Radar straight on a PC?

vas

vas

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ok, searched a bit (but cannot do any more as I have a bucketfull of unknown acronyms to work with and I really cannot see it progressing...

so Q is, what if I could get a radome/radar whatever you call this thing that is either in an enclosed dome thing, or free rotating bar connected straight to my trusty PC?
Will be using opencpn and maxsea (prefer the opencpn tbh) for plotting, got it connected and working with my cetrek a/p.
Thing is I have a great dislike for all marine plotting/radar/sounder devices as they don't really match the helm area and frankly don't look good.
OK, so 2K garmin kit looks good but I'm not buying any no mater what!

So, can it be done? I can get some decent deals for 2KW Furuno radome for 200euro s/h of course. Worth it, or money wasted?
Does it need the screen, or can some sort of black box or other thing interconnect the dome to the PC?

looks like it can be done with KODEN radars but they consider them old tech (dunno what is new tech in radars...)

Forgot to mention that main use of it would be for ease of mind and letting me relax a bit on longish passages with nice clean weather where I'll be just moving along at displacement speeds...
(hence can only justify a few hunder euro on it, else I'll skip altogether)

cheers

V.
 
Yes it can be done, however...

You need some form of scanner control interface and probably some form of pci board or network interface and of course the software to display it.

Not sure about the software you have, my last command used Transas Naviradar but probably out of the price range for most leisure users.

W.
 
thanks pw, I guess it's out of the Q, not talking large commercial vesels with lots of h/w...

DAKA, nope, sorry not interested in AIS, checking to avoid the small stuff and where I'm travelling I'll probably be meeting one AIS transmitting vesel every half to one hour, but a dozen or so non-AIS ones at the same time.
I often check in Pagasitikos bay and I rarely get more than a dozen in it (its 20X20nm pool of water

anything else?

cheers

V.
 
think opencpn is working towards supporting the garmin and navico 'broadband radar'. could be a game changer
 
Last time I looked at this the PC interface etc., as alternative to my Koden setup, this became twice as expensive as a combined Koden Radar/Chartplotter... but Koden PC Radar tend to be commercial stuff...

Worth saying that I am very happy with my Koden MDP 1240... with a 4ft 4KW open array....
 
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yesod said:
think opencpn is working towards supporting the garmin and navico 'broadband radar'. could be a game changer
Click to expand...
checked on the official opencpn site (noticed the r3.0 is out!) didn't find anything re garmin or navico...
have you got any links?

tbh, not valuing this thing for more than 500euros, so two options are:

wait for a decent pc solution that will work on a s/h radar dome or open spinning thingy
get a s/h setup as I've found a Furuno 1830 for 200eu, and a radome but 2KW not the 4KW that it should work with it for another 200euro. Q is if they will fit and work together or its also a non starter...

not in a hurry, so will look around and read about

cheers

V.
 
PaulGooch said:
Open CPN is planning to bring out a version that works with Garmin radar, as previously mentioned.


http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f134/opencpn-radar-overlay-plugin-79081.html
Click to expand...

excellent news Paul, just read the thread, I bet by the end of the summer it's going to be fully functional.
Only catch is that we're talking about a grand worth of ethernet radome (and doesn't look that digital radomes from other companies are any cheaper...)
Good thing is you don't need to struggle routing a half inch thick 20+strand, inflexible, unmanageable cable :D

Will follow the project and decide to invest later on.

Cheers

V.
 
I don't think it's going to be easy/possible/cheap to get an older radome/scanner to work with a PC. It's only likely to be possible with the later ones due to the fact they work via ethernet. If you want a cheap radar system, should be some second hand stand alone systems that fit the bill.

If you already have a decent laptop, then adding a £1k radome to OpenCPN works out pretty cheap in comparison to a new system. I've been messing around here and so far, a second hand laptop from Ebay for just over £100, OpenCPN and some downloaded charts has provided a very cheap large screen plotter. I've actually got it working via a bluetooth multiplexor, to which the onboard systems are connected. So for about £200 i've got an additional screen with plotter, sonar and AIS. Will be nice if they get the radar plugin working, i can then mix and match plotter and/or radar between the two screens for peanuts.

