markwesti 8 Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 This is looking pretty tempting . Anybody have this one ? Easy to use ? Phone or tablet ? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Furuno-Drs4W-Firstwatch-Wifi-1-19-Radar-Dome-10M-Cable/233217467494?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Jud - s/v Sputnik 1,426 Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 Wow, had no idea they’re so cheap.(I was expecting min. $2K.) Interested in hearing more from folks eco know about wireless radar. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Caca Cabeza 141 Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 Hmm. Looking for a new radar that got an LCD cooked in the tropics. Any user reports? Seems like a lot easier to install, *if* it really works ALL the time. Any real PIREPS? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ChuteFirst 22 Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 wireless radar is an oxymoron. if your gonna make a big power cable run up the mast anyway, who cares about the signal path being “wireless”? 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Moonduster 316 Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 Solution seeks problem. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nebe 49 Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 Does it take 6,000 AAA batteries ? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kent_island_sailor 5,279 Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 I would not buy one of those things. I have read some not very flattering reports on them AND you are now trusting your boat to a phone or tablet that can have 10,000 things go wrong with it. Besides for all that, imagine trying to find your way into a harbor in the fog/dark and the 1001 wifi access points knock your connection offline. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kent_island_sailor 5,279 Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 I would rather have this: SITEX CHEAP RADAR Or if not that any of the various radars that can connect to a PC through OpenCPN if you wan to save cash and not buy the display. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GH41 8 Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 15 hours ago, ChuteFirst said: wireless radar is an oxymoron. if your gonna make a big power cable run up the mast anyway, who cares about the signal path being “wireless”? I agree. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kenny Dumas 408 Posted December 18, 2019 Share Posted December 18, 2019 If the wireless connection is more reliable than wired, then it makes sense. Connections are a major reliability risk, but it seems unlikely Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IStream 3,412 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 I'd bet my life on a wired connection over a wireless link any day of the week, at least if it's me doing the wiring. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
maxstaylock 378 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Radar cables are big ass things, if I was fitting one up a mast, I would prefer not to drill 2 big assed holes for it? Also, the manufacturers charge like a wounded rhino for a cable extension, another 15 wires to disconnect when un stepping mast, not to mention the weight? I can see the point, I hope the signal is reliable enough. I liked the idea of tactick instruments too, until I used them. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
kent_island_sailor 5,279 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 43 minutes ago, maxstaylock said: Radar cables are big ass things, if I was fitting one up a mast, I would prefer not to drill 2 big assed holes for it? Also, the manufacturers charge like a wounded rhino for a cable extension, another 15 wires to disconnect when un stepping mast, not to mention the weight? I can see the point, I hope the signal is reliable enough. I liked the idea of tactick instruments too, until I used them. Old analog radars maybe. The new connection cables are Ethernet. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IStream 3,412 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 4 hours ago, kent_island_sailor said: Old analog radars maybe. The new connection cables are Ethernet. Plus a run of 12ga duplex power wire. We're not down to power-over-ethernet yet but the wiring for solid state radar is now equivalent to the wiring for a chartplotter. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toddster 921 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 I recently replaced my old analog radar with a new digital one. The new cable (power and Ethernet) is bigger than the old one. Wouldn’t fit through the same holes. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IStream 3,412 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Well that's just pathetic. Say what you want about Raymarine, at least they got their solid state radar upgrade routine reasonably correct. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
