MARPA vs Motion Scope

Just installed a 424xhd2 on our boat. I suppose I’m old school and wanted a traditional magnetron Radar. Did a 70 mile run to Catalina on Friday. Very happy with the radar’s performance. Target resolution is very good and the MARPA works quite well.

I had a Raymarine Quantum2 on the last boat. The Doppler tracking was fun, but there is no substitute for an open array with power in my opinion...

Garmin just introduced a 250 Watt Fantom Radar which is probably the best of both worlds. Couldn’t justify the cost for a vessel of this size, however...
 
By the way, agree 100% that Furuno is the leader in Radar performance. Garmin has come a long way in “catching up”, however...
 
alnav said:
Garmin has added the capability for MARPA automatic acquisition of targets. I think it was done via one of the software releases this year as it is not in last year's manual. I noticed it while setting up chart screens for a transit. It's activated via Menu > Layers > Other Vessels > MARPA > Auto Acquire on a radar or chart overlay screen.
I had one screen set up for it today on a 130NM trip. I ran into a fur ball of fishing boats at the mouth of our home river and seeing the MARPA auto-targets was actually quite helpful in getting through the mess. They were too concentrated for the doppler trails to be entirely useful but seeing each target as a track with course and speed was very useful.
There weren't an awful lot of contacts the rest of the trip but the radar did acquire most of them. There were a couple of small, fast movers that it didn't acquire but they didn't show up well as radar returns either. We had rain most of the trip and I think the radar was not tuned especially well for the conditions and I need to work on doing better at that. The documentation is typically sparse as is usual with Garmin for both the radar overall and this new capability.
The radar did acquire most buoys and some pieces of land. I don't see a spec for number of targets but I would say it's at least 30. The new documentation seems to indicate the capability interacts with MotionScope(doppler), guard zones and boundaries; I need to play with those to see if I can cut down on unneeded targets.
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Hey Al - It's been a feature since I installed the Fantom unit last summer. From what I can determine all targets that the radar acquires have and display movement data to include collision avoidance analysis and warning; nothing special required by the operator, it just does it. With that said you can identify up to ten targets for tracking reasons and they will be uniquely identifiable on the MFD. For me this has benefited to identify and track/follow a friend at night amongst many targets.
 
Tom, I think the new feature automates the capability you describe in your third sentence, so the radar can now create the uniquely identifiable targets, and more than ten based on my recent experience. From the software notes page, looks like it was added on the 30 July update which brought the GPSMAPs up to version 20.
I also saw in looking around that Garmin has just released 250W Fantom open arrays. That's about 5 times the power of the previous Fantom open arrays and over 10 times the power of the 24" radome. The press release claims it's more powerful than 25kW maggie radars, which is about the highest power available on those for recreational use. I'd love to have one to see how it works, but the 4 foot costs 10K with the 6 foot a few hundred more.
 
I am a big fan of the marpa feature on my Garmin's however it seems Garmin has made a change in how they now display this on the chart plotter. I used to be able to select a target and acquire with marpa. It would then show the target on my radar screen with bearing and speed. Now it seems i have to constantly access the marpa menu to see this data after I've acquired the target. Anyone else seeing this on the latest Garmin software? Not sure if I need to make a settings change to have it show on the radar screen while tracking the target.
 
Irie308 said:
I am a big fan of the marpa feature on my Garmin's however it seems Garmin has made a change in how they now display this on the chart plotter. I used to be able to select a target and acquire with marpa. It would then show the target on my radar screen with bearing and speed. Now it seems i have to constantly access the marpa menu to see this data after I've acquired the target. Anyone else seeing this on the latest Garmin software? Not sure if I need to make a settings change to have it show on the radar screen while tracking the target.
Click to expand...

I have actually been seeing this since last summer. It's such a PITA to use, I don't bother anymore unless I have to. I haven't tried to see if it can be changed, was going to look into this. Thanks for reminding me.
 