As a stand alone system, you can currently use a laptop/PC with OpenCPN and the downloaded charts for the price of a second hand laptop/PC and a GPS source, which could simply be a handheld GPS. You could add depth to that without spending a fortune. You can also add AIS.
 
PaulGooch said:
I don't think it's going to be easy/possible/cheap to get an older radome/scanner to work with a PC. It's only likely to be possible with the later ones due to the fact they work via ethernet. If you want a cheap radar system, should be some second hand stand alone systems that fit the bill.
Click to expand...

sorry for the late reply, thanks Paul, I can start looking for any interesting deal on digital/whatever you call them ethernet jobbies. Just want one for 2013 now anyway ;)

PaulGooch said:
If you already have a decent laptop, then adding a £1k radome to OpenCPN works out pretty cheap in comparison to a new system. I've been messing around here and so far, a second hand laptop from Ebay for just over £100, OpenCPN and some downloaded charts has provided a very cheap large screen plotter. I've actually got it working via a bluetooth multiplexor, to which the onboard systems are connected. So for about £200 i've got an additional screen with plotter, sonar and AIS. Will be nice if they get the radar plugin working, i can then mix and match plotter and/or radar between the two screens for peanuts.

As a stand alone system, you can currently use a laptop/PC with OpenCPN and the downloaded charts for the price of a second hand laptop/PC and a GPS source, which could simply be a handheld GPS. You could add depth to that without spending a fortune. You can also add AIS.
Click to expand...

yep, got 3-4 notebooks and netbooks couple of them running OpenCPN already, one even has inbuilt GPS. So, will monitor the thread and see.

You do mention depth as well, how can you possibly do it, or are you talking about replicating/getting data off a proper depth sounder system via NMEA?
I've only got the 70ies seafarer 3 on MiToS and decided against installing it again, so if there is a cheapish solution for depth sounding I'd be also interested. Again, only thing I've seen is a far eastern black box that costs 800usd.

cheers

V.
 
virtuvas said:
sorry for the late reply, thanks Paul, I can start looking for any interesting deal on digital/whatever you call them ethernet jobbies. Just want one for 2013 now anyway ;)



yep, got 3-4 notebooks and netbooks couple of them running OpenCPN already, one even has inbuilt GPS. So, will monitor the thread and see.

You do mention depth as well, how can you possibly do it, or are you talking about replicating/getting data off a proper depth sounder system via NMEA?
I've only got the 70ies seafarer 3 on MiToS and decided against installing it again, so if there is a cheapish solution for depth sounding I'd be also interested. Again, only thing I've seen is a far eastern black box that costs 800usd.

cheers

V.
Click to expand...
This post makes me laugh ! Steak and sizzle springs to mind. Or even wood from the trees! :o
 
Solitaire said:
This post makes me laugh ! Steak and sizzle springs to mind. Or even wood from the trees! :o
Click to expand...

If I do get your point (not sure tbh) you got to get in my position.
Tide 20cm, clean blue water, 5-15m anchorages. What's the use of a sounder? not much imho, only use for most of the ppl here is to calculate how much chain to drop in the unlikely event they cannot see the seabed...
Hence I can only justify spending v.little for it...

cheers

V.
 
virtuvas said:
You do mention depth as well, how can you possibly do it, or are you talking about replicating/getting data off a proper depth sounder system via NMEA?
I've only got the 70ies seafarer 3 on MiToS and decided against installing it again, so if there is a cheapish solution for depth sounding I'd be also interested. Again, only thing I've seen is a far eastern black box that costs 800usd.

cheers

V.
Click to expand...

Yes, as far as i know, via NMEA is the only way. You could fit a really cheap fishfinder and connect it via NMEA, so all you information is on one screen, as well as having the separate fishfinder screen.

My tinkering is really in preparation for the next boat, which will have inside and outside helms. AIS, sounder and GPS will go to the multiplexor, which will pass the data along to a plotter outside, a plotter inside and a laptop/tablet inside too, via Bluetooth.
 
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virtuvas said:
Hence I can only justify spending v.little for it...
Click to expand...
I'm sure Solitaire can speak for himself, but my thoughts were it sounds as though you are trying to do things as expensively and complicatedly as possible!

If you want a cheap depth sounder, why not buy a fishfinder? Plenty to choose from for <£100
 
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