Written by Ben Ellison on Sep 17, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

On Oct. 4th I’ll present a seminar titled “Electronic Engine Monitoring Comes of Age” at TrawlerFest Bay Bridge in Stevensville, Maryland. This Garmin 741 photo will be useful as it shows three new and different ways Gizmo’s old diesel engine can now indicate a low oil pressure problem. Thanks to the Actisense EMU-1 I installed in 2013, the simple low pressure alarm switch on the Volvo Penta can trigger an informative pop-up (and audio alarm) on all the networked Garmin screens regardless of what function(s) they’re showing. And if the engine gauge page is up, the familiar low oil pressure icon lights up and, better yet, the customizable digital psi dial can go red based not on the alarm switch, but rather on a minimum pressure I’ve set. That’s all good, but modern marine electronics can do even better…

This week I’ve been exploring the engine alarming features found in current Garmin, Raymarine, Simrad, and Furuno MFD operating systems, and I came away impressed with how well organized and comprehensive they’ve become. For instance, the screens above show how Simrad and Raymarine have put all alarm info and settings into one place, and they also suggest the dozens of specific engine warnings and alarms that can be displayed if the MFD sees the requisite NMEA 2000 message (PGN) on its network. Garmin multifunction displays also seem to understand more PGNs these days, as do the all-in-one N2K instruments from the same manufacturers. Let’s note, though, that these alarms are just on/off signals sent by the engine — with no custom set points possible — because that’s a limitation I’ll be griping about.

I also checked out MFD engine gauges, but only see minor changes from my tepid 2013 review. That’s not surprising for the Furuno TZT14, which hasn’t gotten a software update since early 2014. While some useful customization is possible — engine nicknames a small but unique one — the TZT has trouble translating some of the data on my network, like oil pressure and fuel rate/economy. Furuno, however, has been busy getting out the new TZTouch2 series, which boasts of “Fully Customizable” gauges as well as improved PGN compatability (and a favorable Panbo review by Fred Khedouri). Hopefully, TZT owners will eventually receive some of the Touch2 features via a software update.

And maybe TZTouch2 full customization will motivate Simrad to make their fixed “dashboards” more flexible. Credit Navico, though, with letting you use just about any numeric value on an N2K network, pick the source when they are multiple, and also configure min/max gauge limits and min/max warnings (the red parts). Note, for instance, how the top middle gauge is showing “ENGRM” temperature. Engine Room is one of the more arcane categories built into the NMEA 2000 standard, and in my case it’s actually a Maretron TMP100 temp sensor bolted to the engine block. 165 degrees really is when I want a head’s up, and this may be the single most valuable sensor value on all of Gizmo!

Raymarine’s gauge pages remain the most flexible in overall design, TZTouch2 aside, and the customization seems improved in ways I can’t quite put my finger on. However, RPM is still the only gauge you can configure limits on, and neither of the Ray displays can “see” my Engine Room Temperature at all. And notice all the wasted black space on that otherwise snappy looking gauge window (and others). If possible, wouldn’t you rather use those pixels for radar or fishfinding, or to go full screen with that handsome NV Bahamas chart (that just became available)?

Meanwhile, Garmin also recognizes the Engine Room Temp value on Gizmo’s network but — doh! — won’t let me add it to the otherwise fairly customizable engine gauge pages on the 8212 (the 741 is more limited). The interface designers apparently tried to make the customization easier by limiting the data choices to general Engine, Fuel, Tank, and GPS categories, but odd temperatures are collected in the Vessel category. But I can show any value on any data bar on either display, Engine Room included, and also in the “Numbers” page seen above. This is the sort of screen I often pull up when warming up Gizmo’s engine, but actually I rarely use any of the test MFDs for engine monitoring.

In fact, after at least 2,000 miles of running with EMU-1 digitized engine data, my favorite gauges are the homely Maretron DSM150 at lower helm and the bigger DSM250 above, and I sometimes use them for other underway tasks too. But that’s because I’ve developed a lot of confidence in their ability to let me know visually and audibly if anything is amiss. The screens themselves flash yellow for warnings and red for alarms, with explanatory pop-ups that I can phrase myself, but it’s the audibles that usually get my attention first.

Also, on the same N2K network are two Maretron ALM100 annunciators. The one seen above is on the main circuit panel above the steps leading from the lower helm to the galley/head/stateroom area, with the other at the flybridge helm, and I can testify that their “105 dB SPL Piezoelectric sounders” can be heard anywhere aboard, even though they’re only powered by the N2K network, and even by someone asleep with the engine running fairly hard. Which would be terrible except that Maretron alerts can be tweaked in numerous ways so that false alarms, or even unnecessary repeat alarms, can be minimized. I’ve detailed this before, and overlaid on the photo above are a couple of virtual DSM250 screens showing the high Engine Block Temp alarm setup (which pops up as “Engine Hot!”).

I’ve also written about Maretron’s great labeling feature before, but here’s a reminder screen showing that I can use N2KAnalyzer on Gizmo’s PC to give the TMP100 sensors more accurate labels than the temp category names supplied in the N2K standard, particularly when I use the sensor in a somewhat odd way. These labels, like the rest of the configuration, gets pushed to the sensor box itself and can then be seen on the DSM displays. All this can done with the DSM itself, but it’s tedious and for tasks like alert setups, which can only be done on the DSM (or with N2KView), I usually use the virtual DSM250 (which you can demo yourself on a PC).

Now I’m not saying that the big MFD manufacturers could or should emulate everything Maretron does (though I have fantasized about what, say, a Garminized Maretron monitoring setup might look like). But any one of them certainly could allow a boater like me to customize an alarm based on engine temperature, oil pressure or even an oddball sensor like the one on my engine block. By the way, the reason I find that one so valuable is that it tells me the moment my diesel is getting abnormally hot and is independent of the Volvo Penta alarm, which only tells me when the engine is way too hot anyway. And, look, many MFDs like the Simrad above already have nicely customizable alarms for some non-engine values. (Where you see two custom % or gal figures above, those are Warning and Critical limits.)

Here’s a similarly flexible alarm on Raymarine, meant for fishing, though I set it up to let me know if I ever get south of Maine again. And while I don’t have an illustration at hand, I know that Garmin already allows limited labeling (just tanks and engines as I recall), but I don’t know why any of the manufacturers couldn’t enable extensive labeling, including what a given sensor value really is about and what an alarm really means. It might just work within their own display networks, but heck, I believe there’s some sort of labeling built right into the N2K standard, though so far hardly used.

If, like me, you hope for better MFD alarming, please speak up. These are the glorious days when MFDs have become so powerful and connected that the developers often aren’t sure what feature to improve or create next!

But wait… how about something truly new in engine room monitoring and alarming? Just today FLIR and Raymarine announced LightHouse 15 support for the AX8 camera, which combines standard video detail with low res but very accurate and stable thermal sensing. The results can go to a Ray display network over Ethernet, and I understand that the interface not only shows your propulsion plant like you’ve never seen it before, but also lets you program different temperature alarms for different sections of the thermal image. More to come.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Sep 24, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

When pretending to sail, I go for high performance. That’s why the screen above seems to show Gizmo exceeding true wind speed while extremely close hauled. But pretending is also why I can’t truly review the new sailing features that came to all current Raymarine multifunction displays last May, thanks to a free LightHouse 14 operating system update. Additionally, most of the features described in the press release are about racing, which I did little of even when I was sailing a lot. But let’s walk through the new Raymarine MFD capabilities anyway, and hopefully we’ll hear from sailors who’ve actually used these tools or the similar ones offered by B&G and Garmin…

In fact, current Raymarine, Garmin and B&G MFDs can now all calculate laylines. To see the Ray version above — or any of the sailing features in LightHouse 14 — you first need to choose one of the three boat types that might typically tack to a mark. Then you need to activate a waypoint or route and decide which of the three layline types you want to use. Mirrored TWA (True Wind Angle) is the easiest, with the next tack simply calculated as the opposite of whatever angle you’re currently happy with. Or you can establish target upwind and downwind angles, and then be reminded about what you think your boat can do. Note that if you enable a Min & Max Laylines time period, the shaded triangles will show the shift history — 30 minutes was too long — and that if your laylines separate by more than 170 degrees, they disappear (because you’re reaching).

I believe that Garmin and B&G each have somewhat different ways of controlling and displaying laylines, but that Raymarine is the first to enable polars right in the MFD. That means the display can calculate laylines based on a table describing your boat’s speed at various wind angles and points of sail. I found the upload process to be easy, though I noticed on the Raymarine Tech forum that there has been some difficulty with .csv files created on Mac computers. The forum is also a good place to snatch polar tables that will definitely work (like I did) and which you can modify for your boat, or you may find appropriate ones via Google (like these). Note that you may want more than one polar table for different sea conditions, desired comfort levels, or even motor sailing, and switching them on a Ray MFD is dead simple.

The Ray crew also created a nice LightHouse 14 New Features manual which can still be downloaded here, but may get folded into the regular user manual when LightHouse 15 actually becomes available. And yes, as this manual page suggests, LH 14 includes a racing timer and start line builder. But first let’s look at a course route builder feature that is also unique to Raymarine at this point (I’m pretty sure).

So there’s a new choice in the My Data/Routes menu called Build Using Racemark IDs, which are just abbreviations you’ve added to the comments section of desired waypoints. You simply list them as shown in the Advanced Sailing Tools video screen captured above and, bada boom, the race route is done. There’s even a helpful pop-up (upper right) when you actually try it. And perhaps the icing on the cake are the nifty racemark icons that Ray added to their waypoint library (which is such a useful but simple idea that I can almost hear the face slaps emanating from competitor shops). Of course, all this is particularly helpful when you race regularly in the same area with standard marks, but couldn’t the quick route building also be useful to anyone who just cruises the same area in many different ways?

