Furuno 1st Watch DRS4W WiFi Radar Installed

Hi everyone,

This is a technical post.  This week we installed a new radar system on Zen Again.  When we bought the boat she had a 1990s Furuno radar.  At our major refit in Thailand it was on its last legs so we disposed of it.

DRS4W mounted

During our voyage from Australia to the UK we had several incidents where we were caught out by squalls - either at night or in overcast conditions.  We resolved to fit a radar system before resuming bluewater cruising.  Its primary role would be detecting the heavy rain usually associated with bad squalls.

When we started looking for a new radar our starting point was Furuno since we like their radars.  The 1st Watch DRS4W system was particularly interesting since it provides a WiFi access point instead of a fixed display.  This fitted our philosophy as described recently here, using iPads for chartplotting and real-time and trend data display.

Mounted low since looking for rain not distant ships

We had Marine Tech rivet the ScanStrut mount to the mast.  They had a much bigger rivet gun than ours!  Mounting the radar itself was simple - just remove the four bolts, place the radar and refit the bolts.  No need to open the radome.

I then had the fun job of running the power cable.  That involved moving two halyards to free up a halyard slot in the mast at just the right height.  Drilled a hole at the base of the mast for the cable to exit.  Dropping and fishing out a messenger line proved very easy.  Pulling through the cable needed two people to save time.  Then feeding the cable through the boat to the navstation's circuit breakers was tedious but simple.

With the power cable connected via a 5A circuit breaker we were ready to test.  Power on!  We connected an iPad to the WiFi access point and started up the DRS4W Marine Radar app.  It found the radar and displayed its Preheating page, showing that the radar was coming to life.

Starting Up

With the two minute preheating of the magnetron complete the STBY page is displayed.  This shows the total On and Tx times for the unit.  We could then tap the Tx button and the radar picture appeared.  The sweep period is about 2.5 seconds.  The user interface is very simple with menu items accessed via the < on-screen button.

The image below shows rain setup which is one of several setup screens.  Hopefully rain setup will work well for us.

Rain Setup

The image below shows us in the pen in Gosport.  The 20m deadband around the boat is clear.  The linear rows and columns aft and to port are boats in the marina.  The big return on our port quarter is a tanker berthed immediately outside the marina.  Ahead of us is the shore with boats lined up on the hard.

iPad display

Next we tried connecting an iPhone.  Very simple.  Up to two devices can be connected simultaneously. User input on either controls the display on both.  On the iPhone the menus are accessed by tapping the screen.

iPhone display

The DRS4W supports offsetting your boat in any direction, activated by simply dragging the display.  It also supports a configurable guard zone.  The image below shows the idea.

Offset and Guard Zone

We were very pleased by the low power usage of the system.  Much lower than our old system.  The DRS4W draws 0.8A in standby and 1.6A when transmitting.

HMSs Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales fine on our port quarter!

Looking forward to sea trials!

WinLink VARA Setup with Icom IC-7300

Hi everyone,

This is a technical post.  It updates one of our most popular posts "WinLink Setup with Icom IC-7300".

We'll describe how we setup our IC-7300 HF/SSB to use the new VARA modem protocol on WinLink.  VARA offers faster data communication than the older ARDOP and WinMor protocols.  One does have to pay the VARA author US$69 to use the high data rates.

Downloading a SailDocs GRIB file

VARA must be downloaded and installed separately.  Download it here.  We installed it at C:\apps\VARA but the default is C:\VARA.

With VARA installed open WinLink Express.  To setup VARA open a 'Vara HF WinLink' session.  Configure Settings ... VARA TNC Setup and then Settings ... Radio Settings as below...

VARA TNC Setup

Radio Settings

Key to configuring VARA is setting audio levels.  Setting microphone (Rx) level is easy since VARA provides a VU meter.  For us, speaker (Tx) level was harder.

Initially 'Tuning' using the VARA SoundCard drive level tool caused interference in the USB cable which confused the IC-7300.  Once we realised what was happening it was simple to re-run the USB cable via a quieter path (it was already fitted with RF chokes) and set the volume.  We settled on a lower volume than the graphic in the tool recommends.

Setting VARA Tx Level

Overall our three transmit volume levels are -25dB in VARA, 100% in the Windows Volume Mixer and 50W IC-7300 transmit power.  The first two are shown in the image above.

