For years, I eagerly anticipated Apple’s fall event and news of the latest iPhone release. Back then, my purchasing latency was limited to locating the website’s “buy” button, as my incumbent phone was often struggling to keep pace with new apps and software updates. Then, starting around 2015 (the iPhone 6S), I was able to start squeezing extra years out of my phones. This trend accelerated, and as of today, I still rely on my iPhone 11 Pro from 2019. To be fair, I always buy the top-end model with maximum storage, but four and a half years on, I haven’t crashed (at least not hard) into this phone’s silicone ceiling.

Multifunction displays perform different tasks than smartphones, but most marine-electronics manufacturers build MFDs with off-the-shelf componentry and, sometimes, software from the mobile-device market. This sourcing gives manufacturers options for high-resolution touchscreen displays, processors, connectivity and operating-system architecture, and it means that today’s MFDs can have longer working lives.

How we got here, however, requires a small rewind. After all, MFDs circa 2010 were different animals than today’s big, powerful displays.

“Back then, most displays were 4 to 7 inches,” says Dave Dunn, Garmin’s senior director of marine and RV sales. “A big display was 9 to 10 inches, and a 12-inch display was enormous.”

These MFDs were controlled via tactile buttons and knobs, or early touchscreen or hybrid-touch interfaces. They only tackled marine-facing applications such as chart-plotting.

Today’s MFDs excel at traditional marine tasks, but they also boast bigger glass, full video integration, touchscreen interfaces, high-speed data networks, and four- or six-core processors, opening the door to expanded job descriptions.

“Processing power has indeed increased over time, bringing with it the ability to drive higher-resolution screens,” says Steve Thomas, Simrad’s product director for digital systems. “[This] also lends itself to better integration by providing the responsiveness consumers expect.”

It also enables MFDs to perform nontraditional tasks, including streaming video from daylight and thermal-imaging cameras, tackling onboard security, controlling digital switching and, sometimes, providing entertainment. Today’s flagship MFDs also sport larger high-resolution displays, multisignal connectivity (with ANT, Bluetooth, Ethernet and Wi-Fi), embedded sonar modules, GPS or GNSS receivers, data backbones, and NMEA 2000 and HTML5 compatibility.

“NMEA 2000 protocol provides the basis of communication and is the linchpin connecting everything together for the MFD to display and control,” says Eric Kunz, Furuno’s senior product manager. Kunz adds that HTML5 compatibility allows MFDs to display and control third-party equipment via web-browser windows, sans any heavy lifting from the MFD.

Technology moves in step changes, and MFDs, brand depending, have experienced two major evolutions since 2010.

“The first was the transition from a completely closed-software architecture to something open source,” says Jim McGowan, Raymarine’s Americas marketing manager, referring to the company’s shift from a walled-garden operating system to Linux and then Android.

Others, including Simrad and Furuno, took similar steps. Garmin remains a holdout.

“We use Android, but not for marine,” Dunn says. “Will we eventually go to Android? Maybe.”

The second evolution involved hardware, with all MFD manufacturers now using mobile-device componentry.

“Suddenly, the requirements for shock resistance, heat resistance, water resistance, bright visibility and fast processing became available on a wide scale,” McGowan says. “Instead of us having to source expensive industrial or semicustom hardware that was proven but old, suddenly our system architects had multiple options to choose from that were all state of the art.”

Sourcing components became easier, yielding better MFDs, but it placed a higher premium on software. Case in point: Raymarine has released more than 30 updates, including new features, for its 2017-era Axiom MFDs.

Likewise, there’s the importance of supporting hardware as it ages. “We don’t like to leave customers behind,” Dunn says, noting that Garmin supports products for five years after they’re discontinued.

This opens the door to the fine art of good enough. Given that modern MFDs are robust, the same display—like my iPhone—can last for years, provided that its sensor network remains static. While this works for buy-and-hold customers, new sensors can dangle carrots.

For example, Furuno and Garmin unveiled Doppler-enabled radars in 2016. While older MFDs could often display radar imagery from these sensors, some customers had to refit their displays to access the best features. One can imagine automation and AI presenting similar incentives.

“AI will combine multiple facets of different sensors to create a more sophisticated and enhanced navigation experience,” Kunz says. “Look for MFDs to take a larger and larger part in overall vessel control and automation.”

Avikus, for instance, is developing its NeuBoat autonomous navigation system with Raymarine. As for Garmin, Dunn says: “There’s nothing coming in the near future, but there’s some cool stuff coming with lidar and cameras.” He’s referring to the light-detection and ranging sensors that help enable automotive driver-assist features and autonomous driving.

Future hardware and capabilities aside, all experts agree on the importance of regularly updating a vessel’s MFD to keep the operating system current and to access the latest software features. While updates are free, all four companies have adopted subscription models for cartography.

“In some ways, the marine-electronics business model is changing in the same way it is happening in the consumer-electronics industry,” Kunz says. “This will most likely lead to more of a subscription-based model for certain aspects of the market.”

While subscription models make sense for a dynamic media like cartography, it’s harder to envision this business practice extending throughout the sensor ecosystem.

“We don’t want to get to the point where people have to pay for software updates,” Dunn says, pointing to BMW’s belly-flopped attempt to charge customers fees to use their existing heated steering wheels.

New hardware, however, is a different story. “More than anything, we’re a sensor company,” McGowan says of Raymarine. “We keep offering new and improved sensors.”

Given the adoption rates of Doppler-enabled radar, there’s little question that the recreational marine market stands ready to embrace step-change sensors, so long as they come bundled with newfound capabilities—say, auto-docking or autonomous navigation.

As for my ancient iPhone, I’m again counting the days until Apple’s fall event. I just hope my next iPhone will last as long as today’s flagship MFDs.  

UI Options

Recent years have seen most manufacturers adopt touchscreen-only user interfaces for their flagship multifunction displays. This technology creates user-friendly interfaces in most conditions, but some users prefer tactile buttons when the weather sours. All manufacturers build optional external keypads or hard-button remote controls.

The post Future-Proofing Multifunction Displays appeared first on Yachting.

If you love nautical yarns, David Grann’s The Wager is a must-read. The nonfiction work details the account of The Wager, a sixth-rate Royal Navy square-rigger that carried 28 guns and 120 sailors. The 123-footer was part of an eight-vessel armada that, in 1741, sailed west around Cape Horn in winter, pursuing plunder. The Wager got separated. In a navigational blunder, the vessel turned north before it banked enough west. It didn’t go well.

Anyone interested in learning about how the great east-west navigation problem was finally solved should read Dava Sobel’s Longitude. Anyone interested in ensuring their own navigational accuracy, however, should cruise with a dedicated Global Navigation Satellite System sensor.

Satellite-based navigation began evolving in the 1960s. The US-built Global Positioning System—the first of its kind—went live in 1993. Today, the international Global Navigation Satellite System consists of four global satellite constellations (including GPS), plus two regional ones. While GPS continues to provide world-class service, GNSS receivers can capture this information along with data from other satellites. The best part? You probably already own several.

Navigational satellites work by broadcasting information about their identification, position, orbit and health status, along with a hyper-accurate time stamp. Receivers derive their position by triangulating with at least three satellites, with stronger (or more numerous) signals often equating to higher accuracy. Precision matters. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, if a clock aboard a GPS satellite is off by one-thousandth of a second, then the corresponding measurement error would be 1,616 nautical miles.

While there are differences between the various constellations, each system employs three distinct segments: control, user and space.

The control segment consists of one or more master land-based control stations and a global network of supporting stations. These stations monitor each satellite’s reported positions and compare reports with predictive models. If needed, operators can alter a satellite’s orbit to ensure baseline accuracy or avoid debris.

The user segment refers to any receivers listening for signals, while the space segment refers to orbiting assets.

Each of the GNSS’ four main navigation constellations contain different numbers of satellites that operate at different elevations and across different orbital planes. The US-built GPS constellation involves 31 satellites that operate at an elevation of 10,900 nautical miles above sea level. GPS satellites orbit on six different planes, and they maintain a 55-degree orbital inclination (relative to the equator).

Russia’s GLONASS constellation, which has been active since 1995, involves 24 satellites that operate at 10,315 nautical miles and orbit on three planes at 64.8 degrees of orbital inclination. China’s BeiDou constellation, which went live in 2011, consists of 35 satellites. Of these, eight are either geosynchronous or inclined geosynchronous satellites that operate at 19,325 nautical miles, while the other 27 operate at 11,625 nautical miles. BeiDou satellites orbit the planet on six planes, and they maintain an orbital inclination of 55.5 degrees.

Finally, the European Union’s Galileo constellation, which became operational in 2018, will (when complete) consist of 30 satellites that operate at 12,540 nautical miles. Galileo satellites orbit across three planes, and they maintain a 56-degree orbital inclination.

GNSS receivers are generally accurate from 6.5 feet to 13 feet globally; however, some countries use a satellite-based augmentation system (SBAS) that improves accuracy by broadcasting correction information. In the United States, this is called the wide-area augmentation system (WAAS). In early 2023, the European Union’s Galileo constellation began delivering free high-accuracy service information that’s precise to roughly 8 inches.

Celestial navigation, this is not.

Satellite-navigation receivers have existed in different forms for years. Depending on the manufacturer and design, these receivers (and their antennas) can be embedded into multifunction displays, or incorporated into abovedecks sensors that share satellite-navigation data with other networked equipment (or both).

Alternatively, yacht owners can sometimes buy an abovedecks listen-only antenna, which shares its improved signal strength and reception with a belowdecks GNSS-enabled multifunction display.

Some satellite-navigation receivers favor GPS signals, while others can also listen to data from some of the other GNSS constellations. Full GNSS receivers can access the four main constellations, plus the regional Japanese and Indian constellations. These receivers sometimes include nine-axis compasses or attitude-heading reference systems. These sensors, which don’t add much cost, provide accurate heading information in addition to GPS and GNSS data.

Finally, satellite compasses are the best option for serious navigation. Depending on their design, these instruments employ multiple GNSS receivers, which provide heading information that isn’t contingent on Earth’s magnetic field (read: high-latitude cruising). Eric Kunz, Furuno’s senior product manager, says the company’s SCX20/21 satellite compasses use four GNSS receivers, allowing them to achieve 1-degree heading accuracy.

While some people say GPS alone is plenty robust for their needs, many marine-electronics manufacturers have been quick to embrace GNSS. “With more satellites available to track and pull into calculations, the GNSS-enabled receivers offer enhanced accuracy,” says Jim McGowan, Raymarine’s Americas marketing manager.

He’s not alone in this assessment. “A GNSS antenna provides more redundancy and higher accuracy than GPS-only receivers,” says Dave Dunn, Garmin’s senior director of marine and RV sales. “Some parts of the world may have better coverage at certain times of day with some constellations than others.”

McGowan says GNSS is especially useful for high-latitude navigators because these receivers can track GLONASS satellites: “Those satellites are in a higher orbit inclination than GPS satellites, which allows the GNSS receiver to get a better tracking angle and duration on those satellites.”

Leigh Armstrong, Simrad’s product manager of digital systems, agrees: “This allows for better maintenance of accuracy in areas with less satellite coverage.”

The inverse, of course, is that BeiDou, Galileo and GPS satellites likely provide better fixes closer to the equator.

While GNSS data is critical for navigation, it can also help bolster the accuracy of other networked devices. Here, Dunn points to automatic identification system (AIS) position and speed data, autopilot performance, and radar target-tracking features.

Looking ahead, autonomous docking systems and vessels need precise position, speed and other navigational information to negotiate harbors, follow autopilot-driven courses, and safely dock. It’s expected that GNSS (with SBAS) will fill this niche.

The Wager’s crew experienced unspeakable horrors, but GNSS receivers and satellite compasses likely mean none of today’s boaters will have to dodge scurvy.

Belts and Suspenders

While the ancient mariner would have paid handsomely for a chronometer, contemporary smartwatches carry GNSS sensors. Most smartphones have GNSS receivers, as do some handheld VHF radios. These are all important backups should a vessel experience low voltage or power loss. 

The post Global Navigation Satellite System Offers Waypoint Accuracy appeared first on Yachting.

The fall and winter boat shows mean that an armada of technology is being launched to make everyone’s time on the water safer and more fun. Without further ado, here is some of the top tech to put on your radar for the new year’s boating season.

Garmin 

Innovations in marine electronics hail from two places: hardware and software. In recent years, hardware advances have slowed compared with a decade ago. Case in point: While Garmin has long pushed the software envelope, the company’s flagship multifunction display—the GPSMap 8400/8600—premiered in 2016. Garmin’s newest flagship display, the GPSMap 9000 series ($9,900 to $17,000), brings significant hardware advances.

These advances include edge-to-edge 4K displays, processors that purportedly deliver seven times the speed of Garmin’s previous offerings, and a faster local network (Garmin BlueNet gigabit network, which can hustle data at up to 1 gigabit per second to and from peripherals, including radar and sonar modules).

GPSMap 9000-series displays are available in 19-, 22-, 24-, and 27-inch screens that ship with Navionics+ cartography and AutoGuidance+ routing. The displays also support engine-room monitoring, Garmin’s OneHelm integrated digital switching, and Garmin’s Surround View Camera System, which eases the challenges of docking. Users can control these IPX7-rated displays via a touchscreen interface, with voice commands using a headset (sold separately) or with a paired Garmin smartwatch (also sold separately).

Speaking of peripherals, Garmin also unveiled its GSD 28 sonar module, which is a dual-channel Xchirp-enabled black-box sonar that can probe depths to 10,000 feet. The GSD 28 ($3,000) can be networked to Airmar- or Garmin-built transducers, and can transmit at 300 watts to 3 kilowatts. The sonar has Garmin’s Rapidreturn, which delivers two to six times faster ping rates than previous-generation black-box sonar. Boaters who cruise with Garmin’s MSC 10 satellite compasses can also leverage the GSD 28’s Heave Compensation feature, which removes vessel motion from its returns.

Furuno 

Integration has long been a marine-electronics buzzword, but Furuno took a different tack with its FCV-600 and FCV-800 stand-alone fish finders. The sounders (call for pricing) have chirp and dual-frequency (50/200 kilohertz) capabilities, and they can explore depths to 3,937 feet.

The FCV-600 has 5.7 inches of screen real estate and transmits at 600 watts, while the FCV-800 has 8.4 inches of glass and transmits at 1 kilowatt. Additionally, the FCV-800 cooperates with NMEA 2000 and NMEA 0183 networks, while the FCV-600 uses only N2K networks.

Both fish finders are compatible with a range of transducers, and both support Furuno’s proprietary fish-finding technologies, including RezBoost signal processing, Bottom Discrimination and TruEcho Chirp, which yields better image resolution and onscreen target separation than traditional 50/200 kHz sounders. Also, both fish finders are Wi-Fi-enabled, which lets one fish finder communicate wirelessly with another identical sounder. In other words, two FCV-600s can talk, or one can communicate with select third-party apps and smartphones.

Raymarine

Sailors love wind information. Raymarine’s Alpha Series Displays and RSW Series Wind Sensors capture and present data that is user-customizable.

Alpha displays ($1,200 to $2,000) come in 7- and 9-inch screens that can be mounted vertically or horizontally at the mast or the helm. Users can customize screen views, and they can control the displays via the individual touchscreens or through networked Raymarine-built Axiom multifunction displays.