At any rate, the race course route building worked fine for me, as did the flexible race timer and the startline builder. But what’s missing? Well, Garmin’s Start Guidance diagrammatic window with values like Distance to Line and Time to Burn seems quite useful (and similar is available on B&G when H5000 gear is in the mix, ditto for polars). Perhaps what is more important, especially for cruisers, is that Raymarine does not yet seem able to total up the predicted laylines to get the useful info B&G calls SailTime, seen below as TTW-S (Sailing Time to Waypoint) and DTW-S (Sailing Distance, and there’s also ETA-S available). I don’t think a Garmin MFD can do this math either, though it may well be possible with some of the Nexus add-ons.

But of course all this is subject to change (if I did get it right), and that’s the bigger picture here. Raymarine LightHouse software went for years without doing much specifically for the many sailors who use Ray gear and then, pow, this whole feature bundle arrives for free and works on every MFD they’ve made for a while. And every MFD developer is capable of such nice surprises these days, and of course all are regularly improving the features they already offer. Rejoice, at least until that dreaded day when your main system manufacturer feels the need to upgrade its hardware so it can do things yours never will.

Now who out there has sailed or raced with Raymarine’s new features or similar? What worked for you, what didn’t, and what else do you want?

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Written by Ben Ellison on Oct 12, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Veethree is a serious instrumentation company with significant engineering and manufacturing facilities in Florida and India (impressive corporate video here). The vast majority of their business is OEM, so while the ruggedly-built Engine Gateway Monitor (EGM) above is packaged as a retail product, you’re not apt to see one at a marine store and it’s even hard to find at Veethree (go to the bottom of this marine page). But my testing suggests that it could be useful on many boats, especially with a few of the firmware features coming to its big brother, the 800 EGM…

The Veethree EGM seems tougher and more waterproof than competitive gateways that similarly translate analog sensor data to NMEA 2000, like the Actisense EMU-1 I’ve long used or the AlbaCombi I’ve also been testing recently. The backside, for instance, shows a capped USB port and the two gasketed and snap-in Deutsch connectors that help the EGM earn an IP67 rating. The wire harnesses do necessitate multiple butt connections but they should end up fairly strong and waterproof if done right, and it would be easy to replace an EGM if it were ever necessary.

Of course, the EGM is a monitor as well as a gateway with a 3.5-inch sunlight-readable 320 x 240 pixel gauge display that can dim down and/or be put in night colors. The interface can also be used to configure the EGM, and that includes specifying the source of each data type the display supports, whether it’s coming from an anlog sensor, the N2K network, or even the J1939 CANbus input that’s part of the wiring harness. In fact, as first tested and seen on several of these screens, the EGM was nicely showing engine data being generated by Gizmo’s EMU-1 (as well as other N2K data), and if I had a more modern diesel with J1939 output, I trust that the EGM would be able to display at least the more common data types, as well as gateway them to my other N2K screens (like the Maretron J2K100 does).

The EGM offers three gauge screens, all the same design except that you can easily make each one unique by stepping through the three “dials” and the numeric window selecting whatever data type you want from the available sources. So in the screen above I’ve “Selected” the lower right dial and am using the “Option” button to choose between Fuel Rate, Oil Pressure, etc. By the way, if you click one of these screen images bigger, you’ll see the many “trouble light” alarm icons that can often be triggered by J1939 or N2K engine streams (but usually aren’t sensored on analog engines).

Finally, there’s a fourth screen that can display the fuel burn of up to three engines with flow totals and MPG calculated by the EGM and fuel level based on one tank level sensor. (Remember, if you have fuel flow, you may have two ways to tell how much is left.) There’s a lot going on under the EGM’s hood, though in fact it’s only a version of what Veethree makes available to OEM engineers as the Veecan 320 customizable display (via master distributor New Eagle). I believe we’ve seen the underlying 320 elsewhere in marine electronics, like this Offshore Systems tank monitor, but if you want the EGM model, the best source seems to be a dealer with a Gemeco account (and expect a retail price of about $700).

Given all the Veethree engineering behind the EGM, it’s not surprising to find extensive configuration and diagnostics. And it’s easy to use with the five-button soft key interface, plus a decent manual (download here). A true geek, for instance, can see and log the raw data coming into either CAN port, check out the NMEA 0183 port (I hadn’t mentioned yet), or monitor the raw analog inputs alongside their calibrated output.

I was pleased just to get the whole list of possible data types, sources, and live values. In this case I was still using the EMU-1 engine data already on Gizmo’s N2K network, but then I detached that gateway and temporarily connected three of the resistance-based sensors — coolant temp plus oil and boost pressure — to the corresponding EGM inputs.

I was again impressed with the calibration routine, which starts by picking one of several curves that mimic traditional gauges. This is similar to the Actisense configuration, though the EMU-1 automatically determines whether the gauge is still in use, which is to say whether or not to provide signal current to the sensor. On the other hand, the EMU-1 does not offer further adjustment (though that’s promised in a future update). I have not yet been underway with the EGM enough to really see how close I’ve calibrated it to Gizmo’s remaining analog gauges — better yet would be independent sensors like a flywheel RPM counter — but it looks pretty good (and actually it only takes consistently inaccurate results to monitor and alarm an engine pretty well).

However, the Veethree EGM has two significant limitations. If you look closely at the Deutsch connector diagrams above, you’ll see that it has 7 analog resistance-based inputs, but they are set up for specific sensors. In Gizmo’s case, I can monitor and gateway 3 important engine values but not transmission oil pressure (like I can on the EMU-1). Plus, I can only monitor one of the boat’s two fuel tanks, and 3 of the EGM’s inputs would go unused when they could be wired to other tank senders and/or temp sensors on, say, Gizmo’s shaft log and raw water pump. Veethree certainly has the chops to make these inputs more flexible, but that would also make the interface more complex and might add to the technical support burden. But then again, Sales Engineer Eric Mueller — who I met at the Miami Show — emphasized that Veethree does respond to customer input.

The EGM also lacks the voltage-based analog inputs needed to display and gateway the simple on/off engine alarm sensors found on engines like my Volvo Penta, but Veethree has worked around this in an interesting way. As explained in the manual, the alarms are programmed into the EGM using the regular sensor values instead of the alarm sensor. This is not ideal in my book — I like redundancy — but it seems to work fine and suggests that the EGM could be tweaked so that users could set their own custom alarm points below the extreme values typical of simple on/off alarms (as I strongly favor).

In fact, after hearing my input on this subject, Mueller wrote, “…both the high and low settings for those [programmed alarms] as well as additional alarms for all of the predefined analog inputs of the EGM can be modified via the configuration INI text file. For an advanced user who would like to do so, we could provide the text file along with a script that would be both placed on a USB stick and used to upload to the unit.” Nice! That means you could have early warning alarms showing up on the EGM, which would be even more useful if the EGM gets more flexible inputs (sorry, Eric).

And here’s evidence that the EGM does a good job distributing alarms over NMEA 2000 (if the display knows what to do with the PGN). As discussed recently, the EMU-1 does have inputs for on/off alarm sensors and the output triggers a similar pop-up, but the only way I can program and display custom early warning engine and related alarms is within Gizmo’s Maretron system. Obviously, I’d like this situation to change — sorry for such a long entry — and it can easily; all the pieces are available.

At any rate, much of the info seen on this Simrad NSS evo2 utility screen is coming from old analog sensors via the EGM (some is demo, as shown on the EGM Data Viewer screen further up). Most interesting for me is the Boost Pressure value, as neither my analog gauge nor the EMU-1 show any. I had presumed a broken sensor, and maybe what’s shown above is just aggressive calibration of a very weak signal. Only a high speed test will tell the story, and I’ll report back in the comments section, but then again, Veethree has a lot of experience with analog sensors.

So here’s the EGM displaying and gatewaying my analog engine sensing to all sorts of N2K displays at Gizmo’s lower helm. But I’m not done yet, as Mueller also sent me a simulation of what the bigger EGM 800 will look like when released, and wow, couldn’t it do a lot of good work on many boats? Before I go on, though, note that the original EGM also has two relay outputs so it can drive at least an audible alarm system.

The Veethree EGM 800 will be based on the VeeCan 800 OEM product, like the EGM is based on the VeeCan 320, and hence the screen is 800 x 400 pixels. If you download the VeeCan 800 datasheet, you’ll learn that this gadget is also touch screen and has three 12-way Deutsch connectors on the back. So, in addition to NMEA 2000, J1939, RS232 (0183), tachometer and Ethernet ports, the EGM 800 will have 14 analog inputs, 3 digital/flow sensor inputs, and 8 switched outputs now called Relay/Solenoid because it can conceivably go beyond display and gateway duties to controlling other devices.

As best I can tell from the beta firmware simulation, the EGM 800 may only have one display screen, but it can show a lot. And I’m told that one design goal is the ability to show every possible J1939 engine value, including new Tier 4 data. What I can see in the simulation is how Veethree is making the EGM 800 much more flexible than the orginal.

For instance, when you go to the nifty graphic analog input setup screen, your touch pick can apparently handle any resistive sensor you want. On Gizmo that might be the four main engine sensors, the four tank sensors (currently on a CZone Signal Interface), the four active temp sensors on a Maretron TMP100, and I’d still have 2 free inputs. Given that and the fact that no N2K-to-PC gateway is needed for setup and calibration, the EGM 800’s anticipated $1,400-1,500 suggested retail doesn’t seem so high.

