"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.

--
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:
"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.

--
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


I'm sure you are right, but picking up a GPS circuit is more than my limited
knowledge of electronics can manage, and as my laptop is connected to the
gps most of the time, it seems an easy shortcut.


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

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

"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

"Doug Dotson" dougdotson@NOSPAMcablespeedNOSPAMcom wrote in message
...

"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 worked for about a year (4 years ago) as a test technician at an OEM
company that made embedded microprocessor products for several medical
electronics firms for eye surgery. Quite often the boards we tested were
small quantities and we usually had no clue what some of the connectors
interfaced with once we sent them to our customer. However, silk screen
labels such as foot pedal left, right, forward, back, up, down, etc raised
my curiosity. It seems the eye surgeons use a foot pedal control similar to
the clamp on skates we played with as children. Yes, the processors and
firmware used Intel products, so I am not surprised there is a Windows XXX
interface, but I doubt if Windows was directly controlling the surgery. I
suspect it was used for logging and visual magnification, etc. The OEM
boards appeared to be the surgeon interface to the laser and fluid washers,
etc.

73 Doug K7ABX

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.