RSW Series Wind Sensors ($850) are self-calibrating, with embedded attitude-heading-reference-system sensors that measure pitch, roll and yaw. This combination allows the system to calculate true-wind metrics and present them on an Alpha Series Display.

VoltSafe

From a distance, the smartest thing about VoltSafe is the magnetic connection between an ordinary 30-amp shore-power cable and VoltSafe’s proprietary charging station. Should someone forget to disconnect before engaging the boat’s throttles, 40 pounds of load breaks the magnetic connection.

Better still, VoltSafe’s shoreside chargers use an electronic vetting process (think electric-car chargers) with the reciprocal magnetic connector. If the connection doesn’t pass muster, electricity stops (or never starts) flowing. This feature adds a significant safety margin, especially given the presence of water.

While VoltSafe systems are currently a marina-facing product, in time, users will be able to communicate with the system via VoltSafe’s app. This feature should be useful for tracking bills, tracing low-voltage issues, and receiving power-outage alerts.

OceanLED

Lighting can help set a mood, but controlling belowdecks, topside and undercarriage illuminators can be challenging. OceanLED’s OceanBridge (call for pricing) is a multizone control system that can be driven from a networked multifunction display via an NMEA 2000 or Ethernet connection, or from a smart device using OceanBridge’s built-in Wi-Fi connectivity.

OceanBridge systems can control all OceanLED lights, plus most third-party DC-powered lights. In total, the system can control 64 lights (this can be expanded to 150-plus with splitters), including color and brightness, color fades and transitions. There’s also music sync and OceanLED’s proprietary movement-to-color feature across 10 zones.

Digital Yacht

Devices enabled for the internet are handy, but they can open the door to hackers. Digital Yacht’s N2K Protect ($350) stops onboard cyberthreats by validating all equipment on an NMEA 2000 network.

After that, N2K Protect creates a baseline network map, which it stores locally. N2K Protect locks down and monitors the network 24/7/365. Users can configure the system to generate an alarm (N2K network alerts or SMS messages via a Digital Yacht 4G/5G cellular modem) if unscrupulous activity or poor N2K performance is detected. And N2K Protect is updatable via an embedded web interface.

Digital Yacht also recently unveiled its CO Alert carbon-monoxide detection and alarm system. CO Alert ($330) is a two-piece system consisting of a white-box detection sensor and a black box that tackles power supply and network connectivity. The low-draw system constantly monitors its self-test feature to ensure safety and performance. If tripped, the system generates audio and visual alarms on NMEA 2000-networked multifunction displays.

Actisense

NMEA 2000 networks move a lot of information. Actisense’s NGX-1 gateway helps boaters access this data.

Actisense makes two versions of the device: the NGX-1-USB ($280) and the NGX-1-ISO ($260). Both allow all major PC-based chart plotters to communicate with networked instrumentation, and both provide a firewall between the computer and the N2K network. The NGX-1-USB plugs into PCs, while the NGX-1-ISO is wired to an NMEA 0183 device or a serial port.

The post Top Helm Technology For 2024 appeared first on Yachting.

Black cables of different lengths hang from tines, awaiting testing. Each cable is fitted with connectors that align with hardware from all the marine-electronics manufacturers. If all goes well with the tests, then packaging and shipping are next.

While it’s odd to see just-minted cabling for Furuno, Garmin, Humminbird, Raymarine and Simrad on the same factory floor, that’s how this place works. Since its founding in 1982, Airmar Technology Corp. has ensured that its transducers play nicely with third-party fish finders, sonars and multifunction displays. As Craig Cushman, Airmar’s director of marketing, explains by analogy: “We don’t build marine electronics. We build high-end speakers.”

In 1982, engineer Steve Boucher founded Airmar in Milford, New Hampshire, with the goal of innovating and manufacturing better acoustic-sensing transducers. The company’s first product was a transom-mounted transducer that worked with a variety of fish finders. Today, Airmar makes everything from proximity sensors to acoustic rain sensors to flow sensors to high-end chirp transducers. The common denominator in all this product diversity is Airmar’s expertise in sonar and ultrasonic-sensing technologies. The company is the leading global manufacturer of high-end transducers.

Since its founding, Airmar has produced both branded and white-label products for third-party companies. This arrangement has freed marine-electronics manufacturers to pursue their own areas of expertise, and has let Airmar form close-knit partnerships to produce transducers that are critical to many big players’ products.

Just as Airmar grew its product portfolio from a humble, transom-hung transducer to sensors that now govern bottling plants and Chicago city buses, the business has also grown to include multiple other companies. These include Marport, which manufactures sensors, echo sounders, current profilers and sonars for the commercial-fishing market; Gemeco and Airmar EMEA, both distribution companies; and a defense-contracting operation. Roughly 60 percent of Airmar’s annual revenue flows from the recreational-marine market; the other 40 percent, including some defense contracting, provides stability in other markets. Airmar is supported by 435 global employees, including some who report to offices in France, Iceland and South Africa, while 275 to 300 employees work at (or remotely from) the company’s New Hampshire headquarters.

I visited that headquarters, which is sizable with three buildings. Cushman and Susan Leuci, Airmar’s media-relations specialist, started my tour by showing me a few pieces of Airmar-built equipment, including two small paddle wheels.

“That’s our new Gen2 paddle wheel,” Cushman says, adding that it delivers accurate speed-over-water metrics at boat speeds as skinny as 0.3 knots. “A young engineer and University of New Hampshire graduate spent three years perfecting that design.”

The wheel has a precise, asymmetrical shape, and a large surface area relative to its size. There’s little room for marine growth to accumulate compared with previous offerings.

“We made that here,” Cushman says, adding that while Airmar’s injection-molding machines can rapidly fabricate components, manufacturing here is still largely a manual process. “We’re not feeding components into a machine. It’s a manual, hands-on job. A lot of craftsmanship goes into these transducers.”

Downstairs on the factory floor, in the engineering lab, new designs are being fabricated before testing commences in the adjoining research-and-development room, which is populated with racks of testing equipment and multiple freshwater tanks. Inside one tank, a wooden structure hangs vertically in the water column. The wood is cut at different and diverging angles, which allows Airmar to test for sonar-wave reflexivity. Nearby, there’s a bench with fish finders from all the major brands. Cushman explains that Airmar tests new transducers on all platforms, just like a high-end speaker company might test its creations on receivers from all the major brands.

“We’re a technology-development company, not a boating company,” Cushman says. “We attract people because of the technology, not necessarily because it goes on a boat.”

Around the R&D room, there’s equipment for hot-and-cold cycling, drop testing and atmospheric-pressure testing. No amount of pounding into offshore seaways will approximate the level of torture that Airmar conjures here.

On the main factory floor are more tank-testing facilities and multishelf wheeled carts full of transducers ready for packaging and shipping. Their housings might be bronze, molded plastic, stainless steel or urethane, but inside, each contains at least one carefully potted piezoceramic element.

“Everything is 100 percent American-manufactured,” Cushman says. “We have some circuit boards made in Canada, but everything is assembled here, in the USA, in New Hampshire.”

Cushman leads me past the area where employees batch-test incoming componentry, before taking me into the room where other employees pour encapsulating material into transducer bodies. He says that while all Airmar employees receive months of instruction and on-the-job training, encapsulation work requires special experience to ensure that air bubbles and other contaminants don’t become suspended in the matrix.

“We have decades of research into materials that perform better in certain ways,” Cushman says, adding that a big part of Airmar’s quality comes from knowing which materials will direct the highest percentage of acoustic energy into the water column by eliminating unwanted noise.

We pass keg-like barrels filled with water and through-hull transducers, clamps and wires (and occasional rubber duckies). Rows of three-story carts hold bronze through-hull transducers, their pipe stems forming a miniature copper-colored forest.