Calibration also seems improved or at least prettier, and the Title and Line fields suggest the ability to custom name the inputs and perhaps keep notes on their installation, both similar to what Maretron N2KAnalyzer can do. Now wouldn’t it be nice if Veethree, Maretron, and the MFD/N2K instrument manufacturers all adopted the Label function supposedly built into N2K so something somewhat exotic like “Starboard GenSet Raw Water Pump Temp” traveled around the network like the value can?

But I saved the best for last. The EGM 800 offers excellent gauge building, almost as flexible and complete as Maretron’s but a lot easier than what it takes on a Maretron DSM (though N2KView is likely also much easier). Note from the screenshot how you can not only change the range, but also the large and small markers and even the increment of change. Moreover, every single value in the EGM 800’s database, regardless of source, can be alarmed high and/or low with a choice of alarm severity, as seen below. That’s what I’m talking about!

Actually, Maretron is still ahead in sophisticated alarming — like a Hatch Open alert conditional to SOG over 1 knot — but Veethree’s EGM series puts some really valuable possibilities into rugged, self-contained devices suitable to small and medium size boats. And while I’m not sure many do-it-yourselfers are up to this sort of install, despite Veethree’s quality manual and interface, it’s good to know what your trusty professional has available. There also may be developers in other marine niches who might like to partner with Veethree (I know one that already has), and let’s hope that the big MFD programmers take a good gander at how well gauge customization and alarming can be done on a touch screen.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Oct 26, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Sorry for the fuzzy photo, but it makes sense as the iKommunicate Signal K Gateway isn’t a real product yet, and the real product may look quite different from the “Proof of Concept” prototype above if it actually materializes early next year. Why so vague? What’s happening here is a techy chicken and egg thing. Digital Yacht was understandably hesitant about developing a gateway for Signal K apps and services that hardly exist yet, but the Signal K universal boat data concept — open source, entirely free, and created by unfunded volunteers – needs a commercial level NMEA gateway so that third party developers can easily show us what the potential apps and services can do. That’s my understanding of why DY launched the iKommunicate Kickstarter campaign and also why I’m hoping that fellow boat geeks and related companies will join me in backing the project and thus helping Signal K become real…

Actually it’s very likely that the iKommunicate Gateway crowdfunding campaign will reach its $20,000 goal, as it’s already more than 25% there after just three days and little publicity. In fact, I think that Digital Yacht set the goal low and the campaign period long because the company is already committed to making the gateway happen. The idea of using Kickstarter is not just to hedge gateway sales against the uncertain commercial future of Signal K but also to build a community of enthusiastic kibitzers toward that future. And note that backers of product projects like this aren’t exactly philanthropic; most of us are buying something that hasn’t been fully developed yet so we can get early delivery at a discount plus a little say in how it’s developed, or at least the right to claim “early investor” status (if and when that’s something to be proud of ;-).

iKommunicate is the ninth Kickstarter project I’ve backed — and I just signed on to the interesting Hello Ocean campaign on Indiegogo — so I know something about how effective and enjoyable this new form of fund raising (and/or sales) can be. For instance, I enthusiastically followed the original Pebble watch Kickstarter as it raised nearly 11 million dollars from almost 70,000 backers, and then I became an evangelist for the actual resulting Pebble that had been so well developed and manufactured with all that backing. And while Pebble certainly did not need Kickstarter to develop the new Pebble Time, I was one of the many repeat backers to join the Kickstarter fun and now I’m much enjoying the second watch I got early and discounted.

There are crowdfunded product projects that produce crappy results or never deliver at all, but the danger with iKommunicate is more that Signal K doesn’t work well and/or isn’t used by many developers to create useful apps and services. That’s why DY plans to make the iKommunicate Gateway capable of outputting NMEA 2000 and 0183 data through your boat router in the same way that boat data hotspots like the Navico GoFree, the Vesper XB8000, the Brookhouse iMux and others do. This means that early iKommunicate users should be able to get basic boat data like GPS, Wind, Depth, and AIS to apps like iNavX, iRegatta, and others (like I did last summer with the TimeZero V2 app) regardless of SK.

But I think that Signal K will really happen, and perhaps spectacularly. Besides for the iKommunicate Kickstarter and the Signal K site, you can learn more about the concept from my May entry about the friendly new NMEA SK relationship and from Bill Bishop’s recent musings about how SK actually fit in at the NMEA Conference. I heard concerns about Signal K data security routines that need definition, and the number of N2K PGN’s that still need to be translated into SK syntax by volunteers who have day jobs, but it’s terrific that this ambitious open source idea is now in the same room with the major and minor makers of marine electronics and software. And at least some of them are interested, as I’ll relate below.

First I want to describe my hurried though eye-opening experience with a Signal K demo given by Digital Yacht CEO Nick Heyes (who was a NMEA new guy in 2008). What you’re seeing in the photo above is dummy vessel Maverick’s NMEA 2000 data being gatewayed by the prototype iKommunicate and WiFi’d to an app which is turning the SK info into an instrument and mapping display. While you could say “so what?” because this is already fairly easy to do, the missing image would show the iKommunicate SK screen where the boat user can enter a boat name like “Maverick” and a raft of other information that currently has no place to live in NMEA data standards. So Signal K adds a rich data layer to regular NMEA 0183 and 2000 (which it also translates better), and all of it can be available to app developers as you see fit.

The ActiveCaptain app Locations is one of the first to support Signal K and a good example of why. Locations has been around for a while and in order to fully identify nearby AC users or special friends it needs both profile info from eBoatCards and current location data preferably from somewhere else. I use a link between eBoatCards and my test inReach Explorer, which AC makes easy, but many eBoatCarders just input their location manually, which is why my friends on the S/V Makana aren’t really moored in Camden today like they were last June. Now Locations 1.2 can get GPS info from “0183 info over IP” WiFi sources like the ones I mentioned above but, better yet, I’ll bet users with an SK connection will soon be able to share info like what anchorage they’re headed to or even the route. What’s more, Signal K means that other developers can create something like Locations without having to build something like eBoatCards first.

At any rate, AC’s Jeff Siegel was enthusiastically present at the NMEA Conference and I suspect that iKommunicate will receive some AC love soon. Also present and grinning was Luis Soltero of RedPort and GMN, who has embraced Signal K too. He envisions how the richer, more app friendly SK protocol can help make boat data more useful over the narrow band satellite communications he specializes in. I’ve hacked up his diagram to fit the space below, but here’s a tangible example: Picture an AIS man overboard device alarming not just the MFD system on your boat but also auto sending a report ashore using a modest device like an Iridium Go!

Not much is concrete yet, but it’s encouraging to see serious marine developers like Digital Yacht, Siegel and Soltero at least tentatively get behind the already impressive Signal K crew. That’s why I’m backing iKommunicate and maybe you should consider it?

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Written by Ben Ellison on Nov 10, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

There’s lot to report from the Fort Lauderdale Show, but the calendar dictates that I first write about this Seapilot satellite compass. That’s because a startling 50% show discount is still available this week, so you can buy the Vector Compact-N NMEA 2000 model seen above for $500 simply by applying the code “FLIBS2015” in the shopping cart. The Compact seemed like a relatively good value at twice the price when I first discussed its features last November, and since then I’ve seen it perform pretty well on Gizmo…

I don’t know why Seapilot is selling the Compact at half price — and all its Class B AIS transponders too — but maybe it’s because many boaters don’t yet realize how much a GPS (GNSS) compass like this can do. It not only supplies a fast Heading source for autopilots and radar overlay, regardless of a vessel’s magnetic disturbances and without calibration; it also provides precision GPS positioning and Attitude information like Roll and Pitch. Except for Depth, all the nav data seen on the Simrad NSS7 evo2 charting screen above is coming from the Compact, and the Heading is very accurate even though Gizmo is tied up and therefore the Course over Ground (COG) is random.

And you can see even more Compact data output on the diagnostic list the NSS can show for any N2K source (though I don’t know what Simrad means by Attitude Yaw, which is the same as Rate of Turn, I think, and not mentioned by Seapilot). The sensor data seems reliable in all conditions, too, even with the test Compact mounted on Gizmo’s port spreader with lots of other antennas around and above it. In fact, I have often used it to provide smooth “gyro stabilized” Heading to Gizmo’s Simrad autopilot since I installed it in North Carolina last April.

But I did sometimes test the Compact on the boat’s other N2K network and you can see it here chosen as the preferred GPS and Heading source for a Garmin 741. And if I had thought to set up that Garmin 8212 screen better, you would see the Compact helping to calculate Ground Wind (because on most marine electronics, Heading is a component of Ground Wind but not True Wind, though that’s a different story.)

This Furuno NavNet TZT screen reveals Vector Compact data output details particularly well, but also shows a glitch. The Magnetic Variation here in Maine is West 16°, not East, and the mistake is not simply a poor translation of binary data that’s used for internal math, not for normal navigation display. The main TZT data boxes show a Magnetic Heading 32° different — 16 times 2 — from the Simrad, Garmin, and Raymarine screens all listening to the same Compact compass. So it looks like a Furuno problem, but then again Variation correction can be a tricky area of NMEA 2000, especially on a mixed brand network, and Furuno is one of the few vendors that even let’s a user choose a source if there are multiple available. (And the same TZT will display accurate True Headings, so the glitch is not insurmountable.)

