RAI
Well-Known Member
True, but the pole question did not mention that and this is in Scuttlebutt. Probably my bad, as I have the responses in last - first order.In the context of sailing, it's unlikely to be the Milwaukee Fire Department
Do you know what a MFD is?
- Thread starter snooks
- Start date
Birdseye
Well-Known Member
Yes. Its a term applied to most boat electronics and it stands for "Much F-ing Dosh".
prv
Well-Known Member
Yachting Monthly Scuttlebutt, that well-known sailing forum, hosted on the Yachting and Boating World website
Pete
laika
Well-Known Member
Two at least fair reasons I'd say.: One because that's what it's called in the marketing and documentation and how it's described on the Raymarine website (it "identifies as MFD" as a Guardian columnist would probably say) so there's a "not confusing the punters" angle and two because a journo probably wants to keep on good terms with manufacturers and marketing departments can get very uppety if you don't follow their branding desires (how uppety they get in the marine electronics industry I have no idea). Having said that I've cringed at the contrived marketing term "MFD" since I first started seeing it. How long *is* it since they invented it? 4 years? 5?
Seems like an excellent compromise. "Multifunction" seems a fairly redundant component in the expression. Everyone understands it (including those who refer to it as the "little telly thing") and a manufacturer getting arsey about missing off "multifunction" is going to look rather silly.
Hydrozoan
Well-Known Member
As I was (I think) the first to use the term 'acronym' here, thank you. I believe I was once aware of the distinction, but had forgotten it and am pleased to have been corrected.
PS Perhaps usage varies, however, as the Merriam-Webster online says 'Full Definition of acronym: a word (as NATO, radar, or laser) formed from the initial letter or letters of each of the successive parts or major parts of a compound term; also: an abbreviation (as FBI) formed from initial letters'.
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Highland Bear
Well-Known Member
You obviously don't work for my company's IT* department!
*IT = Information Technology by the way!
snooks
Well-Known Member
Are they Three Letter Abbreviations though?
awol
Well-Known Member
Don't know about Raymarine but I was involved with aircraft multifunction displays, yup, they were known to us as MFDs, at least 25 years ago. They had monochrome CRTs (no, I'm not explaining that one) with hideously heavy EHT and LV PS's.
dunedin
Well-Known Member
Great answer. Sums it up perfectly for me. Avoid pointless manufacturer induced jargon.
dunedin
Well-Known Member
So if you do a review of a Raymarine product, please check very carefully exactly what it is compatible with before writing "it is compatible with all their" <insert word here>.
Most likely it will ONLY be compatible with their expensive products released in the past couple of years - and sod the poor suckers who bought very expensive iMediately Flippin outDated top of the range kit 3 years earlier.
I can't see any technical reason why they couldn't port a (performance optimised) version of their current software to run on things like the very expensive E90W / E120W kit - rather than just dump in a corner marked "legacy products". Perhaps you could ask them that as part of the review.
(NB. Letting a contract to re-port software to a differnt hardware configuration should not be difficult - could probably be done cheaply by an offshore - or on board - software company on a success fee basis)
prv
Well-Known Member
Well, apart from the 46% (currently) of punters who will apparently be confused by "MFD". Whereas there can't be many leisure sailors in this day and age who don't know what a plotter is.
Anyway, what do I care, my last edition came through the other day
Pete
laika
Well-Known Member
Yes but that's already explicit in this thread and was why snooks was asking. I was trying to answer your "Why pander to Raymarine etc." question. A different source of confusion is going to be calling it something in a review which isn't mentioned on the manufacturer's web site or advertising when the potential punter goes looking for the product. I wasn't making a judgment on whether that's more or less confusing than calling it by a more widely recognised term. Did I mention I don't like "MFD"?
I note that my C90W's manual calls it a "Multifunction Display" (published 2008). The manual for the previous generation E-Series classic calls it a "Networked Display" or just "Display". E-Series classics don't have noticeably fewer functions than the "Wide"s
TSB240
Well-Known Member
Surely an MFD is a sub group.
In the controls industry all displays tend to be covered by the generic HMI .
Easy to understand.
Any display is an Interface between Human and Machine.......