At the ultrasonic-weather-station department, several wind tunnels occupy an end of the factory floor. They can produce winds up to 100 knots. The fans are silent as we walk by, but an engineer is preparing to test an Airmar-built weather station with an ultrasonic anemometer.

Across the street, in Airmar’s newer building, the company produces high-volume, lower-cost transducers and plastic parts, and assembles wire kits. Entire pallets of wire, wound around massive wooden spools, are ready to be cut and fitted with Airmar-built third-party connectors. “Every transducer build needs miles of cables,” Cushman says.

I couldn’t help but notice, in Cushman’s office, a half-hull of Reliance, the Nathanael Greene Herreshoff-designed behemoth that successfully defended the 1903 America’s Cup. Equipment from different marine-electronics companies is on a nearby bookshelf. Much like how Reliance dominated its field of play in its day, Airmar dominates the high-end transducer business.

The real winners, of course, are yachtsmen worldwide.

Military Service

While Airmar’s transducers detect fish, the U.S. Navy stalks submarines. MSI Transducers builds bespoke and semi-bespoke transducers for commercial and defense use. Airmar acquired MSI in 2016 and introduced high-volume manufacturing. This arrangement helps MSI be cost-competitive and gives Airmar access to next-generation technologies.

The post Behind the Scenes with Airmar Technology Corp. appeared first on Yachting.

Capt. John Adams admits he wasn’t tuned in to what Furuno’s CSH-8L Mark-2 Full-Circle Scanning Sonar could do when it was first fitted aboard Griffin, the 65-foot Rybovich he runs out of the Palm Beach, Florida, area. His level of understanding changed as soon as the lines hit the water. “We caught three blue marlin and a sailfish that day,” he says. “Without a doubt, we wouldn’t have seen these targets without it.”

Adams compares trolling with standard sonar transducers to mowing an expansive lawn with a 30-inch push mower. By comparison, searching with Furuno’s 8L is akin to riding a Dixie Chopper. “Nothing really gets by you,” he says, adding that he’s won tournament money because of the Furuno system.

While sonar is commonly employed as a noun, it’s actually an acronym for “sound navigation and ranging.” The technology was developed in the early 20th century and was initially used to hunt submarines in both world wars. Omnidirectional sonar, which transmits acoustic energy simultaneously in a 360-degree pattern from the system’s transducer, has existed for decades. Furuno’s 8L was introduced in 2016, but recent years have seen sales increase, and it can now fit on smaller vessels too. The result is that more anglers have 8Ls to see 360 degrees around their boats’ hulls and out to 5,000 feet. The system can also be used for peering forward.

An 8L installation consists of a processor, a transceiver, a transducer, a control unit, a hull unit and cabling. Imagery can be displayed on a dedicated monitor or a networked Furuno TZtouch2 or TZtouch3 multifunction display. Owners can add items, including a loudspeaker, remote control or motion sensor, to simplify operations and increase system performance. The Furuno-built equipment retails at an $80,000 base price, but owners should expect an additional $30,000 to $50,000 for installation.

Like fish finders that use hull-mounted transducers, the 8L’s transducer requires laminar water flow to operate. To achieve this, the system has a hull unit, which consists of a tube with a telescoping threaded inner shaft that measures 2½ to 3 inches in diameter. The hull unit is installed vertically, and the shaft lowers and retracts by 15.7 inches or 23.6 inches, model-depending. The shaft’s inboard end attaches to the system’s hoisting mechanism, while the transducer is fitted to the shaft’s outboard end. The transceiver mounts inside the hull near the hoist, while the processor, control unit and display are situated higher up the schematic food chain.

“The 8L has 420 sonar elements,” says Matt Wood, Furuno’s national sales manager, adding that the system’s fixed phased-array transducer is composed of individual piezoelectric elements arranged in a circular pattern to form a layer. “Each layer has 30 elements, and the array is 14 layers high. All 420 elements fire at the same time.”

The result is a pulse of acoustic energy that transmits at 85 kHz once every 0.54 seconds. “Imagine an adjustable flood flashlight with a piece of black electrical tape in the center,” Wood says. The 8L’s onscreen imagery resembles a ring with visual marks denoting targets. “There’s a mechanical blind spot—you’re not looking directly under the boat. You can see the bottom, but there’s always some angle of attack.”

Because of this, users commonly run an echo sounder in tandem with their 8Ls.

That said, the system’s processor and transceiver can yield some onscreen magic.

“Users can electronically steer the center of the beam from 0 degrees to 55 degrees downward tilt,” Wood says. While the transducer’s elements are fixed, and while all elements fire simultaneously, the processor and transceiver can electronically steer the beam by rendering an onscreen video image that places greater value on some returns than others. This function, Wood says, is especially important for locating swordfish: “You can see, lock and track individual billfish.”

This same beam-steering capability allows mariners to peer in front of their vessel. The 5,000-foot range translates to three minutes, 17 seconds of reaction time at 15 knots. “It’s possible to use the 8L for navigation,” Wood says, adding that users can concentrate on the plus or minus 45 degrees in front of their bow to spot objects or seafloor structure.

Following Wood’s flashlight analogy, the more one’s hand swings while walking with a flashlight, the more the light jumps. The same holds for vessel motion and the 8L’s transmitted acoustic energy. While customers can spec a mechanical motion sensor that stabilizes the 8L’s video imagery along either its pitch or roll axis, “there’s no multi-axis stabilization—yet,” Wood says.

While the 8L creates a massive amount of sonar imagery that it displays in 16 onscreen colors, Wood suggests that operators limit boat speed to 10 to 15 knots when searching an area, and drop to 2 to 8 knots once gear is deployed. The 8L is rated to 18 knots, and Wood advises that mariners risk bending the telescopic shaft—due to accumulated hydrostatic pressure—if they go faster. One option, he says, is to network the 8L with the GPS and set it to retract automatically at certain speeds. Wood prefers to shed the transducer once he hooks up. While this means an initial 15 to 18 seconds of limbo as the transducer retracts, it ensures unrestricted maneuverability.

Given their high equipment and installation costs, 8Ls were initially found aboard large sport-fishing rides, but Wood says this has been changing. “There’s a desire to get more technology into smaller boats,” he says, pointing to 40-footers from Freeman Boatworks and Valhalla that carry 8Ls. While vessel motion can be an issue, well-equipped owners have been using gyrostabilizers. “We’re an ancillary beneficiary of Seakeeper,” Wood jokes.

Irrespective of waterline, Wood is clear that the 8L is for serious anglers: “Roughly 90 percent of our customers are professional captains—either captain-owners or captains for competitive owners.”

So, if you’re interested in upping your fish-hunting game, and you aren’t afraid of writing checks or tackling serious installation work, the Furuno 8L could be the next angling-arsenal upgrade.

Artistic Interpretations

Like analog radar, the 8L requires some know-how to read its onscreen imagery properly. Furuno offers an on-water training seminar, and most people understand how to use the system after 12 to 24 hours of hands-on use. “It’s about pushing buttons and scope time,” says Furuno’s Matt Wood.

The post Furuno’s All-Seeing Underwater Radar appeared first on Yachting.