Meanwhile, Gizmo’s test Raymarine a77 could not specifically identify the Vector Compact as a GPS source, but Ray’s Lighthouse operating system has long been weak at NMEA 2000 utilities (though getting better with every software update), most networks don’t have four different brand GPS sources, and the a77 can use the Compact data fine once I picked the right “unkown” source (or automatically). In short, the Seapilot Compact seems to offer solid GPS and Heading performance but the complex data set in the background may not be understood perfectly by every N2K device. In fact, Seapilot updated the Vector Compact firmware to correct some minor issues since sending me the test unit, though updating requires returning the unit because no display with an SD card can apply it.

You also can’t calibrate a Seapilot Compact from a different brand display, because that just isn’t done over NMEA 2000 (except for some cases where the calibration values are kept within the display instead of the sensor, like Furuno). But there is generally no calibration needed if the sensor is installed well, and the Compact hardware makes that easy. Note in the top photo, for instance, the thin lock nut which let’s you precisely align the Compact instead of messing with tape or thread adhesives. Note too that the last step is screwing the compass to the pole mount adapter from above, so there’s no twisty cable issue. The Compact can be flush mounted too — and will practically dissappear on many boats that way, because it’s so small and low profile — but precision first time alignment, or an intermediary plate, will be needed.

But maybe you don’t want a GPS compass, and I’ll add that an even more inexpensive Simrad GS25 can provide sufficient Heading and GPS info to Gizmo’s autopilot etc. How about a top-of-the-line Seapilot CTRX Graphene+ AIS transponder with NMEA 2000 and a built-in antenna splitter for $550? Note that Seapilot is the recreational brand of the AIS experts at True Heading. The 50% discount code “FLIBS2015” is purportedly good until Nov. 15, and also applies to the SeaPilot app, which recently got a weather routing module.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Nov 30, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Digital switching is one of the most intriguing aspects of modern marine electronics, but also one of the most mysterious. At FLIBS, for instance, I wasn’t the only boater jealously admiring sexy screens like the one above running on a Raymarine gS15 multifunction display. But when you try figuring out how you can get this elegant level of system control and monitoring onto your boat, you’ll eventually realize that there is a complex conglomeration of hardware and software behind it, and it’s usually under marketed and lightly documented. In fact, the whole concept still mainly makes sense for new and higher end boats, because it’s an expensive and entirely different way of doing things, and those builders remain understandably cautious about adopting it. Nonetheless — and another sign of a re-invigorated recreational marine industry — I detected lots of digital switching progress at the fall shows…

Raymarine seemed to show even more elaborate MFD digital switching screens at METS, and rumor has it that such features are becoming standard on certain Azimut and Sea Ray models. But don’t expect to see specifics about digital switching systems on the websites of those builders; they seem especially reluctant to call out separate brand subsystems like these, preferring to let them look like the custom integrations they largely are. (This Azimut Technical School page is revealing, however). At any rate, lack of publicity is one reason why I hope you’ll tolerate my poor boatshow photos – fingerprints and glare included.

This is a good time to note that digital switching almost invariably includes microprocessor-based circuit protection and monitoring. The results are a significant reduction in wiring, often called distributed power, and the ability of the system to sense the electrical currents passing through it. In other words, the switching seen on the screens above is not just the fancy equivalent of an electromechanical button or toggle switch panel; when the nav light graphic icons illuminate with a screen touch, for instance, the system knows that they’re actually consuming a specific current at a specific voltage and can alarm you if otherwise.

As described here in 2013, the primary module in Raymarine’s digital switching system has been the powerful EmpirBus NXT. But now Trigentic has developed the Connect 50 “for smaller and less complex installations.” The Connect still has 20 programmable DC output channels with niceties like built-in light dimming and advanced wiper controls, plus 11 input channels for mechanical (like) switching and analog sensors. Measuring and digitizing tank levels, voltages, pressures, etc. is another common feature of digital switching systems and, as you’ll see way below, EmpirBus is not the only brand adding flexible multi-channel I/O designs that should cost less and install easily in smaller boats.

I was surprised to find EmpirBus Graphic software available for download on the Trigentic site, and it appears that a boat builder, electronics installer or end user can use it to build those lovely Raymarine digital switching screens. However, the EmpirBus Studio program used to actually configure the modules — and thus create the function file represented in the upper left window above — is not available. The process, as I understand it, is that Trigentics does the module programming in consultation with Raymarine and the client, and then Ray maintains an offboat copy as part of its global support for the system, which seems like a good thing.

Simrad — which trailblazed digital switching on an MFD with CZone in 2010 — showed off a new partnership at METS. I was not familiar with Naviop Marine Automation, but it didn’t take much time in their booth (or on their website) to see that they are deep into the complex world of bigger boat system management. They offer their own nav/monitoring touchscreen displays, for instance, and the graphic interfaces are highly customizable. So the Simrad relationship is not so much global distributor as alternate interface screen provider. In fact, Simrad told me that it was relatively easy to create a Naviop server within NSS evo2 and they’re open to doing similar with other digital switching developers.

Note the large quiver of Naviops power distribution and data interface modules available, like the Egon, the Nova, and especially that wild T-Box N2000 sprouting Ethernet, N2K, multiple CanBus and RS232/422/485 ports. “More than 50 communication protocols implemented (engines, air conditioning, generators, battery chargers, entertainment systems, digital switching systems, etc.)” is the Naviops’ claim, and I was told that EmpirBus and CZone are included. In short, the sophisticated-seeming digital switching I’m most familiar with can be a subsystem of a bigger boat install, and all of it can now be seen and managed on Simrad helm displays.

Offshore Systems now has similar capabilities. While the company used to specialize in relatively simple though often unique NMEA 2000 sensors — like this cool fuel fill — at METS 2015 they were posing in the Superyacht Pavilion with their own BlackGlass Bridge Systems, touch screens and highly evolved control and monitoring software/hardware included. Managing Director Bruce Coward (at left) is very proud of the highly flexible screen design software they’ve developed, but before I get further into BlackGlass, let’s sidetrack to that Dual Engine Display, which we honored with an Innovation Award at IBEX 2014. Its beauty is not just how sleekly it can fit onto a modern helm — as seen in this Princess 68 sea trial video — but how it can completely display whatever is coming from the engines in J1939 or N2K format, replacing the clunkier gauge displays from most major engine manufacturers at significantly less cost and with no warranty issue! (Note to the trade: Coward allows that it was big engine customers like Princess that got the manufacturers to relent on the warranty issue, not his electronics company.)

The home screen for the 88-foot sailing yacht above is just one of many BlackGlass interfaces you can check out online, but again you can see how digital switching has moved well beyond lighting and similar commonplace functions. Apparently you can lock off the boat’s halyard with this touch screen, for instance. One thing that’s going on here, and with Naviops too, is that N2K sensing and switching is becoming a component of the bigger do-anything PLC-based systems that are nearly “traditional” on very large yachts. Hence Offshore developed its NMEA 2000 to Modbus Gateway and added ABB Programmable Logic Controllers to their behind-the-scenes tool kit.

When it comes to bigger boat switching and distributed power, OctoPlex is still very much in the game, with Gen2 components coming online and the relationship with sibling brand Maretron deepening. (Maretron has its own basic digital switching, by the way.) Digitally managing AC switching and circuit protection remains one of the tough issues in this niche, because it still can’t be done solely with transistors, and (probably thanks to the Carling Technologies mothership) OctoPlex seems to offer exceptionally slick solenoid-activated AC breaker panels. Note the redundant N2K control cables, the included breaker removal tool, and the “all’s well” green LED that usually glows through the window on the panel’s (not shown) outer cover, but will go red if a breaker trips. The OctoPlex team at FLIBS was especially proud of the stellar uptime record their many Viking installs have accrued, evidenced by the fact that their system has been chosen again for the new 80 Series (great in-build PDF here).

I’ll add that not all digital switching systems have accrued a good record, though the stories are very hard to document. Rumors abound of light switches that suddenly operated anchor winches, not to mention total system burnouts from nearby lightning strikes, plain old fires, and — perhaps the technology’s greatest setback — builders who had to replace entire bow-to-stern systems with the traditional power cabling they could have done for a small fraction of the cost in the first place. But those stories are mostly old, some of the purported culprits have shrunk or vanished, and there are getting to be a fair number of successful boats out there with digital switching.

Integration with the big color touchscreen display systems that dominate many new boat helms these days is certainly part of how digital switching is succeeding, and Mastervolt CZone is seen as the current winner in this area, with relationships to both Garmin and the Navico brands. At FLIBS, I was pleased to see that Garmin now lets users modify CZone pages, though the underlying configuration remains at OEM level.

But the big CZone news is the new COI module seen below (though there’s nothing about it online yet). The COI will pack the capabilities of several existing CZone modules into one less expensive box that can conceivably control all the power needs and many of the sensor needs of a modest vessel. Note that all the labeling on the show demo below is for one specific boat configuration. The 14 power outputs can protect and switch most any circuits as long as the total amperage doesn’t exceed 150, and similarly the 8 analog and 6 digital inputs can do all sorts of tasks besides the ones listed. Meanwhile the IN-D port is for boats that don’t even use N2K interface and the USB port means that a CZone system with a COI can be programmed without a separate gateway. And remember that CZone seems more willing than most to deal with a retrofit and/or a lone dealer/installer (or sometimes even a DIY guy like me).

