http://www.transas.com/onboard/rib/index.asp

Anyone used one of these? Interfaces with radar and can do chart overlays and
ARPA target tracking too. Is this just for big ship systems or useable on
boats?

It's a PCI board that is used with the Transas Navisailor Software (Navisailor
3000, 2500, 2400, Navifisher etc..) It is takes the video from your radar
(adaptable to many types and brands) and overlays it on top of the Transas
software.

Very expensive and geared toward the Mega yacht and shipping industry.
However Nobeltec has a less expensive box that does the same thing with there
software. Check it out

Regrds,
Brian

In article ,
(NIFFOCBT) wrote:

It's a PCI board that is used with the Transas Navisailor Software (Navisailor
3000, 2500, 2400, Navifisher etc..) It is takes the video from your radar
(adaptable to many types and brands) and overlays it on top of the Transas
software.

Very expensive and geared toward the Mega yacht and shipping industry.
However Nobeltec has a less expensive box that does the same thing with there
software. Check it out

Regrds,
Brian


Nobeltec is reselling a Xenex (www.xenex.com) box which is
a combination "black box radar" control head and video digitizer
which feeds the stream into the PC for the overlay.

given that the original Xenex products were the "CAN-3000"
PCI interfaces it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find that
Transas was OEMing the CAN-3000 card. the original designer
of the CAN-3000 system was a German outfit that got bought along
the way in creating Xenex.

Note that unlike Nobeltec, Transas makes a real IMO-qualified
ECDIS and their "lower-end" ECD and "yacht" software is derived
from that technology. while the ECDIS systems are by definition
vector-based, their ECD-based systems support both vector and raster
cartography. And given the competitive posture of Transas,
I suspect they won't allow Nobeltec to go unchallenged for very long.

One thing I personally like about the Transas software is that
the User Interface has been designed for operating the software
under operational conditions. Driving the MS Windoze UI requires
a lot of fine motor skills which can be more than tricky "in vivo".
As a planning tool, Nobeltec is quite nice, but as actual
operational software, it's not easy to use while driving a boat.
You want big targets and simple navigation - not nested menus.

at least that's what *I* want. (grin)

the good news is that we are finally starting to see some very
healthy competition on all the fronts, both software and cartography.
with the NOAA S-57 charts coming along for download, the prospects
for real Open Source navigation software improve dramatically,
as well as for integrated bridge and vessel management. (and the
fact that geeks have bought boats helps, too!)

cheers,
-mo

=============================

Always do right. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.
- Mark Twain

In article ,
Michael O'Dell wrote:

given that the original Xenex products were the "CAN-3000"
PCI interfaces it wouldn't surprise me a bit to find that
Transas was OEMing the CAN-3000 card. the original designer
of the CAN-3000 system was a German outfit that got bought along
the way in creating Xenex.

Note that unlike Nobeltec, Transas makes a real IMO-qualified
ECDIS and their "lower-end" ECD and "yacht" software is derived
from that technology. while the ECDIS systems are by definition
vector-based, their ECD-based systems support both vector and raster
cartography. And given the competitive posture of Transas,
I suspect they won't allow Nobeltec to go unchallenged for very long.


My memory is failing - the original hardware was "CANSTAR-3000"
and it's not ECD, it's ECS (Electronic Charting System) which is
the "lesser sibling" of ECDIS - Electronic Chart Display and Information
Systems. ECDIS is the "offical" electronic nav system defined
by the IMO as being a replacement for paper charts on Big Ships.

btw - reading about ECDIS functions is pretty interesting.
the standards are quite high and the discussion for the reasons
is pretty good reading (as technical standards stuff goes - hehe).

-mo

Michael O'Dell wrote:


One thing I personally like about the Transas software is that
the User Interface has been designed for operating the software
under operational conditions. Driving the MS Windoze UI requires
a lot of fine motor skills which can be more than tricky "in vivo".
As a planning tool, Nobeltec is quite nice, but as actual
operational software, it's not easy to use while driving a boat.
You want big targets and simple navigation - not nested menus.


I couldn't use the touch-pad mouse or a conventional mouse on my laptop
while moving. I eventually bought a wireless, optical trackball so I
could lock my hand on the base. It works OK. I had thought that with
the tireless feature, I would be abke to use the SW from the cockpit,
but the radio range is too short, 6'.

Joe Wood

"Michael O'Dell" wrote in message ...
One thing I personally like about the Transas software is that
the User Interface has been designed for operating the software
under operational conditions. Driving the MS Windoze UI requires
a lot of fine motor skills which can be more than tricky "in vivo".

Agreed. This makes a big difference. I can't understand why all
manufacturers don't hide the Windows UI.

the good news is that we are finally starting to see some very
healthy competition on all the fronts, both software and cartography.
with the NOAA S-57 charts coming along for download, the prospects
for real Open Source navigation software improve dramatically,
as well as for integrated bridge and vessel management. (and the
fact that geeks have bought boats helps, too!)

You appear to be a "geek" who is very knowlegable and has done
a lot of research. Thanks for the interesting info on radar interface
boards. I noticed with interest your reference above to "integrated
bridge" systems; I'm hoping that you might be equally informed about
those. If you are, I would be very interested in a similar summary
of your impressions of the various offerings out there right now.
Personally I haven't seen one that I could live with, at least judging
by screenshots on web sites or demo downloads.

- Julian