Any Experience with Wireless Radar?

[Canibul]

I've finally received the insurance settlement, and can now purchase some neat new stuff to replace the old stuff that got lightning frizzled.

Have any of you had hands-on experience with the new Furuno wireless radar?

FURUNO 1st Watch Wireless Radar

$1600 complete, as near as I can tell. I was pretty well focused on the chirp radars until I saw this.

[ka4wja]

Canibul,
1) As this product just debuted in March, and I've yet to see it listed for sale in the US....so, not sure how many have actually been sold worldwide yet, probably only a handful.....so, it's doubtful that many have much time-on-board with it...

And, I'm not sure it is even destined for a US / N. America market....but, in your case in the T & C, you should be able to import from the UK rather easily???



2) Also, not sure where you're venturing that you need radar...as Caribbean, T & C, Bahamas, Florida, etc. are not places where radar is used/needed much...


3) If by "chirp" radars, you are referring to traditional "pulse-type" radars???

Originally Posted by Canibul

$1600 complete, as near as I can tell. I was pretty well focused on the chirp radars until I saw this.

Please be aware that this IS a traditional pulse-type radar....just without a traditional display/interface...

1st Watch Wireless Radar DRS4W | Products:Marine Radar | Marine Equipment For Recreational Boats | Business Fields & Product List | FURUNO's Product Site

Furuno DRS4W Wi-Fi Radar for iPad & iPhone - Marine Review



I hope this helps...

Fair winds..

John
s/v Annie Laurie



P.S. I heard a rumor, that you must program an MMSI# into this Wi-Fi radar in order to make it work...so, that puts it on your "no-go list"...sorry..

[Canibul]

Well, thanks but I'm looking for someone who might have seen one in action. i.e. has seen and had experience with the radar.

[ka4wja]

Canibul,
You're very welcome...

Originally Posted by Canibul

Well, thanks but I'm looking for someone who might have seen one in action. i.e. has seen and had experience with the radar.

I assume you've already contacted Furuno and asked to be put in touch with a sale rep, who would put you in touch with their users/customers of their Wi-Fi Radar systems?? (this would of course be the first thing to do..)
But, they have not yet referred you to any customers??

Assuming this is the case, I'd think it is because (as I wrote above) this product was just introduced in mid-March (in the EU), and I've yet to see it listed for sale in the Americas...

If you haven't been in touch with Furuno, I suggest a phone call to them....as they will certainly be able to help you / put you in touch with those that can help...


Fair winds..

John
s/v Annie Laurie

[witzgall]

I think this would be a good fit for putting on a megayacht, so the guests can look at radar without bothering the crew. Other than that, I don't see a practical usage.

Chris

[a64pilot]

If there is a CHIRP RADAR, and it does for RADAR what it did for SONAR, all out current RADAR's are fixing to be obsolete.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by witzgall

I think this would be a good fit for putting on a megayacht, so the guests can look at radar without bothering the crew. Other than that, I don't see a practical usage.

Chris

I do, IF it will connect to other than IOS devices. I hope this is just step 1
Be nice to have a wireless NMEA 2000 wouldn't it? Just put your "stuff" wherever you want, and just feed it power, plus have redundant, portable displays?

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by witzgall

I think this would be a good fit for putting on a megayacht, so the guests can look at radar without bothering the crew. Other than that, I don't see a practical usage.

Chris

Hmm, I don't see much different from current state-of-the-art. A typical cruising vessel with modern (<10 years old) radar has Ethernet wired to software running on a purpose-build chart plotter. This is exchanging Ethernet for Wi-Fi and software running on a general-purpose device. Other than that, what's the difference?

[colemj]

Yes, this is Furuno's standard DSR4 radome - nothing new at all in that part of it. The difference is only in the added wifi module instead of the ethernet interface.

Modern radars do all of the radar acquisition, processing and other functionality on-board (in the dome) and are stand-alone units that only transmit their data to a display so you can see it. This is much different that how older radars worked - where all of the processing, etc was done inside the display unit. The wireless here is just a different data transfer method to a display.

So in that respect, I can report complete satisfaction with the radar functionality of the system.

Mark

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

If there is a CHIRP RADAR, and it does for RADAR what it did for SONAR, all out current RADAR's are fixing to be obsolete.

It's called synthetic aperture phased array , ( see AEGIS)

Dave

[a64pilot]

Being a retired Longbow test pilot I'm a little familiar with RADAR and know of the stuffing RF through a whole that doesn't exist. My familiarity with it comes from the airborne version and ground based
Surely this is not possible with our size and price?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ka4wja]

Just to clarify...
This is a standard x-band, 4Kw peak, pulse-type, marine radar unit....

It is NOT a synthetic aperture radar, nor a phased-array scanning radar, nor an FMCW radar...

The only difference between this here, and the "normal" Furuno radar, is how it is displayed / controlled (via Wi-Fi enabled devices and software)...




Now, you can all discuss what we could have on-board, if we had destroyers...

(and BTW, "Chirp radars" were first developed in the 60's....so, they are hardly new..)



Fair winds...

John
s/v Annie Laurie

[Canibul]

I like the cost of it, and that I would only have to feed it 12 volts and not have to run a signal cable back to the cabin at all. It only supports two ios devices, but for me that's plenty. We don't have guests.

I'm looking at using iPads for a number of things onboard, rather than buying "marine" systems and more laptops. We''ve been averaging a laptop a year down here, and have inched up into the thousand dollar plus ones and they still fail at the same rate. We already are running navigation on a GPS equipped iPad, and I've been trying to make the change from PC to iPad for writing and photo editing. It's not easy for an old codger. I'm on my second iPad keyboard. I loathe touchscreens. But it needs to be done.

When I said 'chirp' radar I misspoke. I was thinking of FMCW radars. I do know what chirps are, I was product manager for an underwater acoustics company for 20 years, building sonars and sub bottom profilers and acoustic tracking and navigation systems.

[tbodine88]

Originally Posted by witzgall

I think this would be a good fit for putting on a megayacht, so the guests can look at radar without bothering the crew. Other than that, I don't see a practical usage.

Chris

I think its great for not having to run wiring besides the power supply to and from the radar. Ease of installation is a real benefit.

I installed alarm systems for years and I was really happy to install wireless systems, they could be done in a tenth of the time for other installations.

I did one radio installation on a 35' sailboat in a boat yard, it was such a pain that I went back to installing alarm systems right away.

[skipmac]

If I understand correctly the radar output is sent only to an iPad or similar device? If so, for me one big problem is none of these are visible in direct sunlight so no radar to use in the cockpit on a sunny day.