radar on pc

[chops]

hi
has anyone out ther got information regards using your laptop as a screen for radar, seen usa advert but cant get info, if this is possible then it would mean only buying the radome and software , so making huge saving ,up to 50% less,
living in hope
ken
thanks

 

[peterb]

I went round Southampton Boat Show looking for software for just this. No one had any, but several companies said that they were looking into it. Watch this space?

 

[jonjo]

SI-TEX RADARpc @ www.si-tex.com

I think you will be disappointed because the product is an expensive tie-up between a radome and a software vendor. About £1,800 for a 2kW 7% beam entry model.

Give it another few of years and hopefully someone will define a new NMEA standard fit for the 21 Century that will allow standard exchange of marine images between units.

 

[petery]

..of course Raymarine do this with their HSB standard. I believe they also supply PC software that lets you display radar images on a PC ... but its designed to make you spend more money - not save it!!

 

[colin_jones]

Both Raymarine and Furuno and (I think) Simrad have programs which allow you to overlay the radar display onto an electronic chart. All expensive and, as far as I know, needing a complete radar to enable it.

Some models have a split screen facility.

I do not know of software working direct from the scanner ...... but given the vulneraility of standard notebook PCs + normal op systems out at sea, am not in too much of a hurry to find out.

For the time being I will stick to properly ruggedised and marinised equipment so that if the PC is in a bad mood, I still have the radar.

One day soonish, even we electronic Luddites might be shown good, marine, PC hardware and op sys that we can trust and afford.

 

[dk]

Raymarine's Raytech software allows you to do this, but it still requires the entire radar unit including the display - as that is where the 'brains' are. There are companies working on 'intelligent' scanners at the moment, where the electronics is in the antenna unit, but this is on a commercial scale and it will be a long time before they filter down to the leisure market. My experience of un-ruggedised PCs on small boats is that they have a lifespan of around one year - so you might not save a lot anyway!

 

[qsiv]

Other than the main 'high street' people (such as Raymarine) the following offer solutions ...

http://www.ican.nf.net/SigmaEngineering_Products.htm
http://www.xenex.com/

Also Maxsea do radar overlays I believe.

In all cases be prepared for significant cost! The software development kit from one supllier was £25,000 - I put that project on hold for a while!

 

[yachtbits]

I suppose it would be another product we could sell, but, You can bet your life that the software would be reliant on good old Microsoft something.

I honestly do not think that I would risk going anywhere if I had radar that was at the mercy of Microsoft!

As I would always recommend that paper charts are always carried along side a PC charting package, I would also recommend that any PC Radar (particularly windows based) is only ever used as a second display and not relied on as a primary navigation aid.

kev

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.yachtbits.co.uk>http://www.yachtbits.co.uk</A>
sales@yachtbits.co.uk
marine electrics & electronics

 

[charles_reed]

I think your expectation of a 50% reduction is a little dis-ingenious - a 15" TFT screen, buys in for about £28 and sells out for about £140, youve then got your video-card which costs <£10.

I suspect that's the most you'd save on a modern LCD display system.

The real money is in the transmitter and micro-front-end housed in the radome.