Welcome to the third-annual Best Elex Awards, which honor innovative marine electronics and technology products that have been reviewed and approved by the editorial team behind the four leading titles in marine media: Boating, Yachting, Cruising World and Salt Water Sportsman. At the first of the year, the nominees were evaluated by our team of eight judges, including the editors-in-chief and electronics editors of the aforementioned brands. In the end, seven products set themselves apart. And the winners are:

• Editors’ Choice: KVH TracNet
• Leading Edge Technology: Simrad Halo 2000/3000
• Best in Navigation: Garmin Navionics+
• Best Integrated System: Lowrance HDS Pro w/ Active Imaging/ActiveTarget 2
• Most Innovative for Fishing: Furuno TZtouch3 w/ CHIRP Side-Scan Technology
• Best in Sonar: Garmin LiveScope XR
• Best in Entertainment: Kicker KMXL

Editors’ Choice: KVH TracNet Hybrid Antennas

What the Judges Said: “The most impressive feature is the antennas’ ability to seamlessly jump between cellular, Wi-Fi and VSAT networks, all with the lowest-cost routing and user experience in mind.” —David Schmidt, electronics editor, Yachting

Two of our eight judges gave KVH’s TracNet system perfect scores. And what’s not to like? This new system for onboard connectivity just might be as seamless as the internet setup in your home. And it doesn’t require an assortment of disparate parts, complicated connections and multiple bills. TracNet combines satellite, cellular and Wi-Fi under one dome. The system features automatic switching to keep boats connected using the best communication option at all times—without the need for hands-on tuning. The H30 ($18,995), H60 ($27,995) and H90 ($44,995) antennas match boats of 30, 60 and 90 feet, respectively. Paired to a belowdecks unit using an Ethernet power-over-coaxial cable, the H90 can deliver VSAT download speeds as fast as 40 Mbps (with Elite service). Boaters can also expect support for 5G/LTE cellular service where available, as well as the ability to add user-supplied SIM cards for local service. TracNet connects to shore-based Wi-Fi using an integrated bridge for additional speed.

Leading Edge Technology: Simrad Halo 2000/3000

What the Judges Said: “Veteran anglers have long sworn by power-hungry magnetron radars, scorning the advent of pulse-compression radars, for finding flocks of seabirds. But now there’s a pulse-compression radar that may change some minds.” —Jim Hendricks, electronics editor, Salt Water Sportsman and Boating

All the judges commented on the Simrad Halo 3000 Bird+ mode, labeling it innovative and a problem solver. In that mode, the open-array radar focuses all its juice toward finding birds for fishermen. It can reach out to 8 nautical miles, while other pulse-compression units might see flyers at 3 miles. Halo 3000 is available in 4- and 6-foot arrays, and delivers 130 watts for seeing out to 96 nautical miles. Its smaller sister, Halo 2000, is available in 3-, 4- and 6-foot arrays, and offers 50 watts of power for visibility to 72 nautical miles. Both arrays are equipped with ZoneTrack, which allows captains to track up to 50 vessels. Dangerous Target Alerts highlight the range, bearing and heading of other vessels. VelocityTrack shows color-coded targets to help identify threats. Halo 2000 starts at $6,399; the 3000 starts at $8,499.

Best in Navigation: Garmin Navionics+

What the Judges Said: “The big excitement for me is that Garmin has finally combined two excellent products into a single, intuitive interface. Throw in automatic daily updates, and the end user is the real winner here.” —Andrew Parkinson, editor-in-chief, Cruising World

When Garmin purchased marine-chart powerhouse Navionics about six years ago, boaters loved the idea of the two joining forces and the prospect of new navigational tools. And while the evolution took a little time, the process has come full circle with Garmin Navionics+. The all-in-one mapping solution features advanced autorouting, depth-range shading, vibrant colors, a streamlined interface, combined coastal and inland content plus a one-year subscription to daily chart updates through the ActiveCaptain app. Boaters can upgrade to Garmin Navionics Vision+ to add high-resolution relief shading, high-res satellite imagery, aerial photos and more. The charts come preloaded on a variety of new Garmin chart plotters and can be purchased online. Starting prices range from $149.99 to $249.99.

Best Integrated System: Lowrance HDS Pro w/Active Imaging/ActiveTarget 2

What the Judges Said: “HDS Pro delivers full ­networking with bow-to-stern boat control as well as compatibility with Lowrance’s latest live sonar—ActiveTarget 2—and the second generation of Active Imaging. That’s a lot of capability in one package.” —Chris Woodward, editor, Best Marine Electronics and Technology

How many features can you fit into one new multifunction display? If you ask Lowrance, the list appears to be near endless. With its latest system, Lowrance launches the HDS Pro line of multifunction displays, as well as increases the functionality of its side- and down-scan imaging and live sonar. The 1 kW-capable HDS Pro units also deliver full control of trolling motors, autopilots, engines, radar, communications and Power-Pole shallow-water anchors. The MFDs are available with 9-, 10-, 12- or 16-inch SolarMAX IPS HD touchscreens and cost $2,199 to $4,999. The ActiveTarget 2 Live Sonar module and transducer cost $1,649; the module alone costs $799, and the transducer alone costs $1,099. Active Imaging 3-in-1 transducers for Lowrance Ghost trolling motors or transoms cost $399 to $449.

Most Innovative for Fishing: Furuno TZtouch3 w/Chirp Side-Scan Technology

What the Judges Said: “Low-frequency side-scan sonar opens this more-traditional freshwater and inshore-­saltwater product category to offshore fishermen, enabling them to spot fish hundreds of feet away.” —Randy Vance, editor-at-large, Fishing and Marine Group

Side-scan sonar helps anglers see under docks and into submerged trees and weeds, right? Yes, but that’s not all it can do, and offshore fishermen have long wanted a piece of the action. With Furuno’s latest software update, TZtouch3 users can see structure and fish 750 feet or more off each side of their vessels. Cruisers too can leverage that to find a safe path through coral reefs. To reach that distance, Furuno scans the water at a lower frequency (220 to 240 kHz) than other side-scan sonar brands. While lower-frequency chirps don’t deliver the same crisp returns as higher-frequency transmissions, this new technology aids anglers hoping to find new bottom structure, and yachtsman and sailors hoping to avoid hazards. The software update is free; the transducer costs $900.

Best in Sonar: Garmin LiveScope XR

What the Judges Said: “Everyone likes a product that can address multiple tasks well, and Garmin’s LiveScope XR does just that. With a single transducer, the user has the ability to adjust the system to see forward, out to the sides or directly beneath a vessel’s hull.” —Patrick Sciacca, editor-in-chief, Yachting

Like side-scan sonar, live sonar initially catered to freshwater and inshore boaters and anglers. But with LiveScope XR, Garmin delivers real-time videolike sonar from lakes out to blue water. In fresh water, LiveScope XR can see up to 500 feet in front of or below the boat; in salt water, that range is 350 feet. The system offers image clarity at close and long ranges simultaneously. The LVS62 transducer can be pointed forward or down manually or turned sideways with the included Perspective Mode Mount. The system includes a GLS 10 black box that mounts beneath a console. With a free software update, the transducer (sold separately) can be added to an existing LiveScope black box. The full system costs $2,999.99; the LVS62 alone costs $2,499.99.

Best in Entertainment: Kicker KMXL

What the Judges Said: “Kicker is truly working hard to deliver great sound in the audio-unfriendly environment that is a boat.” —Kevin Falvey, editor-in-chief, Boating

Innovative was the adjective most commonly used by our judges to describe Kicker’s latest speakers. The company’s tangential center-cone geometry—also dubbed horn-loaded technology—makes waves among wakeboarders who use uber-powerful tower speakers to push sound to the cockpit and to the rider. But the new Kicker KMXL speakers deliver that same technology to every boater. Kicker says the new coaxials—in 6 ½- and 8-inch sizes as well as 6 by 9 inches—deliver increased performance with optimal sensitivity, power handling and sonic accuracy. The speakers cost $649.99 to $869.99 per pair.

The post Best Marine Electronics and Technology Awards 2023 appeared first on Yachting.

When it comes to situational awareness, John Ellis understands the value of a bird’s-eye view. While he uses Dragon, his Furuno-equipped Nordhavn 68, for sport fishing, diving and extended Pacific Ocean cruising, he often uses an inexpensive DJI unmanned aerial vehicle to gain perspective. “I can use it for backing into slips,” he says, adding that he also flies the UAV to count whale sharks or locate birds offshore. The key to making the UAV effective, he says, involves networking one of his yacht’s four 24-inch pilothouse displays with Apple TV. Then, the UAV wirelessly shares its data with Ellis’ iPhone, which in turn pushes this imagery to the Apple TV and the networked display. “You can’t see this without a drone,” he says.

