-certifcation-1

which is the ' Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (CE)'

The CE certification in the pdf is for EMC.

JumbleDuck said:
Your general argument seems to be that's it Chinese so it can't work and if it does work it's Chinese so it can meet standards and if it does meet standards it's Chinese so it can be certified and if it's certified it's Chinese so the certification must be fake and so on and so on and so on.

You may have every reason to be cross with some Chinese companies, but it comes across - to me, anyway - as a bit simplistic to damn the entire country's electronics industry on that basis.
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Bi111ion said:
This seems to be getting rather far from the topic. We are not talking about a fake device here, although clearly such things do exist. The quality of this device and its relative merits are yet to be determined, and in any case our sample size is so far one (+ a reader of my blog who may have a faulty unit but we will see, in particular we will see how their after sales support is).

However if I may attempt to calm things down. The reason that cheaper copies of electronics are made in China is mainly down to thee factors as far as can see (1) the IP laws are relatively weak in China so people are not prevented from doing it, (2) the there are sufficiently skilled people to do this who can be hired at a low enough price. (3) the availability of investors who are willing and able to support such an enterprise. I expect the same would happen anywhere these conditions are met.
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There is another factor that is the root to the interest in this specific items (and I suspect many others)

If you do not mind me rounding the numbers but:

it appears this unit would cost about 200/250 stg imported individually to the UK but if it was sold by a mainstream supplier it would cost about 600stg (I assume this includes VAT - whereas the individual import needs VAT added). The mainstream supplier might be supplied by the same manufacturer with the same unit, different branding. The mainstream supplier will have a 'European' overhead to maintain - but that does not explain the price differential. The mainstream supplier will offer some sort of warranty - but so might the Chinese supplier (but this has to be tested and its going to be inconveneint).

We do not know who has done the research etc to produce this unit - its pure speculation.

Most of us would be quite happy to support a mainstream supplier, every time and would be willing to pay some cost to support a local and respectable organisation but not with the price differential that has been exposed.

Mainstream suppliers are going to increasingly see this problem. They know that there is seepage from Chinese producers of both product or technology (its been evident for years). They also know that Chinese producers are in many cases quite capable of producing their own products without copying, go to China and you will see products you have never seen in your life. Mainstream suppliers can protect themselves, somewhat, by using a different manufacturing base, cutting their margins - but if the product has a large market (as this one does in the local market alone) then the Chinese will make it - and cheaply.

But its not the fault of the Chinese they need 1,000's of AIS for their own market, they have the same problems with competitors we do - prices need to be keen there to survive (we just happen to be the beneficiaries in this case).

Jonathan
 
AngusMcDoon said:
That's pretty damning. I will now assume that the Furuno lookalike GPS is an unauthorised copy, not made in the same factory, not made with Furuno's consent, not re-badged and sold at a higher price by Furuno, not sold by Furuno with different firmware, and the company who make this GPS also make the OP's AIS. Of course, I have no hard evidence, and others will disagree. However, it goes right back to my original opinion on the AIS, which is treat it with suspicion, including any certification they may claim to have.
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Aren't you reading rather a lot into that? It's not damning at all. It's a pretty standard warning against deliberate counterfeit copies and passing off, with particular reference to similar brand names and logos.
Have Matsutech/ONWA/Huyayang attempted to imply a connection with Furuno or done anything that could be construed as passing off? No.
Have they chosen brand names that could conceivably be confused with Furuno? No.
Have they used anything like a Furuno logo? No.
You have absolutely no grounds to suggest that they have set out to copy Furuno.
I can't prove that they haven't, certainly.
But why are they guilty until proven innocent?
 
Troubadour said:
Aren't you reading rather a lot into that? It's not damning at all. It's a pretty standard warning against deliberate counterfeit copies and passing off, with particular reference to similar brand names and logos.
Have Matsutech/ONWA/Huyayang attempted to imply a connection with Furuno or done anything that could be construed as passing off? No.
Have they chosen brand names that could conceivably be confused with Furuno? No.
Have they used anything like a Furuno logo? No.
You have absolutely no grounds to suggest that they have set out to copy Furuno.
I can't prove that they haven't, certainly.
But why are they guilty until proven innocent?
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It takes little imagination to see that an identically looking device is a copy. They have not passed it off as a Furuno, so it is not a counterfeit, but it remains a copy.

You have your opinion, and I have mine - formed from 2 decades of working in consumer electronics manufacturing. Our opinions differ, so lets leave it at that.
 
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It seems pointless arguing the toss about the pro's and con's of Chinese manufacturing.

Whether it is a copy or other brands are simply rebadging this one is accademic. The question is, is it any good?

OP has taken a calculated gamble on his purchase and has told us about it. Hopefully he will post more about it when he has had the opportunity to use it for a while. I, for one, will be interested to see what he has to say
 
Just completed a trip Conwy to Inverness, but only got around to a permanent installation of a VHF antenna on the mizzen mast in Scotland. As a receiver its performance was far better than the Standard Horizon GX2100 with an antenna on the main mast picking up ships over 40 miles away. Not that you would usually want to see ships that far away but it shows it is working well. GPS was at least as accurate as any of the other GPS receivers on board. It was picked up on Marine Traffic and by Inverness Marina when we were still some distance away on the Caledonian Canal. Altogether - so far so good.
 
Mine is going well, though I must have a problem with the aerial, using the VHF on the short mizzen mast I get ships from a long way away out at sea when we're 10 miles inland! But using the dedicated aerial on the wheelhouse roof I struggle to get ships showing from five miles away. It's a nice bit of kit that keeps finding extra uses. The plotter screen was great for adding the new bar buoy positions, it interfaces well with the Raymarine chart plotter and NASA VHF. The digital compass is very accurate and surprisingly useful. I can't get it to save my default CPA and TCPA settings which is a pain at the moment. When I switch off it reverts to a silly 3.6 miles or something CPA when I'd be happy with less than a mile.
 
Standard VHF aerials are most efficient for Channel 16 which is a lower frequency than AIS, so the optimal AIS antenna is a bit shorter. I would expect this to matter more for transmit efficiency but it might make a bit of difference for receive. Also it may be worth checking your coax cable and plugs. On mine the coax was all new high quality RG58 with only one joint in. That might make a difference.
 
It's a dedicated AIS aerial unit sold by Digital Yacht. I've redone the plug fitting and I'll hoist it up the mast to the same height as the VHF and compare. That'll tell me if I have an aerial problem.

One little thing that bugged me, on the main AIS screen it has round dots for TX and RX, I assumed they would be filled in or flash to show its RXing and TXing but no difference if I turn off TX.
 
Lazy Kipper said:
One little thing that bugged me, on the main AIS screen it has round dots for TX and RX, I assumed they would be filled in or flash to show its RXing and TXing but no difference if I turn off TX.
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I noted the same problem in my original review. Maybe they will give a firmware upgrade to fix that.
 
I have an HP33-A, used it for a month now although not as an AIS transmitter. Not used this function as I haven't input my MMSI number - am considering switching to a plotter with built in Class B AIS to save space at the helm. Every GPS function is impressive, AIS receive is very good and the display, although not brilliant, is completely readable in bright sunlight.
 
Just been quoted US$300 FOB, or around £185. OK carriage maybe another £50 + VAT and Duty. They can come in boxes of 6 units which would save on carriage costs. Anyone interested in one ?
 
Thought I'd dip back into this thread to learn more about this equipment. I have had to give up as the thread is full of debate about the pros and cons of Chinese gear. be very useful if we could have a linked thread summarising what we know about this item, who has used it, costs etc.
 
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