www.marinelink.com 23
ECDIS-Certifi ed Comfort
These carefully defi ned intensities
demonstrate that the ECDIS standard
was created, fi rst and foremost, to have a
convenient means of adjusting these in-
tensities on-the-fl y. When facing a large,
bright screen in near-darkness, fi nding
the precise location of the controls on an
LCD panel can problematic. To address
this issue, the controls may be backlit,
and equipped with a proximity sensor.
With a simple wave of the hand in the
controls’ general area the machine inter-
face will light up, allowing the operator
to easily and quickly re-set the bright-
ness level to his or her desired intensity.
Additionally, for an ECDIS station, the
controls should offer presets that auto-
matically adjust the display to one of
the three type-approved, color-calibrated
intensities stipulated by the ECDIS stan-
dard.
Making Things Easier
Because this is a bridge environment,
typical users who depend on these dis-
plays will not be trained in trouble-
shooting system failures; additionally,
a display failure would be, in terms of
the system it is serving, catastrophic. To
address situations where the display or
computing system fails, a BIOS level
diagnostic utility may be provided. By
integrating the diagnostics at the BIOS
level, the display will be able to generate
a quick rundown of subsystem integrity
for any user who requires it, at any time.
Imagine, for instance, a navigator who
arrives on the bridge to lay out a chart.
This navigator turns on the ECDIS sta-
tion, but for some reason the display
fails to light up as it should. Clearly
there is something wrong, but faced
with a dark screen and a fully integrated,
closed ECDIS station, there is no way
to discover what the problem might be
without opening up the cabinet and dig-
ging through the internals. However, by
pressing an Information button located
among the monitor controls, the display
terminal’s on screen display (OSD) im-
mediately lights up with a quick run-
down of the main computer subsystems:
CPU, motherboard chipset, RAM status,
VGA output status, motherboard voltage,
temperature, storage media notifi cations
and PSU status. Our average user—ut-
terly untrained in computing system or
networking administration—is made im-
mediately aware of what the problem is,
and whether or not it can be fi xed else-
where. Issues such as memory or PSU
integrity might be able to be solved with
a simple component substitution or re-
wiring. Issues with the motherboard,
CPU, or other hardwired components
clearly indicate that the problem can
only be fi xed once the ship reaches port.
However, armed with this information,
the captain may now call ahead, fi le a re-
port and have a service technician ready
and waiting with a replacement product
or with the necessary components for
bringing the system back on line.
No Failure Will Get By Unnoticed
Clearly there remains room for im-
provement in display technology. By
addressing the needs of specifi c indus-
tries and specifi c embedded computing
requirements it is possible to deliver sig-
nifi cant improvements that both the end-
user as well as system integrators, de-
signers, and technicians will appreciate.
Mark Liu, product manager at Moxa.
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