center console computing...

[Mr. Sandman]

On my bench, for a test, I booted up a stripped down windows 98se off a solid state pen drive....this means that it is possible to actually run a cheap on-board computer in the center console without the fear of a hard disk crash. (pen drives have no moving parts and can take a beating ...2000 g's)
To make it really practical, I need to upgrade my test set up to a pen drive that is USB 2.0 to get faster access.

with an off the shelf lcd 15-17" flat screen monitor, water proof track balls and keyboards along with this solid state drive you *should* be able to build a robust on-board machine to do full blown Nav and under water charting as well as numerous other cool things.
I hope to build a test machine this summer and take it for a pounding to see if it holds up.

[Van]

Wow that is alot of hardware on a small fishing boat.

I'm curious,,,
Why the need for all that?
Doesn't a chartplotter give you the same data ??

[JohnR]

Yer Killing me!!! Stealin' my ideas like that

Van - imagine pooling all of your sensor data and porting it to a large screen and saved on a drive. So you could compare your sonar readings and found fish with your plotter and have your eldridge data all at your fingertips. As well as some other bennys too. the sky really is the limit...

It's like the Anti-Surfasting but it's still fun, certainly for geeks...

[Mr. Sandman]

Chartplotters are OK, and have taken a big step of making gps technology more practical for nav. But there is far more that could be done in software that is being ignored. The actual computing elements in chartplotters cost peanuts, what you are paying for is screen features (size and resolution). And you "need" several different sensor units (depth/ nav/fish/ect) each with their own operating schemes screens and buttons, it really is a mess.

IMO a single inexpensive onboard computer could offer much more flexiblity then the hodge-podge of compeating equipment that clutters up the console now. Imagine the boat builder incorporating a single (upgradeable) computer in the boat, then you simply select the sensors you want. Everthing could be dispayed on one or two lage flat panel monitors.(engine/depth/nav/fish/communications/whatever). Upgrading is much more straight forward then replacing entire boxes.

Sure you still want a compass and an handheld gps for back-up but the potential for software driven features and ease of use and is impressive not to mentions the cost savings.

I think Nobeltec has the right idea with gps charting/tides currents/radar images overlaid but it could go much futher.

[Mr. Sandman]

Sorry John....
I did a little research over the holiday into the g forces and slamming loads on planning hulls and ran that past the spec's for laptop drives....they "should" hold up but the question is for how long. Most of the specs are for "survival" after the event not constant shock events. This is almost like a low freq vibration.

I started looking into the pen drives after our conversation. You really need USB 2.0 for OS's to function at a decent speed. USB 2.0 is just taking hold but with 1Gig pen drives + on the short-term horizon, it looks to be a good choice.
I am on the waiting list for a 512mb usb 2.0 pen drive to try it out on. I have not found one in stock yet but they claim they exist. I have a cheap usb 1.0 pen drive that I got off ebay that seems to "work" but it is too sluggish to be practical. I think 2.0 offers like 10X(?) the speed so it should be improved.
The key to getting it to boot was to find a bios that allows the board to boot off of a USB port.

These pen drives are actually pretty cool, I would think for a systems guy who has to manage a load of pcs this could be a sweet thing to keep around your neck. Just pop it in and refresh an infected OS.

Back to real work....

[Van]

Yes,Nobeltec and Furuno both...
There are quite a few integrated systems available now.

My buddy has Furuno radar, chartplotter and sounder integrated, and his radio is also connected for GPS location with emergency transmissions. I think he can see all this on either his radar or sounder screens. The screens are about 6" each and are die by side. Everything is overlayed in his system. It all fits in the overhead bin. What else is practical other than sounder,radar,charting?

I do get what you mean by one big screen for everything, that would be sweet, but in a CC or cuddy it seems it would be in the way and could get smacked.

Of course this is just my inquiring and opinion, I do mean you are wrong or anything. Its just my thirst for knowledge !!!!!

I only last year bought a chartplotter and I am totally blown away by what it can do and the features packed into that little machine.

I would like to know how you system works when we can finally get out on the water again....

[JohnR]

I would think for a systems guy who has to manage a load of pcs this could be a sweet thing to keep around your neck. Just pop it in and refresh an infected OS

Whereas my company has 300 machines of different models, even from the same make, it wouldn't work. On the other hand, we build one image for a particular model that might have 50-75 similar PCs, test the hell out of it with super users, then push the images onto the hard drives. Takes probably 20-40 minutes doing oddball stuff after the image is pushed down to the drive, which takes all of 5 minutes... Updating the various user groups in mass allows out image for that model to maintain a high amount of commonality. IF a machine suffers a drive failure it can be back in under an hour two... Coupled with miniscule server downtime - it's a pretty smoothe operation (Anyone Hiring )

Pushing your agrument a little further, with 512MB sticks of PC133 ram available for less than $40 each, why not run the OS in a ram drive and just output your data dump to your pen drive or onto CDR...

I agree about the sensors feeding a small processor to do the work could easily be offloaded to CPU's instead. If you think about it, we're probably right around the corner from having these untis run an embedded Linux OS to do just that. Then it would be fairly easy to have all your sensors USB'd into a central CPU - Wanna go into business together? Probably get a couple others interested

[Mr. Sandman]

Originally posted by JohnR
Pushing your agrument a little further, with 512MB sticks of PC133 ram available for less than $40 each, why not run the OS in a ram drive and just output your data dump to your pen drive or onto CDR...

I tried that once...trying to get windows to run all in core, it is not as easy as you think. I think that is why MS has an embedded OS division. Also, the other problem is when you shut down... poof. You need to flash the memory somehow. Remember DOS "ram drives"? I think linux is better suited to running in-core than windows anyway (but no apps) .

