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