In the controls industry all displays tend to be covered by the generic HMI .
Easy to understand.
Any display is an Interface between Human and Machine.......
alan_d
Well-Known Member
Indeed.In the context of sailing, it's unlikely to be the Milwaukee Fire Department
Of course, even my preferred term "plotter" is not immune...
Pete
grumpy_o_g
Well-Known Member
grumpy_o_g
Well-Known Member
Yes but that's already explicit in this thread and was why snooks was asking. I was trying to answer your "Why pander to Raymarine etc." question. A different source of confusion is going to be calling it something in a review which isn't mentioned on the manufacturer's web site or advertising when the potential punter goes looking for the product. I wasn't making a judgment on whether that's more or less confusing than calling it by a more widely recognised term. Did I mention I don't like "MFD"?
I note that my C90W's manual calls it a "Multifunction Display" (published 2008). The manual for the previous generation E-Series classic calls it a "Networked Display" or just "Display". E-Series classics don't have noticeably fewer functions than the "Wide"s
I agree with you about manufacturers likeing their own terminology and it being worth sticking with it to avoid confusion if a reader goes off and googles for that word. FWIW I think one of the reasons chartplotter is still used by some manufacturers is because some displays aren't radar capable and they want to distinguish from the ones that are.
pyrojames
Well-Known Member
Considering that almost every item on a boat is "multifunction" and a device, MFD covers everything on board, including the heads. Is the cockpit, for navigation, lunch, a nap in the sun? The anchor for anchoring, bashing in visitors heads in the marina, movable ballast? Are halyards only for the yard or now the sail as well, sending someone up the mast, hoisting bunting? Why the F do marketing idiots think they have to call something multifunction just because the engineers have made it do more than one thing?
Anyway is the screen at the helm actually the multifunction device, or it only a display, displaying information from a variety of sources?
Anyway is the screen at the helm actually the multifunction device, or it only a display, displaying information from a variety of sources?
alan_d
Well-Known Member
I thought in this context that MFD was multi-function display.
Javelin
Well-Known Member
I can't think of the last time we had a customer here that asked for a new MFD, they almost always say I need a new Plotter.
Again almost all feel they are forced into having a product from the same manufacturer due to their existing network cabling and sensors.
Again almost all feel they are forced into having a product from the same manufacturer due to their existing network cabling and sensors.
Bru
Well-Known Member
From a techy perspective, and I admit it's no excuse 
, there is a significant difference between a plotter and an MFD
A chart plotter is primarily a navigation device. It displays charts, handles waypoints and routes, etc. It may have some limited capability to display data from transducers (wind, depth etc.) and it will probably output raw data (course, heading, CTE) that can be utilised by other systems (eg. autopilot) but it has no control over those systems
An MFD on the other hand has the capability to not only display data from other on board systems, but to actually control them. With an MFD you can (assuming the necessary peripherals are integrated into the system) control the vessels electrical systems (switching on and off devices from the MFD), control and configure all functions of the autopilot (mode, auto-tack, etc.), control pumps, engine management and so on
On the average yacht or smaller mobo a lot of this functionality is (usually) unused but it's there and some of the latest big stuff now have a "glass" wheelhouse where switches and gauges are nowhere to be seen, everything on board is controlled from the MFD(s)
, there is a significant difference between a plotter and an MFDA chart plotter is primarily a navigation device. It displays charts, handles waypoints and routes, etc. It may have some limited capability to display data from transducers (wind, depth etc.) and it will probably output raw data (course, heading, CTE) that can be utilised by other systems (eg. autopilot) but it has no control over those systems
An MFD on the other hand has the capability to not only display data from other on board systems, but to actually control them. With an MFD you can (assuming the necessary peripherals are integrated into the system) control the vessels electrical systems (switching on and off devices from the MFD), control and configure all functions of the autopilot (mode, auto-tack, etc.), control pumps, engine management and so on
On the average yacht or smaller mobo a lot of this functionality is (usually) unused but it's there and some of the latest big stuff now have a "glass" wheelhouse where switches and gauges are nowhere to be seen, everything on board is controlled from the MFD(s)