The screenshot below shows our IC-7300 transmitting during a VARA session.  It's at a lower level than recommended but is working well.

Transmitting VARA

Once setup we've found VARA very easy to use.  We'll use WinLink to obtain mid-ocean weather forecasts by downloading SailDocs GRIB files.  So that's what we tested.

We carried out initial tests on 20m (14MHz Amateur Band) to stations 600nm away in Switzerland and 1000nm away in Sweden.  Zen Again was in her pen at Premier Gosport Marina, which is far from optimal since we're surrounded by other yacht masts.

WinLink RMS stations

The screenshot below shows us communicating with S50ARO in Sweden.  The 100% Windows Volume Mixer level is visible.  It is labelled VARA, while in the drive level tool the label is SoundCard.

VARA session with Speaker Volume Mixer

The screenshot below shows us connecting with SK5UM.  The SNR dial shows the received signal is marginal but the message gets through.

Starting session to download GRIB email

The screenshot below shows the GRIB email being downloaded.  The upper horizontal green bar shows progress.  The red columns show the transfer rate being achieved as the session progresses.

GRIB email download in progress

The screenshot below shows the session terminating.  The transcript shows 1315 bytes downloaded in 13 seconds.  We were impressed at the download speed given the poor circumstances.

5700 Bytes/Minute download speed

It's interesting that VARA can exceed 20kBytes/Minute in reasonable conditions.  That's faster than Pactor3 or Iridium Go!.

We expect to use HF/SSB WinLink as a backup to an Iridium Go!.  One reason for this is we like PredictWind forecasts and routing.  PredictWind data can't be carried over WinLink since it is commercial.

Autumn Maintenance in Gosport #1

Hi everyone,

Since returning from our cruise of the SW coast we've been tackling various maintenance tasks.  Here's what we've been up to...

Position and Track information in Grafana

Fridge Repairs

During the cruise our fridge became unreliable and then stopped working.  After 5+ years of 24/7 operation without servicing we weren't surprised.  We got by without the fridge for several weeks.

Back in Gosport we contacted RJ Wells and Rob visited the following day.  Rob regassed the system and we swapped out the failed Coastal Climate temperature controller for the original Frigoboat thermostat controller which we'd had kept as a spare.  That got the system running very nicely.

Rob also supplied a spare compressor controller - a new, lower-power version.  Once I was confident the system was working well I swapped out the compressor controller, keeping the original as a spare.

Compressor with thermostat controller mounted nearby!

New fridge temperature sensor

Weather Station Mount

Ever since first mounting our Airmar 220WX weather station we've known it really ought to be elevated out of turbulence.  It's now clear of the goal post and is giving much more accurate wind data.

Elevated 220WX

Cockpit Instrument Reorganisation

For some time we've been using our old cockpit mounted Garmin GPSmap451 to display data only.  We rarely use its charts.  Earlier this year we fitted iPad mounts in the cockpit.  And recently we added the SignalK-based realtime data app WilhelmSK to the chartplotter app iNavX.  The next step was to remove the chartplotter and rearrange the cockpit instruments.

The new arrangement mounts the primary autopilot controller, the VHF handset, the VHF speaker and a USB power outlet.  It's neat and tidy.  Having the VHF on deck will be much more convenient, and also quieter for the off-watch below.

New arrangement

Rear View

Rear Panel Cover

Autopilot Improvement

With the 220WX giving us good wind data we could feed the data to the two autopilots.  This will allow them to 'steer to wind'.  The work involved setting up the SignalK system to output NMEA0183 data for  connection to the Raymarine SPX5 course controllers.  While playing with the autopilots we also re-aligned their compasses.

SignalK System Improvement

We've been slowly improving our new SignalK system.  We're learning about Node-Red, InfluxDB and Grafana so we can record and display exactly what we want.  We use Node-Red to calculate Set, Drift and to reformat position from degrees to degrees and minutes.

Near-realtime data in Grafana

We normally display Grafana dashboards on our Macbook in the navstation.  We can also display them on the HDMI monitor in the saloon and our iPadas...

Grafana display on our HDMI display in the saloon

Here's our new electronics system diagram...

Trust all's well where you are!

Our NMEA-2000 and Signal-K Electronics System

Hi everyone,

This is a technical post.  We've been doing a lot of work on our electronics system recently.  The work has concentrated on making the most of our NMEA-2000 network.  Adding SignalK to the system has revolutionised access to the data on the network.

