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Besides
the ability to set up and page through as many as five highly customized
screens as I described earlier, Furuno’s box has some other significant
smarts under its little hood. For one thing, the RD-30 can do some math,
such as watching the Speed Over Ground output from a GPS and keeping its
own trip and vessel logs. It also contains a whole database of Loran to
lat/lon conversion corrections and is quite adept at mixing NMEA data.
The Achilles heel of the 0183 protocol is its intolerance of multiple
data “talkers,” or inputs. The RD-30 can listen to two inputs
at once, display any desired info, and simultaneously send out a custom
mix to either or both of its outputs. The user—or perhaps the user’s
electronics tech—can exercise on/off control of those outputs right
down to the individual data string. This can be very handy in sophisticated
systems, or for feeding a PC navigation program. The auxiliary output
port also has a 12-volt feed, making it easy to daisy chain another RD-30
for more display options and/or more data mixing.
All
the RD-30’s features happen to match up quite nicely with a line
of similarly innocuous but witty devices recently developed by Airmar.
I’m referring to Smart Sensors, which look like standard through-hull,
in-hull, and transom-mount depth transducers with water temperature and
speed (through the water) options. Indeed they are transducers, but also
much more. Each housing also contains the brains to turn raw sensor readings
into NMEA 0183 data. Its cable leads not to a control head and display,
but to any device capable of showing 0183 numbers.
The
simplicity of a Smart Sensor is impressive on its own, but Airmar also
claims that the design delivers high performance. Putting the electronic
guts right into the transducer eliminates signal degradation from cable
runs, which can subsequently extend up to 330 feet, plus Airmar equipped
those guts with fast, sensitive digital signal processing. The purported
results are accurate speed readings up to the 40-knot range, temperature
readings to hundredths of a degree, and depth readings even in very shallow
water, or under the duress of backing prop wash; I’ve heard confirmation
of these claims from testers. The transducers run at 170-kHz or 235-kHz
frequencies so that they can be used with to regular 200-kHz fishfinders
without interference.
The
RD-30 can do presentation magic with the Smart Sensor’s precision
data streams, a happy relationship that Furuno’s marketing department
is celebrating, but bear in mind that each is an independent player capable
of other 0183 friendships. And I’ve seen more innovative display,
data mixing, and sensor devices being developed with 0183. It seems a
little ironic that just as the world of marine electronics focuses on
fast networks, multitasking, and color everything, there’s a spurt
of originality largely employing older technologies. I’m heading
off to the winter boat shows soon, where I’m sure to be dazzled
by all sorts of gizmos. I’m also going to keep an eye out for R2D2-type
gadgets that make much smarter and more useful sidekicks than they may
first appear.
Furuno
USA Phone: (360) 834-9300. Fax: (360) 834-9400. www.furuno.com.
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