"John Proctor" wrote in message
news:2005030907232116807%lost@nowhereorg...
Here is a scarry thought.

My wife went in for LASIK surgery to her eyes. Basically it a laser
procedure where they correct your eyes for astigmatism. They use a
laser interferometer to map the surface of your eyball and them use
mathematics to work out the sequence of laser blasts to ablate the
eyball surface to generate good vision. The gave her a DVD of the
process they did on her eyes and guess what? The whole thing is
controlled by a Windoze PC. I wonder what would happen if the blue
screen of death came up in the middle of a procedure;-)

I noticed to that when I got my eyeballs spot welded. But I had a couple of
Valums working so just bowed towards Redmond, WA and crossed my fingers.
:-)

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in message
news:QnpXd.56586$SF.18771@lakeread08...



"John Proctor" wrote in message
news:2005030907232116807%lost@nowhereorg...
Here is a scarry thought.

My wife went in for LASIK surgery to her eyes. Basically it a laser
procedure where they correct your eyes for astigmatism. They use a
laser interferometer to map the surface of your eyball and them use
mathematics to work out the sequence of laser blasts to ablate the
eyball surface to generate good vision. The gave her a DVD of the
process they did on her eyes and guess what? The whole thing is
controlled by a Windoze PC. I wonder what would happen if the blue
screen of death came up in the middle of a procedure;-)

I noticed to that when I got my eyeballs spot welded. But I had a couple
of
Valums working so just bowed towards Redmond, WA and crossed my fingers.
:-)

I've been running my laptop almost 24/7 for about a year and a half and it
has
yet to crash. I hope the eye doctor was running XP.

Doug

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

John Proctor wrote:
On 2005-03-08 23:20:00 +1100, "Glenn Ashmore" said:




"Dennis Pogson" wrote in message
...
Glenn Ashmore wrote:
Almost all GPSs have anchor watch alarms and radars have range
alarms but they all put out a whimpy little beep. Is there a
device that monitors the NMEA data streams (from say a
multiplexer) and make a noise that will get your attention when it
sees an alarm or MOB statement??

Yes, it's called a laptop, and you can connect MASSIVE speakers to
it!

Some how keeping a laptop running 24 hours a day for 3 or 4 days
just to monitor for alarm sentences when the job could be done with
a fairly simple circuit drawing only a few milliwatts seems more
than a little bit wastefull. Also the laptop may be subject to the
idiosyncrasies of Windoze.

Glen,

Here is a scarry thought.

My wife went in for LASIK surgery to her eyes. Basically it a laser
procedure where they correct your eyes for astigmatism. They use a
laser interferometer to map the surface of your eyball and them use
mathematics to work out the sequence of laser blasts to ablate the
eyball surface to generate good vision. The gave her a DVD of the
process they did on her eyes and guess what? The whole thing is
controlled by a Windoze PC. I wonder what would happen if the blue
screen of death came up in the middle of a procedure;-)

--
Regards,
John Proctor VK3JP, VKV6789
S/V Chagall

Press cntrl-alt-del for new eyeballs?

--
Satellite photocharts of the UK & Ireland
available, excellent detail and accurate
calibration using Oziexplorer.
Remove *nospam* to reply.

On Mon, 7 Mar 2005 19:54:56 -0500, "Glenn Ashmore" wrote:

Almost all GPSs have anchor watch alarms and radars have range alarms but
they all put out a whimpy little beep. Is there a device that monitors the
NMEA data streams (from say a multiplexer) and make a noise that will get
your attention when it sees an alarm or MOB statement??

As Meindert points out, it'd be pretty simple with a microcontroller.
The most complicated part would be the user interface to set
what to alarm on, and the criteria, and even that isn't a big deal.
Heck, I'm retired and looking for a project...maybe I'll take a shot
at it.
Norm B

"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in message
news:zJ6Xd.54333$SF.21876@lakeread08...
Almost all GPSs have anchor watch alarms and radars have range alarms but
they all put out a whimpy little beep. Is there a device that monitors
the
NMEA data streams (from say a multiplexer) and make a noise that will get
your attention when it sees an alarm or MOB statement??

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com


Hi,
Talking about "decent" multiplexers, all our NMEA multiplexers have
"automatic GPS back-up switching" (plus many other NMEA sentence management
features). Read about it he
http://brookhouseonline.com/gps_backup_switching.htm . I have been
playing with the idea to add a buzzer to warn the user when it switches to
the backup GPS. As the "no GPS data" detection is already present, this is
very simple to do. If there is sufficient interest, we'll include it as a
standard feature. If you want it NOW, we'll add a buzzer to the present
model for a small charge if you decide to buy one.
Wout

On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 11:59:17 +1300, "Wout B" wrote:


"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in message
news:zJ6Xd.54333$SF.21876@lakeread08...
Almost all GPSs have anchor watch alarms and radars have range alarms but
they all put out a whimpy little beep. Is there a device that monitors
the
NMEA data streams (from say a multiplexer) and make a noise that will get
your attention when it sees an alarm or MOB statement??

