Very low power AIS setup

[jfoster]

As seen on the Panbo weblog this morning:

http://www.panbo.com/archives/2008/04/vesper_ais_watchmate_smart_details.html

The Marine Electronics Weblog
Vesper AIS WatchMate, smart details
Apr 25, 2008

Vesper_AIS_WatchMate

Milltech Marine is carrying a new AIS display of particular interest to power-sensitive offshore sailors. The Vesper Marine AIS WatchMate has a 5–inch “daylight readable” monochrome screen, but purportedly only draws 1.2 watts average, 2.5 max. The $499 unit is not a receiver and does not do graphic target plotting, but I read through the preliminary manual and was impressed by how thoroughly the designers—who are offshore sailors—thought out the details of collision avoidance. For instance, WatchMate not only has range and CPA/TCPA alarms with sophisticated filtering, but also supports four “profiles” so you can easily switch setups in different conditions like “offshore” or “coastal”. It strikes me that WatchMate would also work well with a Class B transponder, though of course you’d still need a PC connection to set it up and, sigh, you can’t buy one in the U.S. yet. Note, too, that those NMEA 0183 ports shown below are actually wires in a single cable, and should be fairly easy to install in a waterproof way, plus there are several other possible install configurations. Hopefully Milltech or Vesper will make the manual available soon. Vesper_AIS_WatchMate_diag

Posted by Ben on April 25, 2008 10:02 AM

 

[pmummah]

Am I correct in saying there are three basic ways to do AIS:
1. Rceiver plugged into a compatible chart plotter. A chart plotter can be as low as $400.00 and a single channel receiver is less than $200.00.
2. Stand alone AIS display with or without an external receiver. The Milltech Marine unit is low power, has a good alarm system but is text only. Si-Tex has a chart type display that shows relative postions. I am not aware of any others.
3. External receiver connected to a computer running software.

A couple of questions I have are:
1. Does anyone have any experience with the Si-tex unit?
2. If I got a receiver and connected it to a chart plotter how are the alarms controlled? What sets the perimeter, loudness, etc. Can an alarm for each vessel be controlled separately?

phil

 

[sleddog]

A couple of questions I have are:
1. Does anyone have any experience with the Si-tex unit?
2. If I got a receiver and connected it to a chart plotter how are the alarms controlled? What sets the perimeter, loudness, etc. Can an alarm for each vessel be controlled separately?
phil

Phil,
There has been a ton of discussion of the Si-Tex AIS on both this forum and the old forum (http://p4.forumforfree.com/sss.html). The Si-Tex AIS is the same as the NASA stand alone AIS. Just scroll to AIS thread and look for comments on the NASA unit. Many SSS sailors use this.