A few weeks ago, we presented the TARA OCEAN Foundation and their Microbiomes project (article available here). Laboratory of the seas, the boat left for a two years mission in the South American and African coasts. Composed mainly of scientists, the crew studies the marine microbiome that makes up our oceans and works on an educational program to raise awareness of ocean preservation. 

To manage their navigations in remote areas, the crew members have chosen TIMEZERO. We had the opportunity to interview the Captain of the ship, Samuel Audrain. We asked him which were the two TIMEZERO features he used the most. 

Below, learn more about the two features Samuel uses the most: Radar Overlay and Instrument Interconnectivity. Available for TZ Professional and TZ Navigator, these features have also been adapted for our TZ iBoat solution, a navigation app for iPad and iPhone.

Radar Overlay:

TIMEZERO’s advanced compatibility with Furuno radars allows you to display the radar echo directly on your navigation chart. With a simple Ethernet connection, you can also control the radar and manage the settings directly from your computer: squall, sea, and rain, for example.

It is also possible to retrieve the radar signal directly using a Furuno MFD TZtouch2 or TZtouch3 multifunction tablet. 

TIMEZERO has different dedicated Workspace: “Navigation” for real-time navigation, “Planning” to manage weather data and to plan sea trips, “Double Nav” to split the screen, “Polar” to display the speed polar of your sailing boat with the Routing module, etc. The dedicated “Radar” Workspace allows you to display the radar image as you find it on the radar screen. It is possible to control the radar from this Workspace. 

Furthermore, some of the advanced features available with Furuno radars allow you to see echoes coming toward your boat in a distinct color. Automatically, TIMEZERO shows you in red all potentially dangerous moving objects. 

Discover the Radar module and Exclusive Target Analyzer in this short video presentation by following this link :

With the TZ iBoat navigation app, available for iPhone and iPad, it is also possible to display your radar image on your smartphone and/or tablet.

The DRS4W Radar from Furuno works with wifi, and you can connect it easily to your device. You can manage your navigations on your phone, from the cabin or the deck and have access to the echo of your radar at any time!

To learn more about TZ iBoat and the Radar Module, watch this video presentation:

Instrument interconnectivity:

TIMEZERO navigation software has been developed to work with a wide range of navigation instruments: satellite antenna, AIS transceiver, sounder, radar, etc. In addition, TZ Navigator, TZ Professional, and TZ iBoat offer advanced compatibility with Furuno brand devices. As we’ve seen previously with the DRS4W radar, simply connect your devices with an Ethernet cable or via wifi for a functional installation. To learn more about the compatibility of the different TIMEZERO modules, you can consult our dedicated page.

TIMEZERO uses two National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) communication protocols: NMEA0183 and NMEA2000. This allows you to connect your instruments in different ways via a USB to a serial port adapter, a virtual emulated serial port, or an Ethernet network. Depending on the type of installation and the TIMEZERO solution used, installing a wifi multiplexer is also possible to get all your data remotely. A technical article entirely dedicated to the different types of connection and data transmission is available by clicking here.

In addition to Tara Ocean Foundation, we have a partner, Erwan Le Lann, who also uses TIMEZERO to control his navigation instruments. Onboard the Maewan, a sailing boat adapted to long crossings and expeditions, Erwan has many devices: GPS connected to AIS, satellite antenna, autopilot, depth sensor, radar, etc. He explains in this article how each instrument works and shows how he uses TIMEZERO to display all his navigation data.

Finally, if you want to know how to connect and configure your instruments from the TIMEZERO software, a video tutorial produced by our technical trainer is available here:

Discover our TIMEZERO solutions for PC on our website:

You can also learn more about our TZ iBoat application by following this link: