Furuno wifi RADAR

[Niffler]

Anyone got one? We've thinking of one, we have a protected cockpit area under the hood so I can see it on a bright day when RADAR isn't that necessary anyway, fog and rain the lifeproof case means I can use it in the cockpit or the chart table. I like the fact that I can use it with an iPad but don't know what real useage is like. Has it come up in a sailing mag review yet? Real world reports very much appreciated.

 

[laika]

I like the fact that I can use it with an iPad but don't know what real useage is like. Has it come up in a sailing mag review yet? Real world reports very much appreciated.

There was a panbo article on the DRS4W last year:
http://www.panbo.com/archives/2014/10/furuno_drs4w_1st_watch_wifi_radar_niche_or_breakthrough_product.html
It references some not-too-complementary reviews about it.

I was interested because I was writing a blog post about RADAR over wifi (here if anyone's interested but more geeky than most will be interested in: http://stripydog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/radar-over-wifi-not-always-pretty.html ) and was wondering how it works: The "normal" method for transmission of image data used by Garmin, Navico and I'm pretty sure Furuno (on their "wired" Radars) doesn't always play well with wifi and I wanted to know what they'd done to side step it (very do-able but I was curious about the approach).

Furuno's pre-sales people just ignored my enquiry. There's no real technical detail available: only a leaflet with a couple of happy looking people pointing at an i-thing. So I went to my local Furuno dealer who hinted that they were revising the product soon. I gave him him my technical query to send to Furuno's engineering department but never heard back.

Oh and info I did get suggests that it's another of these products where it creates its own wireless network rather than playing with an existing one, so you have to keep disassociating and reassociating your iPad to look at RADAR, the Internet and any other devices who's designers thought that was a good idea. However, that was info from previously mentioned dealer which I haven't personally confirmed.

 

[Niffler]

Very helpful, if they're planning a Mk2 so soon then they must have been using Mk1 as a consumer test unit. It's a superb concept but I suspect a very small user base at the moment.

 

[Koeketiene]

Anyone got one? We've thinking of one, we have a protected cockpit area under the hood so I can see it on a bright day when RADAR isn't that necessary anyway, fog and rain the lifeproof case means I can use it in the cockpit or the chart table. I like the fact that I can use it with an iPad but don't know what real useage is like. Has it come up in a sailing mag review yet? Real world reports very much appreciated.

Been following that thing with interest.
However, I'm not getting one at this time.
And for two reasons:
- New product. Not volunteering to be a paying beta-tester.
- As with all new products, if it does catch on it's only a matter of time before cheaper/more capable sets come along.

 

[macd]

For what it's worth, I have a friend who installed the Simrad-badged version of the Lowrance/Simrad/B&G wifi/3G radar a year ago. Evidently it works seamlessly.

 

[laika]

For what it's worth, I have a friend who installed the Simrad-badged version of the Lowrance/Simrad/B&G wifi/3G radar a year ago. Evidently it works seamlessly.

Can you be a bit more explicit? I wasn't aware that Simrad/Navico did wireless radar? They do a thingy where you can control one of their newer MFDs (as everyone now insists on calling plotters) and by doing that, by extension, control the RADAR: This requires an MFD in the loop and you're effectively using a point to point connection with that which sidesteps the issues you'd get putting multicast image data direct from the RADAR over wireless.