Mostly though, digital switching is going to be seen on new boats, and I believe it will make those boats more and more tempting.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Jan 19, 2016 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

A memorable moment of 2015 was waking up in Kees Verruijt’s attic guestroom in Harlingen, Netherlands. If my lens were wider, you’d see the thick thatch capping his sturdy brick home. And if I’d waited a bit, the photo might include one of the family-owned-and-operated cargo vessels that often motor by enroute to or from the Wadden Sea. What you can see clearly, though, is Kees’s own dream boat Merrimac, which I would soon tour. I’d been following this boat project for years, knew that it motivated Kees’s valuable CANboat work, and given that CANboat helped birth Signal K, I figure that Merrimac may earn a special spot in marine electronics history…

Before the electronics, though, let’s have a look at an impressive cruising vessel. Merrimac is a custom aluminum Stadtship 56, and quite an upgrade for Kees and his family, who once cruised a boat he could barely sit up in. One detail he’s proud of is how the open stern can accommodate and provide good access to a hard tender. Another that especially impressed me is that leafed companionway hatch system, which easily stows down into a pocket or can be set at any height. Note, too, the solid rails extending well forward and also the harness track running along the cabin, thus allowing a crew person to stay continuously clipped in all the way to the foredeck. More interesting detail is included in the builder’s Merrimac profile along with some good sailing photos.

Besides looking lovely under sail, that album also shows how Merrimac can lift her keel and rudders to sit securely on a sand flat (or low in a boatyard). In fact, the keel’s run is so great that you’re seeing the top of it popping out of that ventilator box just ahead of the mast. The big sloop can go from a draft of about 10 feet to about 3, and also has 5,500 pounds of water ballast to help her go. Enjoy videos of Merrimac comfortably near reaching in 20+ knots or running down the Swedish coast on the boat’s YouTube channel.

This photo collage hints at Merrimac’s elegant and functional white-walled and wood-soled interior, but what I was mainly trying to illustrate is the boat’s unusual hydronic underfloor heating system (supplier Yacht Floor Heating B.V. put up an illustrative video). The plumbing even extends to that hatch over the storage area and the little circular tank inspection hatch. Putting a similar system in my own home was one of the best improvements I ever made — I’m comfortably barefoot as I write, though it’s 14°F outside — and what a welcome luxury it would be when cruising northern climes. But once you get into it, you don’t want to step on cold spots.

Later that day, Kees took me to visit the nearby KM Yachtbuilders operation where Merrimac was launched in 2010. Wow! The aluminum parts may be precisely and smoothly cut by a subcontractor with waterjet CNC machines, but it takes a craftsman with a great eye (and a sure foot) to glance at the plans and make the proper bends. KM builds many interesting sailing yacht designs and I spotted a powerboat or two in the busy shops.

While I’m no expert on aluminum boatbuilding, the work I saw at KM and onboard Merrimac seems exceptional. In fact, I’ve become quite a fan of Dutch practicality and craftsmanship (and most everything else) over the years, and of course they know a lot about boats. Excuse the sidetrack, but I highly recommend the writings of Russell Shorto for a big picture view of Dutch history and culture, first focused on early Manhattan in The Island at the Center of the World — which I used years ago in writing up my own little history (PDF) — and then the whole nation in Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City.

Now let’s discuss CANboat. When Kees started his blog Yacht Electronics back in 2009, you can see him contemplating many systems that would eventually go into Merrimac, particularly an ambitious DIY switching and monitoring scheme. And when he wrote that it was a “new playground for exercising some skills that I haven’t used for 25 odd years,” he was humbly leaving out his serious tech background as a co-founder of Redwood Software whose biographies always seem to emphasize his belief in open source solutions. Many of his early YE entries are about Packetlogger, the program he wrote to reverse engineer NMEA 2000 so he could access the PGN details the way he wanted. Thus, Merrimac has a breaker panel with unusual trouble lights like Linux and Windows Systems, not to mention an owner-designed Wago PLC system.

Kees briefly considered commercializing his system, but PacketLogger was eventually renamed CANboat and donated to the open source DIY marine community. I saw the Merrimac implementation running beautifully in Harlingen – I’d even say simple and sturdy, Dutch style. In fact, that’s my phone’s Chrome browser running it above — all it took was a URL and a password — and Kees had opened monitoring pages on his iPad while we were having breakfast in his house. You can see examples of those pages here, along with a good explanation of the overall system design.

I especially liked how I could switch something on or off on my phone and the change would immediately show up on Merrimac’s panel, or vice versa, though the panel can function fine on its own. And at least to my inexpert eye, the software design and server specs behind the browser pages seem quite modern though they’re more than five years old now. But it certainly wasn’t easy putting it all together then, and wouldn’t be today, as Kees acknowledges with a grin.

Now, however, we’re about to see Signal K in action. Kees is a member of the core SK team — all of whose boats would likely be interesting to tour — and CANboat an important SK development tool, at least until NMEA encouraged its regularly licensed NMEA 2000 developers to work with the new protocol. When I asked Kees to confirm my understanding that Signal K will make a system like Merrimac’s much easier for a techy boater or a company to build, he said “absolutely yes” with many grins. Cool boat, cool guy.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Mar 9, 2016 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Being able to use your helm’s bright waterproof color screen to run your stereo system has to be one of the most appreciated benefits of multifunction display evolution and the NMEA 2000 network standard. Typically the stereo head unit is installed in the boat’s living area while one or more MFDs serve as remote controls in the cockpit, on the flybridge, etc. The interface can be a simple mute/volume/next menu bar leaving ample screen room for navigation or a screen window with more controls and info. Usually, you can also go full screen to easily browse a phone or iPod full of music, or access the stereo’s deeper settings better than you can on the head unit. And it costs next to nothing!…

This wonderful feature is now available on every major brand MFD, usually via NMEA 2000 but sometimes via Ethernet. However, as best I can tell, neither the NMEA nor any marine electronics manufacturer ever anticipated this integration. Instead, it was relatively unknown Fusion Entertainment that first decided to reinvent marine audio and then introduced Fusion-Link in 2011 (Panbo was there). Fusion did not just trailblaze the happy marriage of entertainment electronics with marine electronics (and with the mobile electronics we now commonly use to bring entertainment to the boat), they owned the concept almost completely. If you want stereo control on your MFD system, you get Fusion. But that situation seems about to change rapidly, and while it may be great in terms of healthy competition and consumer choice, we should be careful with our expectations.

Admittedly, developing stereo head units that integrate with MFDs should be much easier since NMEA worked up a set of standard N2K Entertainment PGNs (message groups) for that purpose, as you can see in the NMEA PGN list (PDF) partially collaged above. (Yes, N2K now has standard methods to handle Bluetooth connections, and don’t you wonder if that might be useful beyond entertainment?) But I wonder if NMEA’s committee-based, standards-making process was able on the first try to provide the underpinnings for the deep integration that Fusion created over time in team-to-team development environments with each of the manufacturers that eventually adopted Fusion-Link? (And, by the way, how about a high five to the NMEA for creating a standard in which such innovation could happen via proprietary PGNs.)

Interestingly, one of the first not-Fusion integrated stereos was announced as a partnership between Raymarine and Rockford Fosgate, and the NMEA 2000 aspect seems a bit muted. In fact, the release says that the “PMX-5 will integrate via CAN bus to the Raymarine MFD where a custom designed user interface will be displayed,” and you won’t find a mention of N2K in the Rockford Fosgate PMX-5 manual either.

Similarly, the Boston audio guy in this hilarious PMX-5 “review” video blows right past the CANbus integration, though you will see that this $400 stereo has a lot going for it, including support of both iOS and Android music streaming (which took Fusion a while). The killer feature, though — and one that Fusion has only talked about so far — is support for simultaneous dual sources. That means that you could be listening to, say, your favorite FM station on the flybridge speaker zone while the kids are down below enjoying their own source on their own zone.

On closer inspection the PMX-5 integration — which will come to many Raymarine displays with the Lighthouse II R17 (go Ray!) update due out this month — looks darn sweet from what little I’ve seen so far. However, it would be no surprise if it’s only partially based on the new NMEA standard entertainment messages, with the other part using custom PGNs worked between Ray and Rockford developers. That shouldn’t matter a bit to owners of Raymarine MFDs but it may explain why Rockford Fosgate is not currently marketing the PMX-5 as compatible with other MFD brands.

But this may well be a temporary situation. NMEA Director Mark Reedenauer told me that Rockford Fosgate, as well as JL Audio (below) and Clarion, all had representatives volunteering on the entertainment standards committee and also that all are planning on N2K certified products. The day may come when you can shop for an integrated marine entertainment system pretty much regardless of what MFD system you have now or may have in the future (Fusion style). And, by the way, check out the coming-soon Rockford Fosgate PMX-8DH system with its optional PMX-CAN N2K gateway.

Now say hello to the just-announced JL Audio MediaMaster MM100s, which JL describes as a purpose-built, marine grade audio source unit and a “very important product” for the company. This premium $550 head unit looks gorgeous to me, and I’ve learned over the years that JL marine speakers and amplifiers have a sterling reputation in some demanding parts of the boating world. But JL has little experience at stereo head units and having “A NMEA 2K-compliant CAN bus…on board to aid in connection to compatible marine electronics” sounds vague to me. Which MFDs support the standard audio messages and what are the results? My initial integration expectations would be low, but that might change quickly. Actually, most of the major MFD brands have a motivation to support these new stereos that goes well beyond simply trying to please their customers.

The elephant in this room is that Garmin acquired Fusion in 2014 (shortly after I wrote about how well Garmin uses FusionLink) and even though Fusion has remained independent in every way I can see, Garmin’s direct marine competitors may have lost some enthusiasm about seeing Fusion gear installed as nicely integrated elements in their larger systems. Behold, for instance, the Lowrance, Simrad, and B&G SonicHub2 black box audio system. It looks a lot like the original SonicHub I enjoyed testing in 2010, but with nice improvements like an extra USB port, built-in Bluetooth streaming and Pandora support. Also, note the conspicuous support for the new entertainment PGNs, though again a little special sauce wouldn’t be surprising (could there really be a Pandora like/dislike command now in N2K?). According to industry gossip, though, what’s really different about SonicHub2 is that Fusion had nothing to do with its development and isn’t manufacturing them, unlike the original.

So how is Fusion reacting to new competition and perhaps even some resistance from long time partners? Well, I’ve seen them at several of the winter shows, and in Miami they hosted a sensational demo ride. Fusion is NOT sitting on its butt simply enjoying its success, and that’s also good news for us marine stereo consumers. More to come…

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Written by Adam Hyde on Mar 11, 2016 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

For the past 7 years I’ve been a SAR volunteer in Unit 1 (Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver) of the Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCMSAR). My unit had 87 calls in 2015, making it the busiest volunteer marine SAR station in Canada. It’s a situation that motivates a tech enthusiast and advanced crew member like myself to think about better tools and procedures…

On the West Coast of Canada RCMSAR’s 30 plus stations handle approximately one third of all rescue calls from the US / Canadian border to Alaska. The other two thirds are covered by the very hard working folks of the Canadian Coast Guard. Funding for both organizations is a continual challenge. The Federal Government sets the Coast Guard’s budget. The ability of individual RCMSAR units to fundraise determines their budgets.

It’s clear we must find a way to improve within the fiscal constraints we have. One of the ways to do this is to utilize technology in smart and productive ways.

A great example of this is RCMSAR’s callout system, which was created by a member in my unit a number of years ago, and which simultaneously puts all unit members on a conference call when a tasking comes in. We can now verbally verify a fast response time and also that we have the crew resources we need. The system used to be pager based, which was far less efficient and ultimately meant a slower time getting the boat off the dock. Our callout system has been a huge success and has now been implemented in other first responder and SAR teams.

About three years ago I volunteered to write an iPhone Safe Boating App for RCMSAR to help with the organization’s public education mandate. I used a software development product called Livecode from a brilliant Scottish development team. The software is powerful yet simple enough for a rookie programmer like me to learn. It took four months part-time to create the App and get it approved by Apple. This was me starting with no programming experience at all! Since then it has morphed into three separate free versions:

SAR Tools (Android) – Used by search and rescue crews worldwide to conduct sector and expanding square searches. Note that Raymarine is introducing similar search pattern features in Lighthouse II R16.

Safe Boating (Android) – Primarily for the boating public plying the waters off the West Coast of Canada.

Safe Boating (iPhone) – Same as Android version. SAR Tools is also included in the iPhone version.

Even if you aren’t boating in West Coast Canadian waters, there some useful tools in the Safe Boating App. You can snap a picture of your location to email to a friend along with your exact co-ordinates. I also recently introduced a “find lat /long feature” for when you hear coordinates on the radio and want a quick way to find the distance and location on a map. It uses complex calculations to get a distance (as the crow flies) and bearing to the waypoint. I tried to make the data entry technique faster than you can achieve on a multifunction display.

If you follow me so far I’m getting to the even more exciting part…

I was out training with my Monday night crew and we ran a scenario very common to the SAR community. Essentially a latitude and longitude is received on the radio from either a vessel in distress or more commonly from rescue command. The coordinates are then verified and the lat / long input to the multifunction display. In our case we have a network of older Raymarine E-series (not Lighthouse software) acting mostly as chart plotters and radar monitors.

Response time is vital and getting the lat / long entered accurately and reporting back an estimated time of arrival takes critical time that can slow the response. Most of the time an approximate location is given so the boat can head in the right general direction during the data entry, but this is not always the case. The exact bearing isn’t known until we have a waypoint to target. In rough seas (common) when you are screaming along at 40 knots over big waves, it is challenging to get the waypoint plotted. There are also other challenges such as hearing properly over engine noise, the possibility of human error, and cold numb hands in our open boats.

My grand vision is for Signal K to help solve this problem and others that I hope to discuss in future entries. Here’s a possible method…

It would be fairly easy to create a secure tasking website so that rescue command can type the lat / long into a web-browser at their base and have those co-ordinates appear as a waypoint on the multifunction display of a rescue boat. Like a taxi getting an electronic dispatch, we can have a relatively inexpensive solution using Signal K. The cost is perhaps $400 per vessel if you include the cost of the Signal K gateway like the coming-soon iKommunicate and a wireless router with a 3G /4G internet connection. There would be an ongoing $10-$20 monthly data fee for the wireless carrier but overall this could be a very affordable solution that will save lives when seconds count.

Most (but not all) of RCMSAR’s stations are in range of cellular coverage. In situations where there was sporadic or no coverage, the fallback would be the verbal method we use today. A longer term project is to automate the logging of vessel data back to headquarters for engine monitoring and more accurate log keeping.

For 2016 my resolution is to try to make this actually happen for search and rescue. I can think of other applications for this technology as well. Fishermen could push hot-spots to friends, or bareboat charter companies could use it to help customers find a specific mooring. I’d love to hear your comments or suggestions.

– Safe Boating –

PS This video runs nearly 9 minutes but accurately portrays RCMSAR

Dear readers, please welcome Adam Hyde to Panbo. He can also be found at Signal Kool and I’m pleased to add that you’ll be seeing more of him here. ~ Ben

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Written by Ben Ellison on Jun 2, 2017 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

When it rains, it pours (particularly at Panbo HQ this “spring”). NMEA-to-WiFi bridges are quite useful — mainly for getting basic boat data like depth, GPS, and wind into the wonderful world of marine mobile apps — and there have been numerous choices for a while. But yesterday TeamSurv started offering an interesting and notably inexpensive new bridge on KickStarter, and the intriguing FloatHub bridge and monitoring system will join it there soon…

Since 2010 TeamSurv has been involved in crowdsourcing depth survey data, and thus they’ve developed numerous tools for logging NMEA data. They also surveyed the field of NMEA-to-WiFi bridges, as shown on their NMEAtools.com/comparison page, and decided they could do better. Hence, the TeamSurv KickStarter campaign to presell a first batch of bridges for planned delivery in October.

Of course, TeamSurv is hoping to make it easier for more boaters to collect depth data — and, personally, I’d like to share my surveying with TeamSurv because they seem most committed to sharing it further (see co-founder Tim Thornton’s comments here) — but the bridge will be able to supply all sorts of data to all sorts of apps.

According to the NMEAtools comparison page, TeamSurv’s is a basic NMEA-0183-only bridge with some excellent features like opto-isolation, configuration via web browser, and the ability to be a WiFi client instead of an access point. I always appreciate it when a company is willing to compare its product features with the competition, but I also look at such comparisons with a skeptical eye. In this case I don’t notice any obviously missing feature categories, but there certainly are other ways to accomplish the same goal.

For instance, the Digital Yacht iKommunicate gateway can deliver the same data to the same apps as well as support Signal K apps like the amazing WilhelmSK using a usually data richer NMEA 2000 network as the source. A Vesper XB8000 AIS transponder can also deliver boat data to mobile apps, sourced from either NMEA 0183 or 2000, and I will be detailing how fabulously Vesper has improved that feature set with what they call the smartAIS update. Their WatchMate app now delivers the best AIS and anchor drag alarming I know of, and it’s interactive with the XB8000 hardware alarm so the app doesn’t need to be open all the time. Brilliant.

TeamSurv also had no way to know that FloatHub was coming along. In fact, you’re hearing it here first, and the FloatHub KickStarter campaign may not kick off for several months. But you, too, may be impressed with how much is already detailed in their YouTube video and in their Help section. For FloatHub, serving NMEA 0183 data over WiFi to mobile apps is a useful sideline, while full fletched 24/7 remote monitoring is the primary goal.

The planned FloatHub KickStarter price of $149 is not the bridge bargain TeamSurv seems to be offering, but it could be a great deal for remote monitoring with low subscription costs (and a $239 cellular model in alpha development). Also, I received a beta FloatHub WiFi hardware sample yesterday and will report on it in comments below.

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With the introduction of the Axiom MFD line Raymarine moved away from their proprietary SeaTalk NG cable/connector system and joined most other manufacturers offering standard DeviceNet cabling for NMEA 2000 networking.  Now they’ve introduced a helpful line of adapters to make that transition easier, and the little adapters above can solve a lot of installation headaches.

In 2007 Raymarine began offering its own SeaTalk NG ports and cables in lieu of the Micro (or Mini size) DeviceNet gear that NMEA selected as N2K’s preferred physical layer, though the underlying wiring remained the same and the two cabling systems could be mixed.  Probably one of SeaTalk New Generation’s greatest advantages was the sixth pin capable of carrying original SeaTalk network data, and STng also featured larger gauge power wires and could thus avoid the voltage drop issues possible with larger networks.

Self-documentation is another nice trait of SeaTalk NG.  At a glance, you can see the white stripe and connectors of a spur cable or the blue stripe and connectors of a backbone cable, and hence quickly know what portion of the network you’re looking at.  While one of my gripes has always been that STng tee-connectors and multi-port blocks can’t be daisy-chained without a backbone cable between them, unlike DeviceNet, SeaTalk NG also has a few advantages over DeviceNet. But overall I never felt that those advantages were worth forcing customers and installers to deal with another cabling system.  

Have Another Day was refit in 2014 with all SeaTalk NG electronics, but now has a pretty extensive mix of DeviceNet Micro and Seatalk NG.    Frequently when swapping equipment I have a SeaTalk NG cable run but need DeviceNet.  It’s not a big deal except that I try to keep my cable runs neatly bundled so it usually means cutting lots of zip ties, pulling out the SeaTalk NG cable and running a new DeviceNet cable.  With the new adapters, you can now just pop the correct adapter on the end, make the connection and be done.

Each of the adapters is currently available with a list price of $20 each.  They aren’t on Raymarine’s website yet but I’m told they will be very soon.   The configurations available are STng-male to DeviceNet-female (A06082), DeviceNet-male to STng-female (A06083), and DeviceNet-male to STng-female 90 degrees (A06084).

I’m hoping Raymarine will also develop an adapter for SeaTalk NG backbone cabling to further ease the transition of the backbone from SeaTalk NG to DeviceNet, and I’m told it’s being worked on.

Raymarine has also announced the SeaTalk NG Auxiliary Alarm Buzzer that repeats alarms from compatible devices.  The 100db buzzer solves a problem I’ve experienced of missing an alarm sounding off from the upper helm while I’m somewhere below deck.  It is available now with a list price of $150.

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There are many reasons to like Victron solar panel charge controllers, but today I’ll laud the Bluetooth feature that comes with the relatively new SmartSolar models and could make sense in many electronic boat modules and sensors, I think.

First, let’s note that the SmartSolar 100/30 above costs about $226 online while the BlueSolar 100/30 goes for about $196, and the only significant difference is the Bluetooth. So Victron is apparently able to add the wireless radio and the Victron Connect app integration for small money (and is rapidly adding “Smart” to many of its formerly plain Blue components).  Now let’s look at how well it works and what it can do for you, which may be different than you presume.

Victron Connect app front page seeing SmartSolar

Frankly I remain a bit leery about Bluetooth, but it certainly has improved over the years and can be a delight when it just works. Like when I just connected the SmartSolar 100/30 to an old car battery in my shop, opened the Victron Connect app, saw the charger listed, and connected in seconds. I never had to mess with the Bluetooth settings in my (Google Pixel 2) Android phone, and the same was true with iOS on my iPad.

Moreover, I haven’t had any connection issues with either phone or tablet since. But then again, this is not like streaming audio or a masthead anemometer for long periods of time (and possibly for long, cluttered distances around your boat). Victron Connect seems to disconnect as soon as you’re done actively using it, and that’s fine with me because it’s primary use is configuration.

Checking out and configuring a new gadget in my warm shop before installing it on the cold boat was great — especially since only 12v and a phone was needed — and the Smart feature is potentially useful for all sorts of installers and troubleshooters. In fact, I used it to test two small solar panels I had kicking around, and that explains the Victron Connect Status and History screens above.

The nearly antique 7 Watt Flexcell panel putting out a measly 0.1A at 17V above hardly dented the SmartSolar’s ability to convert up to 100 volts of photovoltaic (PV) power into as much as 30 amps of 12v charging, and hence it has yet to register even a rounded-up kilowatt hour over three (semi-gray late winter) days. But this was the first time I’d ever really seen what it can do, and now I know that its little (easily replaced) controller is why Gadget’s automatic bilge pump system was failing last fall.

When the SmartSolar 100/30 replaces the still-working-fine BlueSky 2512i MPPT charge controller on Gizmo, it will be neat to finally see this sort of detail about the panel performance, especially the kWh counts.  But this is where boaters can get confused, I fear. Does it really make sense to regularly monitor key boat systems by flipping through apps on your phone… even as useful, inexpensive and pretty as the screens may be?

But you don’t have to use Victron Connect that way. Perhaps the main reason I’m switching to the Victron solar controller is so I can cable its VE Direct port into the Venus hub, VRM remote monitoring, and “coming soon” MFD and N2K integration I recently discussed. I’ll hopefully have highly sophisticated power system monitoring on all sorts of interfaces, including my phone, and Victron clearly has an ambitious road map for their Venus networks.

Gizmo’s growing Venus-based system can handle many configuration tasks, even remotely, but Victron Connect will likely remain the easiest and most thorough SmartSolar configuration tool for quite some time. Actually I’m already experiencing this with the BMV-712 Smart that’s integrated with the Venus, and it makes sense. With Victron Connect and built-in Bluetooth, even standalone installs can include easy, yet deep configuration and also painless firmware updates (as I’ve seen with both BMV and SmartSolar), and thus VC can be the primary config tool across all the boat types and other markets Victron serves.

The left screen above shows how I’ve customized the charge settings for what Gizmo’s Firefly bank likes best, which was not possible with the Blue Sky (though its default settings were thankfully close). I won’t belabor all the possible settings and frankly don’t understand them all, but I have learned how the online manuals, Victron blog, and Victron Community can all yield information. And it is impressive when you realize that it’s often the Managing Director Matthijs Vader who is fielding user questions, and doing it well.

But I will point out the “Streetlight” section of the SmartSolar Settings menu (above right) as a sign of broad reach for both Victron and solar these days, and will note VE. Smart Networking as an alternate and possibly confusing use of the Bluetooth feature. Gizmo doesn’t need it because the SmartSolar mounted near the battery bank will temperature compensate charging with an internal sensor (or the Venus temp sensors could be involved), but the BMV could be delivering bank temperature over Bluetooth.

Confused yet? Sorry, but that’s the nature of the new beast. We’re already seeing whole boat electronics integration using all sorts of data protocols to get the job done, so why not individual sensors, chargers, etc.? NMEA 2000 has proven itself excellent for real-time critical boat data networking, with Ethernet for the big loads, but configuration is pretty much limited to same brand products (or a family of brands like the way Mastervolt power components can work with C-Zone and other Power Products members).

Meanwhile companies like Maretron, Actisense, and Yacht Devices have built good N2K configuration tools for components without displays, but they usually require a special bridge module and/or a PC. Built-in Bluetooth with an app looks to me like a great solution. I know that Victron is making the case well, and I’m glad to see it in interesting new products like the Blue Guard BG-1 bilge pump switch. Do you agree with “more please”?

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Aqua Map has added a premium tier called Aqua Map Master that adds AIS overlays, data via NMEA-0183 and SignalK over WiFi, US Army Corp of Engineers survey data overlayed over charts and a new route explorer.   With Master, Aqua Map adds several features I haven’t seen on any other mobile app that I’m excited to try out.

Aqua Map Master is a $10 per year subscription that Aqua Map says will get all their new premium features.  Aqua Map already has a nice suite of features including support for both Waterway Guide and Active Captain Community crowdsourced data, a great anchor alarm, strong data sharing, and now a new suite of premium features.

WiFi data

Aqua Map now supports receiving data from GPS, heading sensors, depth instruments, AIS receivers, and wind instruments via WiFi.  Aqua Map can receive either NMEA-0183 formatted messages via TCP or UDP or SignalK messages.  I have a Digital Yacht iKommunicate and a Yacht Devices YDWG-02 WiFi gateway onboard that are both compatible.  Aqua Map automatically discovered the iKommunicate while I had to manually add the Yacht Devices gateway.  Once connected Aqua Map notifies you that you will be disabling internal GPS within the app until you turn off the external data source and changes the GPS status box text at the bottom of the screen to show external GPS in use.

AIS

Aqua Map displays AIS targets from an onboard AIS receiver connected to your mobile device via WiFi.  This is a little different than what we’ve seen with iNavX and other mobile apps where AIS data is downloaded from an online AIS aggregator and then displayed on the screen.  Each method comes with some advantages and disadvantages.  Aqua Map’s use of an onboard AIS receiver means you will get real-time data for boats around you as long as you have a receiver onboard.   Apps that use an aggregator will work even if there’s not an AIS receiver on your boat but the data will be delayed and is reliant on volunteer receiving stations to relay the information to the aggregator.

USACE surveys

I’m pretty sure this USACE survey data could have saved me some unpleasant experiences

I’ve already used the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ surveys while planning my upcoming travels and will soon use them underway.  I’m pretty excited to have 40,000+ surveys overlayed over navigational charts.   I’ve used USACE surveys quite a few times to negotiate tricky areas but now having those surveys available at my fingertips without navigating all the USACE district sites is a big improvement.

Survey colors are more or less transparent based upon their age so that the most recent surveys have bright, vivid colors as in the screenshot above.  I have seen some places where it appears the surveys might not be properly georeferenced to the charts, but I don’t know with certainty that it’s an issue nor if that’s a limitation of the surveys or Aqua Map.

Route explorer

Route explorer lets you see what’s coming up along your route.  In the picture above the right rectangle at the top gives you information on what’s coming up on your route.  In 10.1nm there’s an Active Captain Community hazard, in 4.7nm there’s a Marina and in 3.6nm a bridge.  Route explorer lets you know at a glance what’s coming up, plus, if you click on any of the three icons it will center the map on the next hazard, marina or bridge.

Route explorer also adds a section to the Route info summary letting you know what’s coming up on your trip, including fuel stops.

For $10 per year, Aqua Map Master is a lot of great functionality and strikes me as an easy decision for anyone who uses Aqua Map.  The additional features make an already strong option even more useful.

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If you need a small NMEA 2000 network, Actisense’s all-in-one 4 Way at upper left is an especially simple and rugged way to go.  In fact, it includes all the components seen in their starter kit at right and the resulting network is a bit better as it will offer four female N2K connectors for drop cables to devices like plotters and sensors while one of the starter kit’s four connectors will be occupied by the power drop.

