I just upgraded the firmware for my Watchmate (an AIS computer and
display). The upgrade gives the unit a graphical situation display
and provides a graphical solution for bearing and aspect at closest
point of approach. This is very cool. I've been plotting the AIS
data on a maneuvering board but now I don't have to. It's a very neat
unit and I recommend.

So, the upgrade is free and Vesrper will do it for you or you can do
it in the field. Being a long way from a dealer (we're still in La
Paz awaiting solar panel replacements) I decided to try the upgrade
myself. The upgrade is no big deal, one needs to connect the unit to
a computer via a serial cable. The cable I built was good enough to
work for "handshaking" but just a bit too noisy to do the firmware
upgrade. It was one of those intermittent failures that is a pain in
the ass to track down. But, Jeff at Vesper spent hours emailing,
Skyping and IMing me and he built and sent me a program with logging a
special terminal emulator to help with the debugging... I was super
impressed with all of that. So, I thought I'd pass it along.

Cheers,

--Tom.

wrote in message
...
I just upgraded the firmware for my Watchmate (an AIS computer and
display). The upgrade gives the unit a graphical situation display
and provides a graphical solution for bearing and aspect at closest
point of approach. This is very cool. I've been plotting the AIS
data on a maneuvering board but now I don't have to. It's a very neat
unit and I recommend.

So, the upgrade is free and Vesrper will do it for you or you can do
it in the field. Being a long way from a dealer (we're still in La
Paz awaiting solar panel replacements) I decided to try the upgrade
myself. The upgrade is no big deal, one needs to connect the unit to
a computer via a serial cable. The cable I built was good enough to
work for "handshaking" but just a bit too noisy to do the firmware
upgrade. It was one of those intermittent failures that is a pain in
the ass to track down. But, Jeff at Vesper spent hours emailing,
Skyping and IMing me and he built and sent me a program with logging a
special terminal emulator to help with the debugging... I was super
impressed with all of that. So, I thought I'd pass it along.

Cheers,

--Tom.


Weather still good down there? We're getting sick of the cold (relative) and
fog.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On Jan 7, 10:40*am, "Capt. JG" wrote:

Weather still good down there? We're getting sick of the cold (relative) and
fog.

Right now it is mostly sunny, 70 degrees air and water and blowing 15
from the NNE. Not hard to take

The solar panels are in the mail -- actually at customs here in
Mexico. We'll see how that goes... Anyway, we're going to hang
around here until they arrive and we switch them out. Plan free after
that...

--Tom.