On Sat, 31 Jan 2004 09:44:15 GMT, John Proctor
wrote:

At the risk of stirring the pot some more....

In Australia we have C-Tick. Any equipment coming into the country with
active electronics must be C-Tick compliant. This requires at a minimum
compliance with the CE EMC standards. FCC standards are not recognized
as they are too lenient. It is amazing how many manufacturers (US and
Taiwan based) do not have CE approval for their products when to export
them to any decent sized market outside the US this is a firm
requirement.

Thanks for the information, John. I'll research C-Tick further.

As to bluetooth that may work but I would prefer to see standarization
using the ethernet cabling standards. These are well developed, very
inexpensive and well understood in the computing sector. There is
industrialised E/N and now even power over E/N. This is mass produced
technology with standard low priced connectors and a price tag to match.

Bluetooth would BE a standardization, which is why it will never
happen. I'm for Ethernet, too, but many boats I work on just don't
have the cable run room for a centralized LAN installation. The
router would have to sit "someplace" and wherever it is installed
would have to have room for an ethernet cable from each device. This
would create quite a bundle of cables to that central point. Boaters,
unlike hackers I know, are a funny lot and wouldn't want me to duct
tape a bunch of cat5 cables to the bulkhead walls of the main salon,
like the hackers I know do...(c;

Look around your yacht and try to picture a hidden place, WITH AC
POWER AT SEA, and room for 8 CAT-5 cables in the wireways to your
various instruments. Remember, EACH instrument would have to have its
own CAT-5 ethernet cable to that LAN router. You can't just hook the
computer's ethernet to a printer, another computer, a plotter, a
scanner....which is why computers don't use ethernet to hook up to
external devices. Ethernet requires a router and ethernet hubs to
connect devices.

USB, on the other hand, WOULD let the GPS talk directly to the chart
plotter. But, USB wouldn't work well in a broadcast situation because
it only allows two devices to talk to each other. It's not a network
protocol, which is what we need for the whole boat, with MULTIPLE
TALKERS servicing multiple listeners (which is why Meindert must make
multiplexers to make the idiotic NMEA0183 work). So, USB isn't much
of an option, either. We need a LAN controlled by a router.....one
wire to each instrument, not 8 USB ports and a cabling nightmare!

Wireless, either 802.11-something ethernet or Bluetooth is the best
answer. Wireless uses no wireway space. Instruments can be placed
anywhere you can get DC to them. All the instruments at the helm
(wind, depth, compass, radar, GPS, scanning sonar, autopilot
controller, speed, log, etc.) could operate on a single DC cable to
the helm breaker or fuse panel. The only cabling to corrode would be
from the sensors to the instruments (which could also be wireless at
some point). The sensors could be self-contained and talk to any
number of display or reader devices. A Bluetooth display over the
captain's berth could read and display any parameter on the boat from
oil pressure to apparent wind to sonar depth if the sensors were also
transmitting. There wouldn't be a wire to corrode between the wind
sensor on the mast and the display at the helm.

That brings up another great point about wireless......NO TINY SIGNAL
WIRES TO CORRODE, no tiny connectors with 8 pins to not make contact,
solving another big "boat problem"......

I still think wireless is the way to go on boats not made of
metal.....

The marine environment is bad but I have no trouble seeing how to
improve this connection technology in our 'beneign' world;-)

John VK3JP
S/V Chagall

--
John VK3JP


Larry W4CSC

No, no, Scotty! I said, "Beam me a wrench.", not a WENCH!
Kirk Out.....