While contemporary marine-electronics manufacturers have done an admirable job of making their user interfaces intuitive and user-friendly, a simple truth remains: Mariners who use their electronics on a daily or near-daily basis often discover little tricks that simplify onboard operations.

Yachting spoke with brand ambassadors from Furuno, Garmin, Raymarine and Simrad to learn more about how they use their instruments and screens, with the goal of reeling in some wisdom to improve your summer cruise. 

Screens 

All experts agree that more glass is unquestionably better.

“It helps with the fish finder—you can see more detail,” says Capt. Deane Lambros, who works aboard Canyon Runner, a commercially operated, Simrad-equipped Viking 48 Convertible. Lambros typically runs four screens on Canyon Runner’s two 16-inch helm displays: radar, chart plotter, a FLIR thermal-imaging camera feed, and a fourth screen that displays either NMEA 2000 data or side-scanning sonar.

Capt. Tom Petersen takes a different approach aboard Valkyrie, his Sea Ray L650 Fly with Raymarine equipment including dual 16-inch multifunction displays at the helm and another two 16-inch MFDs on the flybridge. “On the left, I have Navionics [cartography] running on my chart plotter, which gives me a lot of data on the display,” he says. “On the right, I run radar in dual-screen mode, with one side set to harbor mode with a 1.5-mile range, while the other side is in coastal mode with the range set to 3 to 6 nautical miles out. This is enough range at 25 knots to maneuver out of the way.”

Others prefer simpler data management. “My digital space has been the same for 20 years,” Ellis says. He displays the most pertinent data—his chart plotter and either radar (nighttime) or sonar (daytime)—on his two 24-inch center displays, with less-critical data on his two 24-inch outer screens. “In a moment of high tension, I don’t want to wonder where things are. I keep the on-screen information very simple, but I can drill down to get a cornucopia.”

On the sailing side, Nigel Craine runs a 12-inch MFD and three instrument displays at the cockpit helm of Eponine, his Garmin-equipped Beneteau Oceanis 311, plus a 7-inch MFD and a second VHF radio at his belowdecks nav station. While Crane typically sets his cockpit displays to show windspeed, GPS-based boatspeed and depth, automatic identification system data also plays a big role.

“Using the AIS with speed-direction vectors switched on is a great help in ascertaining which vessels need to be kept an extra watch on,” he says.

Radars

“Radar is the real world,” Petersen says, adding that it will do more than any other instrument “if you’re willing to use it.”

This requires practice. “Go out on a clear day, and use your radar to spot targets,” Lambros suggests, adding that he typically runs his Simrad radar in dual-range mode (3 and 6 nautical miles, respectively). “Don’t wait until you need it—get a sense of what the picture looks like.”

Contemporary digital radars typically have Doppler processing; however, our experts were more focused on automatic radar plotting aid (ARPA) or mini automatic radar plotting aid (MARPA) tools. These tools can automatically or manually acquire and track specific targets.

“There is nothing better,” Ellis says about the ARPA features on his dual Furuno radars. “If I see a mark without AIS, I give a long press to both radars” to capture the ARPA target.

Radars can overlay their imagery atop cartography, but not everyone uses this feature. “We tend not to use the overlay but rather split the screen,” Craine says, explaining that he runs radar on one side of his screen(s) and a chart plotter—set to head-up perspective and similar ranges—on the other. “This gives a nice, clear picture and allows easy comparison.”

Then there’s disaster avoidance. “At anchor, I always leave my radar running for 10 to 15 minutes,” Petersen says. “I set my radar tracks, and I zoom in close. If I’m anchored squarely, I’ll see squiggly lines, but if I see a long, straight line, I know I’m dragging.”

Sounders

“If I only had two pieces of electronics, it would be GPS and sonar,” Ellis says, explaining that he regularly takes Dragon “closer to shore than you want to be.” He accomplishes this with his Furuno multibeam and searchlight sonars, which he uses out of the box, even for advanced missions such as solo diving El Bajo seamount in the Gulf of California.

“I ran over it 12 times and created my own bathymetry,” Ellis says, adding that he used the resulting high-resolution shaded relief chart to precisely drop anchor on the mount’s summit before swimming the chain.

Lambros, who fishes around 180 days annually aboard Canyon Runner, has a similar approach. “I mostly use it in auto-mode, with maybe a couple of clicks of gain up or down,” he says. He typically runs his sonar display in split-screen mode, with 75 percent of the glass devoted to the sounder’s high-frequency returns (read: depths to 100 feet) while the remaining screen space displays the transducer’s low-frequency findings (read: depths to 900 feet).

Thermal-Imaging Cameras

“It’s a fun one to have,” Petersen says about his FLIR M364C LR. “Just don’t sit and look at it the whole time. If it’s not stabilized, it’ll make you seasick. … It’s good at looking for specific things.”

Lambros agrees. “I use it for getting in and out of the inlet,” he says. “It’s a great secondary line of sight.”

Finally, Petersen suggests spec’ing a FLIR AX8 camera, which delivers live video and automated alarms if, perchance, in the engine room, something starts running too hot or too cold.

Macro-Thinking

While multifunction displays are great for tackling onboard operations, route planning is sometimes easier on a computer. One solution involves employing a Windows-based PC that’s running navigation software such as TimeZero. This setup allows operators to explore routing options on the PC without accidentally interfering with their navigation or instrumentation.

The post Optimizing Onboard Electronics appeared first on Yachting.

“It’s game-changing,” Capt. Tim Palmer, who operates the Wesmac 46 Easy Wind out of Stuart, Florida, says about his WASSP F3X multibeam sounder. “I grew up in Stuart, and I thought I had the reefs down cold, but WASSP made me realize that I still had a lot to learn.”

Palmer takes Easy Wind to the Northeast to fish for cod, fluke and sea bass in the summers. He reports “mowing the lawn” off Block Island, Rhode Island, with his WASSP over the wreck of the USS Bass, a Barracuda-class submarine that was scuttled in 1945. “I measured the two pieces and added it up,” he says. “And it was almost identical to the information on [the] Wikipedia page. WASSP is incredibly accurate.”

Fish finders arrived in the 1950s as simple instruments that, over time, became increasingly sophisticated in their object-detection capabilities, transmission schemes, transducer technology, supporting software and networking capabilities. While today’s chirp fish finders help anglers get on the fish, the latest WASSP multibeam systems—the F3X and F3XL—deliver significantly better seafloor and water-column imagery than recreational sounders.

Today’s tech also has 12 times more transmitting power than WASSP’s previous fishing-specific setup. This extra power helps anglers reach deeper depths and capture more information, and it’s useful for punching through noise aboard boats with complex acoustic systems.

WASSP—or wide-angle sonar seafloor profiler—was started by Electronic Navigation Ltd. in 2000. The Auckland, New Zealand-based company wanted a cost-effective product in the lineup between single-beam sonar and commercial multibeam systems. The first multibeam fishing product arrived in 2006. After Furuno Japan acquired an initial stake in the company, it began worldwide distribution with Furuno in 2011. In 2015, the F3 system was unveiled (see “Furuno’s WASSP Sonar Put Fish in the Spotlight,” June 2018).

Since then, Electronic Navigation Ltd. has continued to develop the WASSP platform. It has created the higher-power F3X and F3XL systems, as well as the WMB-80 transducer, a low-frequency transducer that lets anglers study the water column and bottom from 7 to 3,281 feet.