" Wanna go into business together? Probably get a couple others interested "
The thought has crossed my mind...a couple times... But you would have to give up that 85 min white knuckle drive each morning and move to MV though.

Frankly, I think it is comming soon. It makes no sence to have multiple boxes with built in limited functionality onboard. I would hope it is already being developed. This current "intra-box" communication that everyone is so excited about is so low-tech it is almost laughable. (It is just a slow network and it is a stepping stone to one focused main unit (IMO). They have to be working on this.

The "hard part" as I see it is not hardware...it is developing all the software to deal with the displays and different brands of sensors. Some of it is off the shelf stuff but some would have to be written. But it is do-able.

[Van]

Ok I'm lost,

I thought we were talking about boats !!!!!!

Enjoy. Let me know if it works in the spring !!!

[Clammer]

Yo guys wasn,t it more fun fishing before all the electronics

I thought f/f should be banned then came the gps
they both have taken alot of the skill and knowledge out of fishing////////////////////////

you now have someone[Many ] out fishing with VERY little learned fishing knowledge that are catching fish with no clue to what they are doing/ //
take A L L the electronics off the rigs are they will be fishless

[JohnR]

Yo guys wasn,t it more fun fishing before all the electronics

That's why there is surfcasting. The most rewarding, pure, soul cleansing fishing a person could hope for. Nahh, if I'm gonna cheat and do up a boat, I'll use everything , hehehehe

[179]

Hell I was lost on the 1st post, LOL

[denis]

like 179 said lost on the first post,

mike if you take all the electronics off some boats they could not find there way back even in day light,never mind fog or darkness.

but very interesting ideas

[Megabyte]

Remote Start - to get engine started

AutoPilot - to get the boat to go to the fishin' hole

On board computing - to tell the boat where to park

Electric windlass - lower the anchor

Anchor watch alarm - on the GPS to tell us if the boat is dragging anchor

Electric reels - to reel in the big one

Autopilot - to get the boat back to the dock


All while sitting in the living room with remote control watching the Patriots. aaaahhhhhh this is fishing :-)

[Van]

[All while sitting in the living room with remote control watching the Patriots. aaaahhhhhh this is fishing :-)
[/B]

LOL. Very good.

Now all you need is someone to clean and cook the catch, do the dishes, and bring you a beer !!!!!

[Mr. Sandman]

we are just about there...

Check out this terrian following down rigger unit, it can control up to six downriggers...THIS is a good idea!

http://www.bottomlinefishfinders.com...cn_mag20dt.htm


This company also makes side-scan sonars for fisherman.
http://www.bottomlinefishfinders.com...bl_ncc6500.htm

I love the idea of scanning the coast for bass movement.



OK, imagine....so you are trolling 6 mag-powered downriggers that know where the bottom is and can adjust for it thru the control unit. Kick them in search mode and they cycle up and down until one gets a hit...then the others zoom in on that target depth. No hits in a selected period of time....units go back into search mode.

Your forward looking side-scan suddenly picks up some fish at 11:00 and 1200 ft ahead and directs the auto pilot to head that way. Meanwhile, the side scan unit kicks in to profile mode to estimate volume of feeding school, mean depth of school, direction and speed of school travel and even trys to target the biggest fish then commands downriggers to that depth and redirects autopilot so that the baits intersect with the largest fish in the school. Updating every 2 seconds should the fish change direction. ( All this data is being save to soild state memory for playback this eveing on your standard home HTDV wide screen)
Should any unit fail, a complex network of backup devices can auto-magically keep the system up.
Suddenly, a radar picks up a 65' Viking traveling at 35 knots in an intended course that will pass over the school of feeding fish you are targeting, the command unit signals the boat but the captain makes no changes to his course, contol unit predicts he will spook the school and prceeds to arm and then lauches a small sidewinder missle to intercept the yacht. Yacht taken out cleanly, suddenly, 3 of the 6 downriggers get hits...electric reels handle the load and 3 trophies are landed and place into the auto cleaning hold which perfectly fillets, vacume packs and ices your catch.
When the boat returns via autopilot your catch is ready for the grill and your dining pleasure as you replay the days events. Should you desire to go out fishing tomorrow for a repeat performance you can even tag and release a fish with a custom GPS tracking tag that can instruct the control unit to hunt down the same school up to 100 miles away.

Not a bad day on the water eh? And you want to fish the bottom with squid?

Brings new meaning to the "armchair fisherman" eh?

[Megabyte]

And don't forget the geo-therming satelitte to direct the autopilot to direct the boat to the fishin hole.

the 6 mag downriggers are goin to be controlled by the geo-therming satelitte to the correct temperature depth (no need to "search" for the correct depth)

just put all 6 mags at the right spot in the ocean and at the right depth and wham ! ! ! ! ! ! !

and maybe the Pats will win next year !

[mrmacey]

with his computer radar jamming neo thermo gps basher and catches all the fish!!! lol! wow is this along winter! show you were my thoughts go!!

[mrmacey]

now what more could you ask for!!! is it spring yet!!! lol

[Van]

lauches a small sidewinder missle to intercept the yacht. Yacht taken out cleanly

Now that option I like !!!!

I Could use that on Bahstan Habah weekends all summer long...

[l.i.fish.in.vt]

and i thought i was doing good last year when i finally brought a compass for the boat

[capesams]

YEH,, all that junk, dam near got me killed last summer three times when people almost climbed up my a$$ in the fog cause they had their nose in the screens an not once looked up to see what was in front of their bow.....MEEEE!

[Clammer]

AMen CAPe//////////////////////////////

[Van]

Capesams:

I know what you mean with that. I have caught myself getting real close to a channel marker cause of looking down. That was when the machine was a new toy, and I was still trying to figure it out.



Another leason learned.