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Bill Kearney Bill Kearney is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 390
Default Let's get rid of NMEA


"Steve Lusardi" wrote in message
...
I have no idea what you are lamenting. Have you tried to hook up a HD TV
lately? If this a general whine about complexity, perhaps you should
recognize that complexity goes hand in hand with capability. You rarely can
have one without the other. Please understand that ascii is a 7 bit digital
character set, not a transport standard and I have no idea what a pic is.
Just what payment are you referring to for plugging in a lcd or for that
matter, what maufacturing license are you referring to?


He's also failing to grasp the TINY size of the marine electronics market.
Much like the naive fools that rant about how their boat isn't serviced like
their Honda.

There's not a large enough market, in TOTAL, of likely vessels to make cost
effective to cater to an EVEN SMALLER market of hobbyists.

Yes, it would be good if Maretron and others made a cheaper interface to
bridge NMEA2K. Their current USB unit is a bit pricey, but understandably
so given the size of the market.

I'm guessing by 'pic' he's thinking of the programmable chip of the same
name.

As for cheap LCDs, check out Lowrance and Garmin's options. They're
amazingly inexpensive compared to offerings from other vendors.

And Steve makes the excellent point of complexity and capability. I'll
reiterate the old rule: "Good, fast, cheap... pick two."