All WASSP transducers employ a phased-array design with 112 piezoceramic elements (see “Ceramics Class,” May 2022) that deliver 224 discrete sonar beams. Each beam creates sonar cones that measure 3.2 degrees (fore and aft) by 4 degrees (athwartships), and that emit 40 synchronous chirp transmissions per second.

“Multibeam gives you, amongst other things, the benefit of both a narrow-cone single-beam sounder and a wide-cone single-beam sounder,” says Rufus Whiteford, Electronic Navigation Ltd.’s WASSP sales and marketing manager. “In a narrow-cone single-beam transducer, you might get to an 8-degree—quite a narrow-beam—cone, and that gives you really nice high definition and detail, but you miss out on huge amounts of coverage. With multibeam—imagine 224 of these even narrower beams—and you get full coverage of the seafloor, a 120-degree swath.”

It all equates to a 60-degree view on each side of the keel and 4 degrees fore and aft. WASSP multibeam sonars also can deliver seafloor coverage and detailed mapping that’s up to 3.5 times the water depth, while revealing similar (or better) detail levels than single-beam narrow-cone transducers produce.

The WASSP F3X and F3XL multibeam-sonar systems consist of a transducer networked to a DRX-46 black-box processor, which has 2.5 kW of transmitting power (for comparison, the standard F3 system uses the DRX-32 processor with 1 kW of transmitting power). The DRX-46 is networked to a satellite compass and an inertial navigation system that provides azimuth information and removes the influence of pitch, roll and heave over the transducer’s 224 sonar beams. It’s also networked to a Windows-based PC.

“The display happens on a PC,” Whiteford says, adding that the personal computer is often running Timezero’s TZ Professional or some other navigation software. “The actual display that you’re looking at can be a cheap office display, or it can be a fully marinized, Furuno-marinized display.”

Another option is to network the PC to a 16- or 19-inch Furuno TZtouch3 multifunction display, which serves as a fully marinized screen.

While F3X and F3XL systems both employ DRX-46 processors, F3X systems are spec’d with WMB-160 transducers, and F3XLs uses WMB-80 transducers. Both allow for similar onscreen resolution. WMB-160s transmit at a center default setting of 160 kHz (user-selectable from 120 to 200 kHz with a chirp range that’s plus or minus 30 degrees of center) and have a range of 3 to 1,970 feet. WMB-80s transmit at a center default setting of 80 kHz (selectable from 60 to 100 kHz with a chirp range that’s plus or minus 20 degrees of center) and can ping to 3,280 feet.

“You choose transducers based on the depth of the water that you’re fishing and ease of installation,” Whiteford says.

This is a change for anglers who are used to fishing with a dual-frequency transducer that chirps over high- and low-frequency sweeps. Dual-frequency WASSP awareness can be achieved, Whiteford says, but it needs two transducers and two dedicated black-box processors (a DRX-46 and WMB-160 run $28,000, while a DRX-46 and WMB-80 fetches $37,100).

In any setup, WASSP users can expect a wealth of underkeel awareness. It can include backscatter (seafloor density), water-column targets (mapped relative to their GPS position) and side-scan perspectives.

“It’s as much about building a habitat picture as it is seeing individual fish,” Whiteford says. “Every WASSP user creates user-generated cartography…usually significantly higher resolution than government charts.”

Users have software options for controlling and viewing WASSP data. Electronic Navigation Ltd.’s CDX control software operates on a Navionics background; however, users can upgrade to Timezero software for bespoke, user-generated cartography that can be stored locally—including live, high-resolution seafloor maps.

“Users can completely control WASSP with TZ Professional,” Whiteford says, adding that roughly 75 percent of WASSP users use TZ Professional. “It brings all of the data into one place.”

It’s not surprising that the equipment is aimed at the commercial-fishing and high-end sport-fishing markets; however, Whiteford says, “it’s viable to fit WASSP on a 35- to 40-foot center-console.”

If you want some of the best underwater acoustics for fish-finding, seafloor study and creating angling-specific user-generated content, the F3X and F3XL systems could help you ping the pelagic zone or precisely measure long-scuttled submarines.

Remote Monitoring

Superyachts aren’t WASSP’s primary audience, but some crews use multibeam technology. “Superyachts sometimes navigate to unfamiliar ports for lunch,” says Rufus Whiteford. “So, they put a WASSP on the tender with a live feed to the superyacht.” This setup gives captains hyper-accurate cartography and helps to ensure navigational safety.

The post Furuno WASSP Multibeam Sonar Invaluable for Anglers appeared first on Yachting.

The year was 2015. I was with Dave Dunn, Garmin’s senior director of marine sales, aboard Capt. Mike Flowers’ SeaHunter 24 Ruff-n-Uff, slowly approaching Miami’s MacArthur Causeway. Flowers tapped his Garmin multifunction display, and it presented imagery from the Garmin Panoptix PS31 forward-looking sonar.

Dunn cast a lure and, moments later, a tarpon appeared. A dance unfurled, and the target wisely dodged a root canal.

Watching this episode on screen, I was gobsmacked by Panoptix’s LiveVu and RealVu perspectives, which combined information from the forward-looking transducer, multibeam sonar and phased-array technology to produce live, video-type imagery.

Mostly, I was amazed that ceramic bits could yield this kind of water-column awareness.

Darrell Lowrance helped introduce this technology to boaters in 1957 with his Fish-Lo-K-Tor, which provided depth information and detected objects in the water column. Products available today have far better capabilities and onscreen imagery than equipment from just a decade ago.

“Transducers are the key part of the fish finder’s performance: The frequency and power rating of the ceramic determines depth capabilities, coverage under the boat and the ability to see fish in the water column,” says Craig Cushman, Airmar Technology Corp.’s director of marketing. Transducers, he adds, rely on precision timing, much like radars. “The transducer sends acoustic energy throughout the water column and then listens for returning signals. The fish finder then interprets the echo to display what is below the boat.”

Like radars, transducers spend roughly 1 percent of their time transmitting and 99 percent listening for echoes. Transducers are seldom seen, but they take high-voltage electrical pulses (from their networked fish finder, multifunction display or sonar) and convert them to outgoing sound waves that propagate downward and outward in a cone-type shape. Today’s transducers are sensitive enough to discern echoes that are just a few hundredths of a single volt.

Transducers are built like nesting dolls but with piezoceramic elements at their cores. These ceramic elements are made from polarized barium titanate or lead zirconate titanate, look like metal, and can be fabricated into shapes of various complexity. A basic ceramic element might be shaped like a hockey puck, while a more sophisticated element might be formed into a bar, oval, ring or tube.

These ceramic elements are separated from the water on one side by an “acoustic window,” while the rest of the element is encased in a sound-absorbing material that helps direct the sound waves out of, and back through, the acoustically neutral window. The encapsulating material (typically urethane or epoxy) is then encased in the physical housing (usually bronze, molded plastic, stainless steel or urethane). Depending on the transducer, miniaturized printed circuit boards are sometimes embedded in the encapsulating layer that allows the fish finder to automatically adapt to the connected transducer. A pipestem houses electrically shielded cables that run from the yacht’s fish finder or multifunction display to the PCBs and elements.

“The ceramics inside can dramatically change the cost of a transducer,” says Jim McGowan, Raymarine’s Americas marketing manager.

Some entry-level transducers might employ a single piezoceramic element, while high-end transducers might involve 16 to 18 elements. Transducers can be manufactured to “resonate” at a specific frequency (say, 50 kHz), dual frequencies (50/200 kHz) or over a sweep of frequencies.

“You can only play so many songs with two keys on the piano,” Dunn says, adding that chirp transducers transmit over a sweep of frequencies, like having a music scale’s worth of notes, but in this case with better target separation and resolution as the result.

According to McGowan, a single-frequency transducer sounds like a ticking watch. “Chirp would sound like a police siren, increasing in pitch,” he says. “The first returns are the first transmissions, so the system has a reference, allowing it to overlap the original pulse with the echo, giving [onscreen] detail.”