We can display identical data on our iPhones, iPads and Macbook using the WilhelmSK app.  And it's exactly the data we want, in the format we want it.  WilhelmSK displays SignalK data gathered and stored on our BeagleBone Black (BBB) computer.  The BBB gets its data from our NMEA-2000 network.  Here's the realtime display we use on our iPads and Macbook...

WilhelmSK on Zen Again

The BBB is a small, cheap, low-power computer running the Debian Linux OS.  It's been running reliably for a couple of months.  We posted about setting up the BBB with SignalK and InfluxDB here.

BeagleBone Black

WilhelmSK allows us to display a lot of data.  Most is from our Airmar DST800 log/depth transducer and our Airmar 220WX weather station.  All NMEA-2000 data is transferred to the BBB using an Actisense NGT-1.  The BBB runs a SignalK server which manages the data and makes it available to clients.

SignalK data goes to our software chartplotters too.  On the Macbook we use OpenCPN which now accepts SignalK data directly.  On our iPads we use iNavX which does NOT accept SignalK.  We setup the SignalK server to translate relevant data into an NMEA-0183 datastream.  The NMEA-0183 is fed to the iPads via the same WiFi hotspot it uses for native SignalK data.  Both OpenCPN and iNavX display AIS traffic information.  On the iPads qtVlm weather routing software also uses the datastream.

To view trends and history our system stores all SignalK data in an InfluxDB database on the BBB.  We can view the data in graphical form using Grafana running on the Macbook.  While the Macbook is running we can also access the graphs from our iPads and even our iPhones.  Here's our favourite Grafana dashboard...

Grafana Dashboard of "last 12 hours"

To calculate data we use node-red which can be added to the SignalK software.  It can input SignalK data and generate new SignalK data.  We wrote a node-red 'flow' to calculate set and drift from boat speed, heading, SoG and CoG.  Node-red uses a GUI and JavaScript.

Node-Red CurrentCalculator Workspace

Node-Red CurrentCalculator Function

It's interesting how radically our electronics system has changed in just 5 years.  In 2015 it was NMEA-0183 and SeaTalk, with one WiFi hotspot.  Here's a diagram of the system at that time...

Zen Again Electronics System circa 2015

Now the system is NMEA-2000, SignalK and WiFi.  We have three WiFi hotspots and another (the Iridium Go!) expected.  In 2015 we had no means of recording data and disparate displays of realtime data.  Now we have common realtime data displays, two recorders and can easily see trends.  Here's the system now...

Zen Again Electronics System 2020

There's a lot of redundancy in the system.  Three GPSs feed data into SignalK - AIS, weather station and chartplotter.  A spare BBB and the Macbook have SignalK and InfluxDB installed.  We described Macbook setup here.  We have two calibrated autopilot systems, and at least 4 rams (having established one is good for one ocean only).  Once we have the Iridium Go! installed we'll have it and the HF/SSB for email access to weather information.

Tangentially, our modernisation also includes carrying Cruising Guide, Almanac, reference, equipment manuals and "cruising bible" books on our iPads.  They're loaded in Kindle and Google Play Books apps.  Other apps include PredictWind, Ovitalmap, Spyglass, ezSights, GoSkyWatch and GoSatWatch.  And of course we have many years of Yachting World and Yachting Monthly magazines on Zinio!

We're starting to feel we're ready to cross oceans again!

Newtown River to Gosport

Hi everyone,

Yesterday morning we returned to Gosport, motor-sailing in light winds.  This was the last leg of our south-west coast cruise which lasted for 55 days.  More stats later, but first a description of our time at Newtown River.

Newtown River sunset

We spent 5 nights anchored at Newtown River.  We arrived at neap tides and had plenty of depth.  For our last two nights we moved about 30m to ensure we stayed afloat as the low tides got lower.  The river is very peaceful at night.  During the day many vessels come and go, making the anchorage quite busy.

Looking SE over the mud flats

Looking S towards the Solent

William the seal

Misty dawn

Feed me or I'll eat your dinghy

High tide exploring

The landing

Our passage back to Gosport was an 11nm motor-sail in light winds.  The track and graphs are below.  The graphs show the strength of the tidal currents in the Solent.

