Navigation Computer Set up, and “Kindleized”

I woke up to a rainy Sunday morning so decided to set up the new navigation computer, the Toshiba Satellite that I purchase during my recent visit to the USA.  One of the things that I didn't like about the older Toshiba that supported me so well around the Horn was that it had only 2 USB ports.  I had to dedicate one to the Pactor III modem, which meant that I had to connect both BU-353 GPS antennas and the mouse one a USB hub, potentially putting a big data load on the port.  Worse, if I lost one of the USB ports due to, say, salt water invasion, I would have been down to only one available port, which probably would of meant a lot of device manipulation when I swapped between navigation and communication.

The new Toshiba has 3 USB ports (one a blazingly fast USB 3.0 port), a faster processor (Intel i3@2.4GHz vs Celeron 900@2.2GHz), a similar disc drive (500Gb SATA-II 3.0Gb/s), but double the memory (4.0Mb vs 2.0Mb.  I expect the extra memory to be very helpful given that I will be running two navigation systems (Marine Plotter and OpenCPN) simultaneously, then in addition to that Airmail3, OpenOffice, and other software as needs dictate.  It is considered a low end machine, yet should my purposes well, which is a testament to the state of modern computing.  Besides, I thought it an unnecessary risk to invest in a high end machine given that one dose of salt water could destroy it in an instant.

The first task was to plug the machine into the boat's 12V system via the cigarette lighter outlet.  I plugged in the Merex transformer but was surprised to find that the tip (plug) did not fit either the Toshiba or the Acer.  These transformers come with an array of 20 or more tips of various sizes and designs to accommodate the wide range of laptop computers in the field.  I retrieved the two plastic containers of computer bits from the forecastle and began to work my way through the pile of tips.  Eventually I found tips for both the Toshiba and the Acer, so that crisis was over.  Better yet, I also found another transformer with a permanent tip that fit the Acer.  I must have picked this up sometime in a stroke of genius.  Then I found another Merex transformer.  This was all very satisfying.  I am a maniac for backups and redundancy, and it appears that I've got the issue of boat power to the computers well covered.  I've even got two cigarette lighter outlets at the navigation station.

Then it was time to set up the two BU-353 GPS antennas.  I plugged the USB hub into the laptop, plugged in the two antennas to the hub, identified their virtual port names, then brought up OpenCPN using one of the GPS antennas.  Nothing happened and I could not see any GPS data streaming down.  After a bit of experimentation I concluded that the hardware was working fine.  The machine was detecting the new ports but the software was not receiving data.  I could either panic or back off over a cup of coffee.  The coffee option worked.  It hit me that I had not installed the BU-353 driver when I set up the new machine in Kingston.  I fetched the driver DVD from the forecastle, installed the driver, and soon I had Marine Plotter and OpenCPN reporting the boat's position.

So it looks like the navigation computer is ready for sea, given that I've already exercised the communication system by issuing two blogs and some emails. 

Thanks to enlightened policy of the Brazilian government I have electronic charts covering all of Brazil available to both MP and OpenCPN.  Fortunately OpenCPN handles C-Map charts very well, so until I reach Australian waters I will be relying on OpenCPN for the chart navigation, and Marine Plotter for satellite image navigation.  Fortunately there is a detailed C-Map chart of Tristan da Cunha to go with the very detailed Google images of the island that I have downloaded with MP.  As I approach Australian waters I'll have a third option, a data card for the Raymarine chart plotter that contains a complete set of Australian charts.

Both MP and OpenCPN have AIS capability.  I brought back from the USA several different DB9-USB converters that will allow me to connect the AIS transponder to the laptop.  I'll explore this in the future because it is another redundancy issue: were something to happen to the Raymarine chart plotter I would have to fall back to the laptop for my AIS data.

-----

I downloaded more literature to the Kindle: The Complete Works of Mark Twain, The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, and The Life of General George Patton.  I read the first chapter of Patton and it will be one of those books that I will savour slowly because I don't want it to end.  I suppose this means that I've been “Kindleized” in all of three days.