Multibeam sonar systems typically employ an array of ceramic elements. These elements can be electronically steered by the transducer’s controlling microprocessors to ring at specific or sequenced times to scan the seafloor, or they can all ring simultaneously. Today’s multibeam and ultrawide-beam systems can also yield high-resolution information about what’s on each side of the keel (sometimes called side-scanning sonar) or, as Dunn and I saw in 2015, forward-looking imagery.

While McGowan says the sport-fishing crowd drives transducer development, the computer-electronics market enables innovation. “We have the advantage of components,” says Cushman, pointing to today’s dime-size PCBs. They’ve “become smaller and cheaper, which lets us put different things inside.”

As with all markets, there are high-end, mid-level and entry-level transducers. When it comes to the high end of the market, Airmar is the undisputed leader. While most of the bigger marine-electronics manufacturers make transducers in-house, they typically build less-complex, high-volume sounders—or, in some cases, highly specialized, high-end transducers (for example, Garmin builds its Panoptix transducers).

According to Cushman, Airmar manufactures roughly 80 to 90 percent of all transducers that operate on at least 600 watts of transmitting power. Airmar-built transducers are sometimes sold with an Airmar badge; other times, they carry third-party branding.

This relationship frees the Big Four (Furuno, Garmin, Navico and Raymarine) to innovate new fish-finding and sonar technologies and specifications, rather than developing transducers, and it allows Airmar to amass the capability and expertise to manufacture at scale and to high industrial standards.

Customers can order Airmar-built transducers that ship with plug-and-play cable connections, and owners can often use existing transducers with other third-party fish finders or multifunction displays. Airmar’s distribution company, Gemeco Marine Accessories, can help customers determine if an existing transducer will work with other equipment. If an existing transducer is compatible, Gemeco can provide the wiring diagram and splice kit to rewire it for use with a new fish finder. Changing out through-hull transducers, however, requires a haulout and a plan.

“Know what you want to do with the system,” McGowan says. “Transducers are fundamental to the performance of the system, and you get what you pay for.”

After all, without good acoustics, how else will you be able to spin a credible onscreen yarn about a big one that got away?

Fitting Considerations

Transducers can be hung from a transom-mounted bracket, or they can be in-hull or through-hull mounted. While each setup has its advantages, through-hulls are best for power cruising and sport fishing yachts. “Airmar has certified installers who have been trained on the best installation practices,” says Airmar’s Craig Cushman.

The post Transducer Technology Improving Underwater Tools appeared first on Yachting.

In Dr. No, the 1962 film based on Ian Fleming’s sixth novel about British spy James Bond, actor Desmond Llewelyn made the British secret-service armorer code-named “Q” famous. Q maintained the airs of a refined British butler while furnishing Agent 007 with innovative, stealthy and game-saving gadgets and weapons. All the bagpipe flamethrowers, cigarette darts and other inventions helped foster expectations for tradecraft devices that stretched the envelope.

If these expectations for constantly improving tech sound a bit like a computer geek’s enthusiasm for the latest operating-system update, you’re en route to understanding the Q Experience’s philosophy toward branded and white-label multifunction displays.

The first multifunction displays arrived in the mid-2000s, offering boaters the ability to control and display cartography and networked instrumentation on a single screen. As the technology matured and onboard networking improved, yachtsmen could soon overlay informational layers atop third-party applications (such as radar over cartography), control third-party instruments (including thermal-imaging cameras), collect and share bathymetric data, and in some cases, stream Netflix or control third-party drones.

Today’s marine marketplace has four established MFD manufacturers—Garmin, Furuno, Navico (parent company of Simrad and Lowrance) and Raymarine. The Q Experience, which draws its name from the Bond films, aspires to add its name to the list with from-the-ground-up hardware and a bespoke operating system that delivers integration, an automotive-style user interface, built-in entertainment, an anti-theft alarm, constant connectivity and a dedicated app.

Niklas Öhman and Johan Wessberg founded the Q Experience in Finland in 2015 following a conversation with a major European boatbuilder. The conversation unexpectedly veered toward MFDs, and the boatbuilders pondered how chart plotters might be done differently. Further conversations ensued, and Öhman and Wessberg agreed to create and build a ground-up MFD.

The result was the Q Display 1 series (Q1), which had a Linux-based operating system and was available in two screen sizes. Other features included two CAN buses, NMEA 2000 compatibility, radio, Bluetooth connectivity and a Wi-Fi hotspot.

“Our user interface’s logic is a mix between Apple’s iOS and Android. It shouldn’t take more than three screen taps to access any application,” says Öhman.

One small but telling example of the Q Experience’s smart user interface is the MFD’s menu page, says Patrik Gustafsson, the company’s product and sales manager. “If there’s no networked fish finder, you won’t see [one listed] in the menu,” he says.

Like other marine-electronics manufacturers, the Q Experience team uses automatic, over-the-air updates for software and operating systems. What’s different is the nature of the Q Experience’s updates. “Every year, [our customers] get a new plotter,” says Öhman, adding that the company releases updates during shoulder seasons, not midsummer. “If you look at our [user interface] from 2016 and now, they’re totally different.”

The Q Experience released its second-generation Q Display 2 series (Q2) in November 2020. It’s available in three screen sizes (10-inch, 16-inch and the double-wide 2-by-10-inch) and builds on the Q1’s capabilities. For example, while the Q2 has Q Experience software, N2K compatibility and optically bonded IPS screens, it also has a cleaner, more customizable user interface; faster (and dedicated) data and graphics processors; a more accurate GPS; two Ethernet ports; Navionics cartography; a built-in cellular modem; and a built-in amplifier for streaming music.

Q2 displays also use Q Experience’s mobile app, letting users monitor battery, bilge and fuel levels, receive warning messages from the boat, interact with the system’s built-in Q Boat Guard anti-theft alarm, and use an embedded N2K switch to control onboard systems via a mobile device. Q2 displays are always on, connected and gathering big data to share with the Q Experience and its partners, who refine the user experience.

Q2s are designed to operate much like automotive infotainment systems. “Navigation has to be easy, like in cars,” Gustafsson says, citing features such as the MFD’s dashboard, digital gauges and integrated (and customizable) widgets.

The Q2’s N2K switch gives users control of up to 20 networked devices; however, owners can add blocks (increments of 20), allowing operators to control more of their vessel using the Q mobile app. “We haven’t integrated with CZone or EmpirBus” digital-switching systems, he says. “We’ll keep our own switch for now.”

The Q mobile app also delivers vessel security via the Q2’s geofence-based Q Boat Guard anti-theft alarm, alerting owners if a boat escapes its slip. The system also allows users to watch their boat’s real-time use and share trip details with social media platforms.

The Q Experience has always sold Q1 displays as Q-branded products to consumers—or as OEM-level equipment to boatbuilders—and is following this same branded/white-label model with the Q2. “You don’t know the manufacturer of the display in [a] car because it’s a white-label product,” Öhman says. “We focus on branding [for] the boat’s manufacturer.”

The Q Experience has gained market interest, especially among Northern European boatbuilders. “In the Nordic countries, we have 35 to 40 percent of the [market] share of new boats,” Gustafsson says. “The volume is in powerboats, but I have one on my sailboat.”

While this is good news for the Q Experience, headwinds still exist for US customers. The Q2 employs an embedded cellular modem, which necessitates approval by the Federal Communications Commission. That approval is reportedly forthcoming, after which the Q Experience will need to establish US sales and support teams.

Still, if you like the idea of a Euro-built MFD that’s different from the other tech on your dock, check out the Q Experience. The eye-pleasing system might lack bagpipe flamethrowers and cigarette darts, but it includes the promise of a constantly evolving operating system and an ever-smoother user interface.  

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