markwesti 8 Posted December 19, 2019 Author Share Posted December 19, 2019 Wireless is a misleading description for this thing , I should have said that you need to run a power cable . Here is something that I don't understand , and I'm not even sure I'm asking the question correctly . Will the radome communicate with a device as long as the device is powered up but not getting connectivity , does the device need to be connected internet to work ? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IStream 3,412 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 I'm pretty certain that the link is local. No internet necessary. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toddster 921 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 It was a couple of years ago when I looked into this, so things might have changed. The Furuno unit wanted to be THE WiFi hub. Your tablet had to be connected to the radar and nothing else. No external connection to the internet or anything else. The Raymarine WiFi just has to be on the same network as your devices, and you can maintain a live internet connection. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IStream 3,412 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Well, my Raymarine MFD wants to be THE wifi hub too. Even better, they configure it to own the entire 10.x.x.x subnet. Will not play well with others. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toddster 921 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 27 minutes ago, IStream said: Well that's just pathetic. Say what you want about Raymarine, at least they got their solid state radar upgrade routine reasonably correct. If that is directed to my comment, perhaps I can be more precise. The Raymarine power and ethernet cable is bigger than the old Furuno analog cable. Although the connectors on the Furuno were so big that the only way to thread it through reasonably-sized openings was to cut the cable and splice it afterwards. 27 conductors, IIRC, including a teeny tiny coax. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IStream 3,412 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Huh. My Ray Quantum radar wanted an ethernet cable and a separate power cable with a large but not unreasonably sized connector on it. The Ray analog unit I took out had a stiff cable as thick as my thumb and a big-ass multi-conductor connector on the end, so I considered it a win. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
toddster 921 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 You can get a single cable with power and ethernet. Just requires a splitter at the radome end. It was a bit cheaper than two cables, when buying a factory refurbished radome w/o cable. This was recommended by the RM guy on their "forum" website. Hmm... now I'm unsure about the RM connectivity. As I recall, the tablet does have to be pointed to the MFD, but the MFD is simultaneously connected to the LAN. That's how it gets software updates and data for some of the optional apps. Now I don't recall if the MFD passes the internet connection on to the tablet. Supposed to rain all weekend - maybe I'll hang out on the boat and play with this stuff. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
IStream 3,412 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 If you get any revelations about making a Ray MFD play nice with other networks on the boat, please enlighten us. I've got two subnets on my boat, the 10.x.x.x for the MFD and a 192.168.10.X subnet for all my other stuff. I put a router in place to bridge the two but can't get that damned MFD to bend to my will. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bugsy 699 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 17 hours ago, IStream said: I'd bet my life on a wired connection over a wireless link any day of the week, at least if it's me doing the wiring. I'd bet my life on a wireless connection over a wired link any day of the week, at least if it's me doing the wiring. I need to up my wiring skills. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Toecutter's Ghost 116 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 Wireless is fine if done correctly. Radar spits out a shipload of data so I'm guessing it needs a decent signal to be maintained between devices for reliability. My greatest fear would be needing to climb the mast with either a pen or a laptop with adaptor cable to perform a hard reset or reconfig, respectively, if something screwed up in the radome's settings. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Streetwise 74 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 As a network guy, just window-shopping some of this stuff a few years ago (when my father still had his C&C 99), made me so frustrated about the network configuration options, and how limited and short-sighted they were. I would want a UTM or router to run my network, get failover WAN from shore wifi, tethering, cellular adapters, whatever, and then create an internal LAN, with its own wifi (same device or another), and then all my marine gear would get reserved DHCP leases (not static on the device), get PoE (if practical). I run Sophos UTMs and dozens of Ruckus APs at work. If a vendor comes and and wants to set something up with a static IP, I absolutely will not let them. We use DHCP reservations for devices, and DNS to identify them. Sorry for the diversion. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
