Radar

The Radar options allow you to configure various advanced Radar Setup and displays preferences.

• Day Background Color: Determines the background color of the radar display that is used during the day.

• Night Background Color: Determines the background color of the radar display that is used during the night.

Note: The Day/Night setting can be found under the Plotter Display options.

• Echo Color: Determines the radar echo color:

• • Multicolor 1: Red for strong Echo / Yellow for medium Echo / Dark Green for weak Echo

  • Multicolor 2: Red for strong Echo / Green for medium Echo / Dark Blue for weak Echo

  • Red: Monochromatic Red with variable transparency according to echo level

  • Green: Monochromatic Green with variable transparency according to echo level

  • Yellow: Monochromatic Yellow with variable transparency according to echo level

• Echo Transparency for Overlay: Adjusts the overall intensity of echo transparency on the chart (this does not affect the Radar Work Space)

• Radar Source for Overlay (for TimeZero Single Radar ONLY): When using a DRS with TimeZero Single Radar, it is possible to use the Dual Range feature of the DRS on the chart overlay:

• • Fusion (Default): Both radar ranges of the DRS will be used and fused on the Chart Overlay. It is recommended to adjust the two ranges (one short and one long) from the "Dual Radar" WorkSpace. Usually, the Radar on the left side is used for the small range (0.5NM for example) and the second range on the right is used for long range detection (3 to 6NM).

  • Range A: Only the Range A of the DRS (left side picture of the Dual Radar WorkSpace) will be used for the overlay. By limited the DRS to only displaying Range A, it allows the DRS to rotate at high speed (up to 48RPM).

  • Range B: Only the Range B of the DRS (right side picture of the Dual Radar WorkSpace) will be used for the overlay. This allows to have individual Radar Range and settings in between the Radar Overlay and the Radar WorkSpace. This is because the regular Radar WorkSpace (not the Dual Radar) is only using Range A of the DRS (left side).

• Radar Fusion (for TimeZero Dual Radar ONLY): This setting adjusts how the two radar pictures are merged on the chart:

• • Exclusive (default): This setting should be the best choice for most application. In area where both radars overlap, only one radar will be displayed (one radar has priority over the other). The radar that gain priority in the overlapping area is the radar with the smallest range (usually the radar with the highest echo resolution). This setting also takes into account the blank sector and properly fill the gap when needed.

  • Merge: Both radar pictures are merged (displayed on top of each other) in overlapping area. This setting should only be used when the radars are not overlapping.

• Sweep Fade: The sweep fade displays a "traditional" radar animation. This feature automatically reduces the brilliance of weak signals (noise, sea clutter, rain clutter, etc.) and unnecessary echoes like radar interference.

• Rings Interval: You can manually adjust the number of Radar Range rings you want to display in the Radar Work Space. Leave the option set to "Automatic" if you want TimeZero to automatically adjust the number of rings according to the Radar Range and size of your screen (or window).

• Auto Sea Mode (DRS Only): This setting adjusts the DRS auto Sea Mode. "Advanced" should be used for most application. Use "Coastal" when in an area with lots of return from a landmass.

• Change Radar Range with Scroll Wheel: This setting lets you use the wheel mouse to move upwards to increase the radar's range, or downwards to reduce it.

• Chart Underlay Configuration: Click this buttons to adjust the Vector Chart preset that is used on the Radar screen when Chart Underlay is enabled.

1. Smart Radar: These settings are used to adjust the vector chart information allowing you to focus on "Unknow objects" without masking the Radar echo:

   1. Chart Source: TZ Vector or MM3D C-MAP  or  MM3D S57

   2. Show land as:  Determines the land echo color (Blue Echo / Purple Echo / Green Echo and Transparent Echo)

   3. Show Buoys as: Determines the buoys echo color (Blue Echo / Purple Echo / Green Echo and Transparent Echo)

   4. Show AIS target as: Determines the AIS targets echo color (Blue Echo / Purple Echo / Green Echo and Transparent Echo)

   5. Mask Dilation Offset (%): When the Smart Radar mode is enabled, TimeZero generates a "mask" that covers land areas, buoys and AIS targets, which is dilated to take into account the inaccuracy of the radar (the echo is always larger than the underlying object). You can adjust this dilation according to the size of your radar antenna from -50% to 100% using the slider. 