Irie308 said:
I am a big fan of the marpa feature on my Garmin's however it seems Garmin has made a change in how they now display this on the chart plotter. I used to be able to select a target and acquire with marpa. It would then show the target on my radar screen with bearing and speed. Now it seems i have to constantly access the marpa menu to see this data after I've acquired the target. Anyone else seeing this on the latest Garmin software? Not sure if I need to make a settings change to have it show on the radar screen while tracking the target.
Click to expand...
Oooo, I haven't seen this yet. Last weekend I used MARPA probably half a dozen times on my 8616's with Fantom 56 and it stayed on consistently both the radar display and Charts until loss of target notification is displayed. I see there is a system update available however....
The whole idea of MARPA is to display targets and their navigational data
 
ttmott said:
Oooo, I haven't seen this yet. Last weekend I used MARPA probably half a dozen times on my 8616's with Fantom 56 and it stayed on consistently both the radar display and Charts until loss of target notification is displayed. I see there is a system update available however....
The whole idea of MARPA is to display targets and their navigational data
Click to expand...
Were you able to see speed and bearing data on the radar screen without having to open a separate menu window? This is all I could see without opening a separate marpa menu window.
marpa.jpg
 
Irie308 said:
Were you able to see speed and bearing data on the radar screen without having to open a separate menu window? This is all I could see without opening a separate marpa menu window.
View attachment 144594
Click to expand...

IIRC - There is a setting a little buried in MARPA settings that allows you to see expanded info. on the screen
Sorry, seeing the pic jogged my memory.
 
SKybolt said:
IIRC - There is a setting a little buried in MARPA settings that allows you to see expanded info. on the screen
Sorry, seeing the pic jogged my memory.
Click to expand...

@Irie308 I think this is the way to change the info of the targets.
  1. From a radar screen, select Options > Layers > Other Vessels > MARPA >
  2. Select "..." and adjust additional settings (optional).
 
SKybolt said:
@Irie308 I think this is the way to change the info of the targets.
  1. From a radar screen, select Options > Layers > Other Vessels > MARPA >
  2. Select "..." and adjust additional settings (optional).
Click to expand...
Thanks, will give this a try.
 
Just installed my new Garmin GMR24X radar. Looking forward to learning this new piece of gear.

Also clean bottom, new turbo, prop coat, turbo blankets, replaced the failing duct tape in the engine room ceiling, fixed failed swim platform bracket, leaking trim tab cylinder, phewww. So looking forward to the fruits of all the blood, sweat and cash….

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IMG_9029.jpeg

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Irie308 said:
Thanks, enabled waiting to test.
Click to expand...
Just tested. Wasn’t sure if it would work at the dock but it’s all good now. Thanks!
 
Ok so it seems my issue is that my settings seems to reset after I shutdown my screens. My look ahead, marpa etc. custom settings go away after shutdown. Is there a way to lock these in? Don’t remember having to do this previously.
 
I am regularly getting these errors. Anyone else? I thought it may be related to the N2K backbone but it doesn’t explain the Radar or Active Captain Card issue.

IMG_9232.jpeg


IMG_9233.jpeg

IMG_9234.jpeg
 
rlynch03 said:
I am regularly getting these errors. Anyone else? I thought it may be related to the N2K backbone but it doesn’t explain the Radar or Active Captain Card issue.
Click to expand...
Seems to me a problem with the "Garmin Marine Network" (ethernet) would be the place to look based on the symptoms. I would start by checking and re-seating all the connectors. I think you could also check what each plotter is seeing in the System...System Information menu.
I would also check the "Station" settings, also in the System Settings area. I think that if the MFDs aren't set up as part of the same station you might see problems like this.
 
alnav said:
Seems to me a problem with the "Garmin Marine Network" (ethernet) would be the place to look based on the symptoms. I would start by checking and re-seating all the connectors. I think you could also check what each plotter is seeing in the System...System Information menu.
I would also check the "Station" settings, also in the System Settings area. I think that if the MFDs aren't set up as part of the same station you might see problems like this.
Click to expand...

You were right on… when I set up the 8616’s a year or so ago, I used a generic Cat 5 cable between the two 8616 units. All has been working well until I added the Fantom Radar. Maybe the additional data exceeded the cable bandwidth, not sure but I replaced that short Cat5 cable this morning with a new cable and all those errors are gone.

Thanks for the tip @alnav
 
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