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com


Hi,
Talking about "decent" multiplexers, all our NMEA multiplexers have
"automatic GPS back-up switching" (plus many other NMEA sentence management
features). Read about it he
http://brookhouseonline.com/gps_backup_switching.htm . I have been
playing with the idea to add a buzzer to warn the user when it switches to
the backup GPS. As the "no GPS data" detection is already present, this is
very simple to do. If there is sufficient interest, we'll include it as a
standard feature. If you want it NOW, we'll add a buzzer to the present
model for a small charge if you decide to buy one.
Wout




I think there's an important point being missed here, IMHO.
So far we have over-temp alarms, high water in the bilge alarms,
NEMA-driven device alerts, CO alarms, smoke alarms, low
oil pressure, and you can add to the list.

What's really needed is a thing called an announciator (sp) panel,
That's a 'thing' that tells you instantly what the alarm is, usually with
a big display (1 inch by 4 inch), and an audible 'sounder'.

Agree? Disagree?

Norm B

"engsol" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 11:59:17 +1300, "Wout B"
wrote:


"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in message
news:zJ6Xd.54333$SF.21876@lakeread08...
Almost all GPSs have anchor watch alarms and radars have range alarms
but
they all put out a whimpy little beep. Is there a device that monitors
the
NMEA data streams (from say a multiplexer) and make a noise that will
get
your attention when it sees an alarm or MOB statement??

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or
lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com


Hi,
Talking about "decent" multiplexers, all our NMEA multiplexers have
"automatic GPS back-up switching" (plus many other NMEA sentence
management
features). Read about it he
http://brookhouseonline.com/gps_backup_switching.htm . I have been
playing with the idea to add a buzzer to warn the user when it switches
to
the backup GPS. As the "no GPS data" detection is already present, this
is
very simple to do. If there is sufficient interest, we'll include it as a
standard feature. If you want it NOW, we'll add a buzzer to the present
model for a small charge if you decide to buy one.
Wout




I think there's an important point being missed here, IMHO.
So far we have over-temp alarms, high water in the bilge alarms,
NEMA-driven device alerts, CO alarms, smoke alarms, low
oil pressure, and you can add to the list.

What's really needed is a thing called an announciator (sp) panel,
That's a 'thing' that tells you instantly what the alarm is, usually with
a big display (1 inch by 4 inch), and an audible 'sounder'.

Agree? Disagree?

Norm B

Sounds like a good idea, I'm sure it would be well received.
Wout

Hi,
Talking about "decent" multiplexers, all our NMEA multiplexers have
"automatic GPS back-up switching" (plus many other NMEA sentence
management
features). Read about it he
http://brookhouseonline.com/gps_backup_switching.htm . I have been
playing with the idea to add a buzzer to warn the user when it switches to
the backup GPS. As the "no GPS data" detection is already present, this
is
very simple to do. If there is sufficient interest, we'll include it as a
standard feature. If you want it NOW, we'll add a buzzer to the present
model for a small charge if you decide to buy one.
Wout

Ehh, talking about "Decent" multiplexers: decent multiplexers have isolated
inputs, yours don't.

I just connected one of yours to a differential NMEA talker output. I can
now hear all NMEA data on my SSB!!

While trying to find out what's wrong, I found that all inputs on your
multiplexer have the B terminals connected to ground!!! NMEA inputs are
supposed to be isolated. Your grounded B terminals on the inputs effectively
short-circuit any properly designed talker. Was it that hard to add 50 cents
worth of optocouplers?

Gert

"Gert Been" wrote in message
...

Hi,
Talking about "decent" multiplexers, all our NMEA multiplexers have
"automatic GPS back-up switching" (plus many other NMEA sentence
management
features). Read about it he
http://brookhouseonline.com/gps_backup_switching.htm . I have been
playing with the idea to add a buzzer to warn the user when it switches
to
the backup GPS. As the "no GPS data" detection is already present, this
is
very simple to do. If there is sufficient interest, we'll include it as
a
standard feature. If you want it NOW, we'll add a buzzer to the present
model for a small charge if you decide to buy one.
Wout

Ehh, talking about "Decent" multiplexers: decent multiplexers have
isolated
inputs, yours don't.

I just connected one of yours to a differential NMEA talker output. I can
now hear all NMEA data on my SSB!!

While trying to find out what's wrong, I found that all inputs on your
multiplexer have the B terminals connected to ground!!! NMEA inputs are
supposed to be isolated. Your grounded B terminals on the inputs
effectively
short-circuit any properly designed talker. Was it that hard to add 50
cents
worth of optocouplers?

Gert


Our new multiplexers have opto-isolated inputs and are compliant with CE
emission requirements. Strange that I first hear from you via this
newsgroup. Would you not have contacted us with your complaint if you had
not come across this newsgroup thread? You say you have just installed one
of our multiplexers. I have checked our records, but we don't have you
listed as a recent direct customer.
If you have any kind of problem with a multiplexer, we'll be happy to assist
if you contact us via the normal channel. Your problem can be easily
resolved. All you need to do is send us an email and let us know where and
when you bought your multiplexer.
Wout

"Wout B" wrote in
:

Our new multiplexers have opto-isolated inputs and are compliant with
CE emission requirements. Strange that I first hear from you via this
newsgroup. Would you not have contacted us with your complaint if you
had not come across this newsgroup thread? You say you have just
installed one of our multiplexers. I have checked our records, but we
don't have you listed as a recent direct customer.
If you have any kind of problem with a multiplexer, we'll be happy to
assist if you contact us via the normal channel. Your problem can be
easily resolved. All you need to do is send us an email and let us
know where and when you bought your multiplexer.
Wout



Translation - "Shhhh.....don't say bad things about boat products in public
forums like newsgroups".......