markwesti 8 Posted December 19, 2019 Author Share Posted December 19, 2019 No worry about the diversion Streetwise , I didn't really understand much of it anyway . But the first sentence about limited configurations , please explain that . I mean Furuno says plug into 12v , down load the app and you are done , so what else ? So to speak . Toecutter's Ghost , interesting , but how could the radomes setting's get screwed up ? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Streetwise 74 Posted December 19, 2019 Share Posted December 19, 2019 By this stuff, I just meant marine electronics in general, and how they integrate on the network side. I was mostly reacting to other posts about a specialist device like a plotter wanting to run the network, and then you get another specialist device that also wants to run the network. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NaptimeAgain 425 Posted August 17, 2021 Share Posted August 17, 2021 Found this old topic. Just installed the DRS4W on my small powerboat today. The unit has its own network; you log in just like any other wifi network. Ships with a password. Seems to work fine in a short test. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sailabout 169 Posted August 17, 2021 Share Posted August 17, 2021 what happened to the usb broadband flat array antenna that turned any laptop/pc into a radar? Did someone take that patent and its gone from the public for a few years? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Scrambler 7 Posted August 18, 2021 Share Posted August 18, 2021 I’ve used mine for two years. No complaints at all. It saved my butt one foggy week. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Scrambler 7 Posted August 29, 2021 Share Posted August 29, 2021 On 12/18/2019 at 10:39 AM, kent_island_sailor said: Wifi switching is not a problem. The biggest issue with this unit is keeping the ipad charged. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Panoramix 1,776 Posted August 31, 2021 Share Posted August 31, 2021 I know that some people here just buy the radar dome and connect it directly to a raspberry running OpenCPN that will show the radar image. The advantage of doing this is that you aren't reliant on the batteries of an IPad as the raspberry is powered by the boat batteries. Don't ask me the details as I've never done it myself. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cianclarke 69 Posted September 2, 2021 Share Posted September 2, 2021 On 8/16/2021 at 8:47 PM, NaptimeAgain said: Found this old topic. Just installed the DRS4W on my small powerboat today. The unit has its own network; you log in just like any other wifi network. Ships with a password. Seems to work fine in a short test. Can it join another WiFi network, rather than broadcasting it's own? I run a WiFi router aboard for devices that like to broadcast their own - but thankfully are also happy to join existing Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Scrambler 7 Posted September 2, 2021 Share Posted September 2, 2021 I don’t think the open cpn will work with Furuno. All the apps are IOS. I’m assuming. B&G and some other pricier units seem to have this feature. It cannot join a network, it only broadcasts. Perhaps a third party device would solve this requirement. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Panoramix 1,776 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 11 hours ago, Scrambler said: I don’t think the open cpn will work with Furuno. All the apps are IOS. I’m assuming. B&G and some other pricier units seem to have this feature. It cannot join a network, it only broadcasts. Perhaps a third party device would solve this requirement. Looking at the wiki, it looks like openCPN can deal with Garmin radars + Navico and Navico seems to include Simrad, Lowrance and B&G. If you are buying the radar, it might make sense to buy a slightly more expensive dome and make the economy of the display. It seems to be the common wisdom on French speaking forums, but we are cheap! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Scrambler 7 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 While there are tons of speculative posts here, it’s mostly opinions with no experience with the product. The First Watch radar dome is a fine product. I hope it lasts many years. I don’t regret buying it, never have. If you have Apple phones or an IPad and want to punt on the MFD this is a great way to go. Furuno does make two MFDs for the unit. I’ll get the 7” if I ever see it on sale. You can spend more to see the same stuff. But when the fog came and stayed, I kept cruising. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
slug zitski 575 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 1 hour ago, Scrambler said: While there are tons of speculative posts here, it’s mostly opinions with no experience with the product. The First Watch radar dome is a fine product. I hope it lasts many years. I don’t regret buying it, never have. If you have Apple phones or an IPad and want to punt on the MFD this is a great way to go. Furuno does make two MFDs for the unit. I’ll get the 7” if I ever see it on sale. You can spend more to see the same stuff. But when the fog came and stayed, I kept cruising. Good to hear that the scanner has performed to expectations Which furuno MFD services the wireless scanner ? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Elegua 1,840 Posted September 3, 2021 Share Posted September 3, 2021 I've always had good luck with Japanese hardware and bad luck with Japanese software, especially if I ever needed to configure it or have it play nicely with others. That said I have an ancient 841 stand-alone that still does nicely in the fog even though it looks like an etch-a-sketch. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NaptimeAgain 425 Posted September 5, 2021 Share Posted September 5, 2021 I had an older 11" iPad that will no longer run Navionics but it works great with the radar. Otherwise I would have no use for that iPad. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NaptimeAgain 425 Posted September 6, 2021 Share Posted September 6, 2021 On 9/3/2021 at 8:40 AM, slug zitski said: Good to hear that the scanner has performed to expectations Which furuno MFD services the wireless scanner ? Furuno 1871F/1971F Display per the GPS Store website Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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