What next for Marine Electronics ?

LONG_KEELER

LONG_KEELER

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Do you think that's it now ?

Difficult to see what else can happen.

Personally, I am in love with my tablet. Carry it everywhere , charts and tides are on it
GPS etc all for under £100 . Plus the net, pictures entertainment.

Perhaps we will end up with one device that has a universal application and put
it in a tailor made slot whether it is in a boat, car or plane.

What do you think. Or does stand alone marine electronics offer a better experience.
 
I can see marine electronics companies struggling to justify expensive MFDs. The only upside they really offer is the waterproofing and the inability to lose it in the pub.

I can see MFD development becoming very slow with future development by marine electronics companies being on the sensors , increasing accuracy, efficiency which in turn leads to the ability to do more fancy things with the data.

I can also see them working on software / apps to enable all the functions of proper MFDs in a handheld device, together with true waterproofing. I've not seen a nice ipad case that I would use that allows you to charge, use all of it's functions, lock it in place and retain the Ipads slim design.

Look at what cars are doing - Apple Car Play seems to provide simply an interface that uses the IPhone for the hard work and a built in screen / controls to access it. That maybe the way to go. A simple dumb screen - blue toothed to the Ipad and mirroring the screen. The Ipad then in a housing below charging conductively or via a docking station which also takes all the data feeds from the sensors
 
I think there is an argument for a combination of the two. We've just started using a Raymarine MFD with WiFi and a tablet. When this was ordered I thought the WiFi etc. to be a gimmick and just a toy. Although I'm an advocate of having the chart plotter at the wheel, one disadvantage I've often seen is the helmsperson messing about with settings and not concentrating on helming. The tablet allows the "messing about" to be done away from the wheel.
In some ways it also returns to the old idea of the helmsperson helming at the helm and the navigator navigating at the chart table!
Allan
 
Allan said:
I think there is an argument for a combination of the two. We've just started using a Raymarine MFD with WiFi and a tablet. When this was ordered I thought the WiFi etc. to be a gimmick and just a toy. Although I'm an advocate of having the chart plotter at the wheel, one disadvantage I've often seen is the helmsperson messing about with settings and not concentrating on helming. The tablet allows the "messing about" to be done away from the wheel.
In some ways it also returns to the old idea of the helmsperson helming at the helm and the navigator navigating at the chart table!
Allan
Click to expand...

Funny you say that - i'e had the same thought myself.

I wonder if the answer is to put the chart plotter under the cover of the spray hood, maybe with the autohelm remote there. That way - if motoring in the rain under AP whilst singlehanding you can dodge others easily but when sailing properly can have 1 play with the CP and 1 steer.
 
Things that just arrived:
- Better Radar with lower power use
- Cheaper AIS transceivers becoming ubiquitous

Things to appear in the next 1-2 years (my opinion only, may contain wishful thinking):
- Fully integrated AIS/VHF, i.e. a DSC VHF that also contains an AIS transceiver, with 1 or 2 antennas.
- Cheaper Satellite internet (eventually replacing NAVTEX/Weatherfax services)
- NMEA-over-IP (Ethernet/Wifi) getting even more prevalent
- Now that the full radar brains can live up in the dome, Radar protocol will be opening up to permit interoperability, i.e. Raymarine dome can talk to Garmin plotter or PC plotter.
- Plotters opening up, admitting that they run a modified open source operating system and letting you use Apps (dystopian alternative: Raymarine/Garmin/Simrad app stores that let you use only their apps).

Further in the future (pure speculation):
- AIS 2.0 due to the overloading of the existing systems (see cheaper AIS transceivers above)
- NMEA-over-Wifi users in the Solent (or at large yachting events) realize that Wifi gets very unreliable with many networks in close proximity
- View instrument data and control your autopilot from your glasses/3D goggles/brain implant.
- First Arduino related death raising calls for more hobby electronics regulation.
 
jac said:
I wonder if the answer is to put the chart plotter under the cover of the spray hood, maybe with the autohelm remote there. That way - if motoring in the rain under AP whilst singlehanding you can dodge others easily but when sailing properly can have 1 play with the CP and 1 steer.
Click to expand...