   6. Include Intertidal Area in Land: Selected by default. 

• Trail: Echo trails show the movements of radar echoes over time . The trails disappear over time (according to the "Trail Length" parameter).

• Watchman: The Watchman allows you to Transmit and Standby the radar automatically by setting intervals. This can be used in situation where power needs to be saved. When the Watchman is enabled and when the user presses the Transmit button, the radar will transmit during the "Automatic Transmit Duration" then standby for the "Automatic Standby Duration". If you want the radar to start transmitting automatically (and start the watchman sequence) as soon as the software is started, it is possible to add a shortcut parameter to the TimeZero shortcut icon. Please refer to Startup Mode.

• Radar Initial Setup: These settings are used to adjust the initial setup of the Radar. Note that this section will be limited if you are using a Furuno FAR radar (such as FAR2xx8) as these initial settings are performed from the Radar Processor directly. These settings are always linked to a specific Radar antenna. Make sure to select the correct Radar Hostname (from the drop down menu) before adjusting these settings.

• • Radar Host: Select the Radar detected on the network

  • Nickname: Enter the Radar Nickname that will be used in TimeZero

  • Antenna Position: Enter the Radar Antenna position

  • Antenna Orientation: Adjust this setting until the radar overlay align perfectly with the charts.

  • Insert Position from Sensor: This button uses the current GPS and Heading sensor values and inserts them automatically for the Antenna Position and the Antenna Orientation. Note that a Position and Heading must be configured in the Connection Wizard. If the GPS and Heading sensor are moved to another location, this button needs to be pushed again to update the values (they are not updated automatically).

  • Antenna Height (Furuno DRS Radar only): Select the Radar Antenna height. This setting is used to automatically adjust the STC calibration.

  • TX Channel (Furuno DRS-NXT Radar only): Select the transmit frequency of the solid state transceiver.

  • Target Analyzer (Furuno DRS-NXT Radar only): This setting allows to display or hide echo caused by rain in Target Analyzer mode. Set to "Rain" when you want to see rain and "target" when you want to hide rain and focus on target only.

  • Auto Acquire by Doppler (Furuno DRS-NXT Radar only): When this setting is enabled, the DRS-NXT will automatically acquire ARPA target based upon Doppler information (it will attempt to acquire any target that are moving at a closing velocity of 2 or more knot).

  • Antenna Heading Align: For most Coastal monitoring application, this setting should not be used (use the "Radar Antenna Orientation" setting above instead)

  • Sector Blanking: This feature is used to indicate a zone where the radar does not transmit a pulse. This is necessary if:

  • Two or more radars are mounted within each other's beam;

  • There is a significant structure near the radar that causes strong returns, overwhelming the circuitry of the radar;

  • You wish to prevent radiating a particular zone of the radar.

• Antenna Rotation (Furuno DRS Radar only): When set to "Auto" the DRS antenna rotation will increase automatically in specific conditions (at lower range). Select "24RPM" if you want the DRS radar to spin at a constant regular rate.

• Main Bang Suppression: Increase this setting to reduce the "main bang" (circle that appears at the center of the radar screen).

• DRS Broadcast Mode (Furuno DRS only): When sending the Radar picture to a remote site, this setting allows you to select if only Range A of the DRS is sent or both Ranges (fusion). When set to "Fusion" this account as two radar pictures (a maximum of 6 radar pictures can be sent overall to any remote site).

• Radar Optimization (Furuno DRS only, not available for DRS-NXT): . Pressing that button will calibrate the radar. You only need to press that button once after installing the radar. Note that there will be no feedback (no confirmation window) when you press that button.

• Set Hardware to Factory Default (Furuno DRS only): Click on this button to reset the DRS radar to its factory settings.

• Radar User Presets: Click on this button to open the Radar Preset window that allows to store radar configuration. Please refer to Radar User Preset for more information.

• Advanced ARPA Settings: These advanced ARPA settings affect how the internal TimeZero ARPA algorithm detects and tracks the target.