Zen Again track

Zen Again graphs

Reaching sheet on the new Yankee

During our 55 day cruise of the south-west we logged 457nm, ran the engine for 67 hours (about 1/3 of that charging batteries) and visited 21 locations.  We stayed in 2 marinas, on 1 pontoon, on 4 swinging moorings and anchored at 14 locations.  We particularly enjoyed anchoring at the top of rivers, surrounded by farm and woodland.

The only failures we had were the engine overheating at the Needles and the fridge breaking down.  The fridge has been running pretty much continuously for 5 years so no complaints there.  We spent the last two weeks fridge-less but it's a good cool box and we had plenty of UHT milk and canned food aboard.  The successes were the AutoProp propeller, the WindPilot vane gear, the new Yankee headsail and adding SignalK to our electronics system.

Here's our overall track for the 55 days...

Zen Again South-West Coastal Cruise Track

On arrival back in Gosport we gave the boat a good wash, filled our water tanks, exchanged a propane cylinder and filled our diesel jerry cans.  Zen Again's ready for more!

Trust all's well where you are!

Poole to Newtown River

Hi everyone,

Following our passage from Weymouth to Studland Bay we spent two nights there.  Last Saturday we motored the short distance to Poole Harbour.  We spent most of the week there, did a short-stay in Poole Town Quay Marina to reprovision then yesterday sailed back to the Solent and into the Newtown River.

Poole Harbour is reputed to be the second largest natural harbour in the world, second only to Sydney Harbour.  However much of Poole Harbour is shallow.  We did a tour of the harbour before anchoring in in South Deep, south of Brownsea Island.

Here are our tracks in and near Poole Harbour...

Zen Again Tracks in Poole Harbour

Our initial tour of the harbour took us around the north side of Brownsea Island.  There are visitors moorings here but we didn't like the wash from the traffic.  So we motored around to the much quieter south side of Brownsea Island.  It's shallow but the channel is well marked.  We anchored in South Deep.  We liked it so much we stayed for five nights.

Entering Poole Harbour

Brownsea Island

Sunset in South Deep

Twilight in South Deep (looking East)

While Nicki worked from home Monday to Wednesday I worked on our boat electronics software.  See the preceding posts on SignalK.  We also did some chores including our laundry.  We love our Wonder Clean pressure washing machine.

Laundry day

South Deep Dawn

On Thursday we motored around to Poole Town Quay Marina for a short stay.  Before entering the marina we motored past the waterfront up to the first bridge and back.  A little like Annapolis's 'ego alley' except one side has the waterfront with many pubs and the other has the port and the Sunseeker yard.

Inspecting Poole Waterfront

Sunseeker Yard

In the marina it only took an hour to reprovision from the adjacent Tesco Metro, leaving us time for a sober pub lunch at The Jolly Sailor and a walk around the old town.  A lot of very old buildings and narrow side streets.  Then we motored back out to Studland Bay so as to allow departure for the Solent free of South Deep's tidal constraints.

The Jolly Sailor

Studland Bay Sunset

Yesterday we sailed from Studland Bay to the Newtown River in the Solent.  Winds have been very light recently and the afternoon offered the first decent breeze for several days.  We departed at 1100 in a light WSW breeze.  The breeze gradually built to 15 knots or so and we had a marvellous sail.

Here are the track and graphs...

Zen Again Track

Zen Again Graphs

Twas a downwind, 6 gybe passage.  Initially we had to work hard with boat speed less than 2 knots for a period.  Then the predicted wind came in and we got moving.  We had a nice view of the Needles as we approached Dolphin Bank and the Shingles.  From there we gybed NE toward North Channel.  It was fun sailing close along Hurst Beach with 2 knots of tide with us.

Departing Studland Bay

The Needles

In North Passage

Hurst Castle

Crossing the rip off Hurst Castle was fun.  We reached the approach to Newtown River rapidly with 1.5 knots of tide with us, and it was a neap tide.

In the Rip off Hirst Castle

Approaching Newtown River Mouth

The entrance to Newtown River is narrow but deep.  Inside it is quite shallow with varying depth.  It is quite well marked but care is necessary.  We found our Admiralty and Navionics charts good but our Garmin charts poor.  There are visitor's moorings and one or two were free.  We found a good spot to anchor.

Entering Newtown River

Newtown River Track

Newtown River Sunset

We had hoped to sail east to Brighton and Eastbourne this week but the light winds made that unattractive.  Maybe we'll do so in a week or two.  In the mean time we're enjoying Newtown Creek and may visit other parts of the Solent.

Trust all's well where you are!