Fully agree. It is the set up on my current boat (all credit to the first owner) and it works really well.
The plotter is visible both from the wheel and for everyone in the cockpit, which helps to involve them in the navigation.
All conventional electronics, so not an answer to the OP.
More integration is evident, but I do not see tablet-makers provide more rugged, waterproof and sunlight viewable screen as the demand will be tiny. So there will remain a niche for dedicated marine MFD's. It would be nice to be able to take the brains of the boat back home, do all your preparations there and slot the device into or couple it with the boat's system when you return on board.
 
Well the whole thing has always seemed bonkers to me.

Unfortunately nmea 2000 seems like the only game in town. Surely you buy sensors. Put them on some sort of network and then they are available for everything.

The problem seems to be that waterproof sunlight viewable displays are not cheap and ubiquitous. So mfds will continue for a while. But surely a tablet of some sort is the way forward once they have waterproof sunlight viewable screens.

Then for racing the expensive race processors will die as I read that you can now buy expedition to process raw nmea 2000 data and then output the custom fields it outputs on Garmin GNX120s.

If someone came up with a range of displays with buttons they would clean up? What OS do they need? Android? Hmmm. There was a long thread on this somewhere a while ago and the conclusion was that they dont exist! Was watching the earl tablet which was to have an eink screen but seems to have died........
 
jac said:
Funny you say that - i'e had the same thought myself.

I wonder if the answer is to put the chart plotter under the cover of the spray hood, maybe with the autohelm remote there. That way - if motoring in the rain under AP whilst singlehanding you can dodge others easily but when sailing properly can have 1 play with the CP and 1 steer.
Click to expand...

I can see the benefits of this, over the idea of putting it down below but for a couple of reasons I prefer it closer to the wheel. You can make adjustments and, with my eyesight, it makes it visible! Of course with a tiller things are different.
I'm surprised that nobody is making an outdoor tablet yet. Even if it's not fully daylight visible I'm sure there is a market. Loads of people would like to use them outside. It seems quite simple to seal the whole thing up, have sound by Bluetooth only, contact charging, no USB or HDMI and Robert's your mother's brother!
Allan
 
You could easily have an ipad in a sealed case with induction charging. The induction coil might be a bit problematic for compass etc nearby. The main reason I suspect tablets don't have sunlight viewable screens is the energy requirment. Since they are designed to run on internal batteries and battery life is a major selling feature they don't like anything that uses more than a smidge of energy. I think the gubbins of the 'brains' should be down below in a nice protected environment and then the displays with inputs can be where you want them. My plotter is down below but visible from the helm. I use an iphone up above for details but do occasionaly have to send someone below to tweak things which can be a pain. Perhaps a largish display under the sprayhood would be a good compromise.
 
Yngmar said:
- First Arduino related death raising calls for more hobby electronics regulation.
Click to expand...
How could that be possible? Seems a bonkers thought imho.

Back in the real world, it will be interesting to see just how much diy electronics does catch on with the likes of openplotter/raspberry pi providing a viable alternative to chart plotters very keenly priced and low power, just add a tablet to view in the cockpit.
 
Allan said:
I can see the benefits of this, over the idea of putting it down below but for a couple of reasons I prefer it closer to the wheel. You can make adjustments and, with my eyesight, it makes it visible! Of course with a tiller things are different.
I'm surprised that nobody is making an outdoor tablet yet. Even if it's not fully daylight visible I'm sure there is a market. Loads of people would like to use them outside. It seems quite simple to seal the whole thing up, have sound by Bluetooth only, contact charging, no USB or HDMI and Robert's your mother's brother!
Allan
Click to expand...

They are, not fully daylight visible as you say, but I've had a fully waterproof Sony Xperia Z tablet for a couple of years or so (I forget exactly how long).
 
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All the IPad does is to replace the computing power of the boat plotter and to replace the screen with currently an inferior one. The critical bits on board remain the same - the sensors like radar AIS, wind, log, depth but maybe a time will come when all these can be bluetoothed to a tablet. Maybe also the tablet software will get to the level of the plotter software. Unlikely that the tablet will have the knobs that a decent plotter has - touch screens are a PITA on a moving wet boat.

Personally I dont see the point. Inevitably a tablet will be / is to some degree compromised compared to true plotter. Maybe there is a cost saving but in the grand scheme of things it doesnt amount to much.

Bit like in your car where your phone can give you directions but it isnt half as good as a Garmin or a built in GPS.
 
birdseye said:
All the IPad does is to replace the computing power of the boat plotter and to replace the screen with currently an inferior one. The critical bits on board remain the same - the sensors like radar AIS, wind, log, depth but maybe a time will come when all these can be bluetoothed to a tablet. Maybe also the tablet software will get to the level of the plotter software. Unlikely that the tablet will have the knobs that a decent plotter has - touch screens are a PITA on a moving wet boat.

Personally I dont see the point. Inevitably a tablet will be / is to some degree compromised compared to true plotter. Maybe there is a cost saving but in the grand scheme of things it doesnt amount to much.

Bit like in your car where your phone can give you directions but it isnt half as good as a Garmin or a built in GPS.
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I agree, mostly. As I said earlier, using an MFD (with touch screen and knobs) at the wheel, with a WiFied tablet at the chart table showing all the instruments, seems the best thing at present. My tablet happens to have Navionics too which enables route planning away from the WiFi.
All our instruments can be viewed on the tablet,not by Bluetooth but WiFi.
The boat is a Starlight 35.
My phone is better than the Garmin I gave away as it tells me of delays ahead which I may wish to avoid. Things move on.
Allan
 
Marine electronics firms will be safe for a time yet because no one is even close to producing a sunlight viewable tablet. Plus there's the battery power issue, waterproofing and the heat dissipation issue - on charge and on full brilliance they get very hot and add a bit of sunlight and they quickly overheat. There's no market for Apple to produce an iPad that's cockpit compatible so for now it's MFD's and wifi links to tablets. And I suspect it'll stay that way for a long time yet.
 
Colvic Watson said:
Marine electronics firms will be safe for a time yet because no one is even close to producing a sunlight viewable tablet. Plus there's the battery power issue, waterproofing and the heat dissipation issue - on charge and on full brilliance they get very hot and add a bit of sunlight and they quickly overheat. There's no market for Apple to produce an iPad that's cockpit compatible so for now it's MFD's and wifi links to tablets. And I suspect it'll stay that way for a long time yet.
Click to expand...
HUDs will be nxt inbuilt into yer Raybans
 
There is two aspects -
a) the predictable based upon extrapolation of existing trends / current technology; and
b) the unexpected (aka "disruptive") new things.

In the former case, I would certainly expect that big expensive integrated systems will get gradually superseded (gradually as incumbent suppliers will resist for as long as possible).
The direction will be small and low cost sensors for various specialist purposes (depth, wind, temperature, radar, thermal imaging) operating, eventually, to common standards, and transmitting wirelessly (ironically TacTick were on the right direction, just too early).
Displays and computing power will probably move to a commodity platform - eg Android or a successor.
Software distributed as "Apps" - though this term is largely meaningless, as a contraction of computer "applications" which have existed since the 60s.
Interoperability and plug and play will eventually become commonplace, allowing lower cost and easy upgrading - but again the incumbents will try to inhibit for as long as possible.
Things like three D vision, head up displays, wearable devices come by default with this route - as become opened up via the commodity platform (Android plus). Ditto fully water/environment proof devices, necessary for swimmers / cyclists etc anyway

The tricky bits are predicting how fast this will happen in practice, and what the disruptive technologies and new applications we haven't dreamt of.
In the 1960s we would never have dreamt of having our position to within a couple of metres, displayed over the latest marine chart, "displayed" on our "phone" - the thing with a wire that was used sitting in the hallway on a stool :-)
 
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