• Note: To adjust the Maximum and Minimum blob size, it is recommended to enable "Display Plots" at the bottom of the Advanced ARPA Settings window. This will display the "plots" using blue circles on top of the radar overlay. Once the plots are displayed on screen, it is easy to adjust the filter size until you don't see any blue circles around the echoes caused by noise, but still see blue circles around real targets.

  Note: To adjust the minimum echo strength, it is recommended to enable "Quantized Radar Display" at the bottom of the page. This will display the radar picture as seen by the ARPA algorithm. Adjust this filter until weak echoes caused by noise disappear.

  • Maximum blob size in square meters: A radar echo ("blob") that is bigger than the value of this setting will not be accepted as a valid ARPA target candidate ("Plot"). This setting is useful to reject landmass. Note that for fix radar installation, we recommend to create one or multiple Radar Mask to remove echo from land.

  • Minimum blob size in pixel: A radar echo ("blob") that has a smaller surface in pixel than the values specified will not be accepted as a valid ARPA target candidate ("Plot"). This setting is very useful to filter out noise or interferences that may create very small echoes on screen.

  • Minimum echo strength: This setting adjusts a pre-processing filter that removes weak echos from the picture used by the ARPA algorithm (blob detection algorithm). This setting is useful to remove noise (weak echo) but adjusting this value too high may create false "blob" (by breaking apart a strong large echo in multiple distinct smaller echoes).

  • Restrict ARPA to Acquisition Area: When this setting is set to OFF (default) ARPA targets that are acquired inside an Acquisition Area can still be tracked when they go outside the area (as long as they are NOT entering an ARPA exclusion area). When this setting is set to ON, ARPA targets can only exist inside acquisition area(s). If a target leave the acquisition area, it will be immediately lost.

  • Target Max Speed: This setting specifies the maximum speed of a target (50Kn by default). Decrease this value if you only want to track slower target (this will decrease the false detection rate).

  • Tracking Reactivity: TimeZero uses an advanced Kalman filter to smooth past target positions and predict the next target location. This setting adjusts the filter "responsiveness". The smaller the value, the longer the filter will take to react to sudden changes in target course. This means that targets turning fast or accelerating/stopping fast may be lost. But the advantages of a slower reactivity filter is that the COG/SOG of the target will be very stable (averaged) and its track will be very smooth. If the reactivity is increased, the filter will be quicker to react, but will cause the tracking to be "choppy" and COG and SOG to be less stable (varies quickly). Lowering the reactivity of the filter will also reduce false detection rate.

  • Target Min Acquire Scans: A target that is being acquired (displayed with dash contour) will be considered as a valid target (displayed with solid contour) when the corresponding underlying plot is present during the specified amount of consecutive antenna turn. If the echo (plot) disappears for one (or multiple) antenna turn before reaching the Target Min Acquire scans value, the counter is restarted (the target must be validated again during x consecutive antenna turn).

  • Target Max Acquire Scans: A target that is being acquired (displayed with dash contour) for too long (because the blob appears and disappears before reaching the minimum consecutive antenna turn) will automatically be dropped after reaching this value.

  • Target Min Lost Scans: A target that is already acquired (displayed with solid contour) will be considered as "Lost" if the underlying echo ("plot") disappears during the specified amount of consecutive antenna turn.

  • Display Plots: Displays the Radar Plots on screen. Plots are represented by blue circle and identify all the echoes whose shape could match a target. Pixel size and surface are also displayed next to the plots. This can help adjusting the ARPA filter during installation of the system.

  • Display Gate Distance: Displays the search gate (circle) on the chart around each target. The search gate is used to link new observations to a specific target. If an observation (plot) is outside of the search gate, it will not be used.

  • Quantized Radar Display: When this setting is enabled, the Radar Overlay will display the radar picture as seen by the ARPA processing algorithm. All echo will have the same value and will be "gated". This can be useful to temporary enable this mode when adjusting the "Minimum Echo Strength" parameter. Make sure to turn OFF this parameter when you are done.

• Radar Status (Furuno DRS only): This button opens a window displaying the DRS antenna status.