On the other hand, the Actisense RIB Starter Kit is a better choice if the N2K network backbone ever needs to be extended. You can simply run cables from either or both ends of the 4-way and move one or both backbone terminating resistors to the new end(s). Meanwhile, the terminators built into their 4 Way Small Boat Network mean that backbone cannot be extended.

However, there’s lots more you can do with a short N2K backbone and drop cables than many people realize, and that’s a small portion of what I’ll detail below. I had some fun mocking up various network designs on my new testing and photo bench, and they will hopefully illustrate what you can and can’t do within the NMEA 2000 standard, plus some techniques that are simply good practice.

But let’s start with what you can get away with… at least with a small NMEA 2000 network… and at least most of the time. I don’t actually remember when or why I put together this funky 3-way backbone and power drop, but I know it works OK while also illustrating numerous poor practices.  The terminating resistors, for instance, are from different manufacturers (though they should provide the same resistance), and I think that skinny power drop cable may contain power wires even smaller gauge that the 22 AWG that’s normal with the N2K Micro size cabling most boats use.

As I understand it, the main characteristic of a reliable N2K cabling and connector design is clean impedance in the data wires, which means good connectors throughout and proper backbone termination. Secondarily, there can’t be much voltage drop as the 12v DC passes from the power drop cable out to the far ends of the network. (And please ignore the wire nuts, which should never be seen on a boat.)

But for Micro cable networks the NMEA permits up to 50 devices on a backbone up to 100 meters (328 feet) long with numerous drop cables up to 6m (20ft) long (but not exceeding 78 m or 256 ft in total drop length). That’s a big network, and I’m told that the NMEA was conservative in terms of what other standards permit on the same DeviceNet Micro C “physical layer” (also known as cabling and connectors).

In short, you can get pretty funky with small N2K networks and probably get away with it, and I have.

Moreover, a drop (also known as a spur) from an N2K backbone (aka trunk) can be much more than one cable to one device. The 6m (20ft) maximum drop length can be branched in various ways and there are multi-ports specifically designed for the purpose, like Actisense’s own A2K-4WD NMEA 2000 4-Way Instrument Drop or Maretron’s Micro Multi Port.  (Note that the latter multi is well made by Turck, and if you’re thrifty and adventurous note that I’ve found inexpensive yet industrial strength Turck 8-way multi-ports on eBay that are still working well on Gizmo).

But you can also use regular tee connectors to share a drop, so what you see above is an 8-port N2K network based on the Actisense all-in-one’s very short backbone but extended with a 0.5m Maretron cable and an Actisense A2K-4WT usually used along a trunk line. All 8 ports are female, which is what you want gender-wise as N2K device ports are always male (aka pins showing). And it will meet the NMEA 2000 standard fine as long as the five added drops are not more than 5.5m long, as I’ll illustrate.

So now I’ve added another 4-way tee to get a network with 12 available female ports, though they’re all still dropped from the same tiny backbone. And I added a couple of actual N2K devices to better discuss how the drop cable length calculations work. For instance, the red Actisense NGT-1 ISO gateway drops from the little backbone via the 0.5m cable and the device’s own 1.5m N2K cable for a total of 2m. Meanwhile, the gray Maretron USB100 gateway drops via the same 0.5m cable plus the two gray 2m cables for a total of 4.5m.

Conclusion: each device is well within the 6m Micro drop limit, even if you add a bit for the intervening tees, and the total 6.5m is a minor dent in the overall 78m drop budget. Moreover, 9 more ports are available with added maximum drop cables ranging from 3.5m to 6m, depending on where you start. Are you still with me?

A wonderful way to document an N2K network and test factors like proper cable lengths is Maretron’s free N2KBuilder PC software tool, possibly “better than sliced bread” since 2009. N2KBuilder works with any NMEA 2000 gear and it can also estimate total 12v current needs and possible voltage drops, which is our next subject.

N2K Power Drops

In some ways it’s another example of N2K network funkiness you can get away with — note how many different types of Micro cable I used for the drops — but this Actisense  QNB-1 Quick Network Block served well for years in the tough electrical environment that was the original 14-foot center console Gizmo, and also on a boat I loaned it to (hence the mysterious tape label, I think). But here I want to point out the two blade fuses as an introduction to the subtleties of high-performance power drops. The QNB, you see, offers split backbone power, but not dual power entry points, and I’m guessing that most readers have no idea what that means.

I first wrote about N2K power taps (aka power drops) in 2009, and the best methods for working with the limitations of Micro cable 22 gauge power wires remain the same: Insert the 12v power near the middle of the network to minimize the power wire/resistance run and also split the tap so each side gets the full 4 amp maximum feed (and also because you may want the ability to depower half the network).

So as rugged and flexible as the Actisense QNB is — note the choice of gland or Micro C port models, or you can mix your own with A2K-PMW connectors — it does not have separate power feeds. You can feed the internal power terminal block with a heavy gauge wire fused at 8 or more amps, and each side of the network will get 4 amps to supply each device N2K processor plus any N2K-powered sensors, but you can not switch the sides separately. It’s subtle indeed, but possibly important to someone who wants to keep part of an N2K network constantly alive on a meager power budget.

Meanwhile, the two QPD Quick Power Drop models, which I discussed in 2012 along with other N2K network details, offer dual power entries and split feeds along with other QNB goodies like reverse polarity and data activity LEDs, as shown in the Actisense Power Feed Guide (PDF) seen in part above. However, the QPD has been discontinued, although there are many still in the supply chain and this is not the sort of product where you have worry about updates.

But how about that simple yet fully split A2K-MPT-1 Micro Power T-Piece? It will certainly get the job done, but also leads to an extra subtle N2K gender issue.

The Actisense power drop tee is very much like Maretron’s bright yellow Micro/Mid PowerTap Tee except for one thing. While the Actisense Tee is like a normal N2K Tee — which leaves one female and one male port available once the device or power drop is attached — the Maretron power tee presents two female connectors.

The idea — not mentioned in the NMEA 2000 standard — is that in a network where all male connectors are pointed toward the power supply there will never be hot power pins exposed to possible trouble. You can see the gender symmetry in the diagram I found at an old but gold DIY site, and while this is again a subtlely good practice, why not if the cost and hassle are virtually nil?

And in the virtuous Actisense/Maretron tennis game of high-performance N2K network hardware, it’s the former who makes gender modification quite easy.

Gender Changing

Actisense has offered A2K-GC Lite Gender Changer Cables for quite a while, though I only recently had hands-on experience. Like all their N2K network hardware, and Maretron’s, the quality is excellent. But I dare say that these humble little cables have actually evoked shouts of “Hallelujah!” on certain occasions, like when a boat-scrunched installer discovers that the N2K trunk extension in progress is gender wrong.

And here’s another way a gender change cable can be useful. With the black female-to-female change cable at left, a standard Actisense 4-way and simple power cable becomes Maretron-like gender optimal with all male connector pins pointed toward the 12v feed. Of course field installable N2K connectors are another way to solve gender issues, though not as easy.

Field installable connectors

Actisense also sent me a full set of their male/female straight/right-angled A2K Field Fit Connectors to check out. It’s no surprise that they are well designed and manufactured, but there are important subtleties in this area too, and I have a slight preference for Maretron’s Micro/Mid Field Attachables.

More specifically, I caution against the Amphenol LTW Field Installable connectors seen at bottom above, and I hope the photo illustrates why. After you run a naked N2K Micro cable through the various sealing and strain relief bits at left — all quite functional — there comes the moment when you must fish five skinny stripped wires into five specific locations, and good guidance really helps.

In my view, Maretron is the winner with color-coded and verbose labels, Actisense a close second with deeply engraved black-against-gold numbers that key to the pinout diagram included in the packaging, and… well,  I did try hard to reveal the pin numbers embossed on the black plastic Amphenol in this carefully lit close up, but you may want a serious magnifying loop on the job.

Frankly, I try to avoid using any field attachables because of the extra work and the occasional failures I’ve experienced (possibly due to my own impatient work), but I know they are very useful for some installs. And there are subtle differences.

I hope this has been an edifying discussion of the NMEA 2000 Micro networking that’s now a critical component on about every new or refurbished recreational boat around. Actisense and Maretron are certainly not the least expensive sources, but then again is this an area where it makes sense to go cheap?

I’m closing with the final network I put together on my project bench before heading off on a late March vacation. It’s a more normal design than what you’ve seen above and you’re only seeing part of it because the black cable at upper right is backbone headed off to the lab’s base system and power drop. But, hallelujah, all the components shown are a demo kit of a powerful yet inexpensive Maretron MPower digital switching system that’s slowly rolling out.

As hoped for, MPower is quite like the Octoplex Octolite shown at MIBS 2018, but it’s fully integrated with current Maretron monitoring gear — even without the higher-end N2KView — and it will eventually be available to small builders and knowledgable do-it-yourselfers via the normal Maretron channels.  More to come, and I also look forward to the official release of Actisense’s W2K-1 NMEA 2000 to WiFi module, which demoed impressively at METS.

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The small gauge wire connections usually required when installing NMEA 0183 data sharing often fail because normal boat wiring techniques don’t work well at this scale — or at least not in my clumsy DIY hands. So I was intrigued at first sight with this relatively new type of heat shrink butt connector that uses low-temperature solder instead of a crimping sleeve, and so far I’m quite impressed with the results.

The three skinny wire splices above may not look neat and tidy, but I’m confident that they’ll hold up to a lot of abuse.  And the heat shrink solder sleeves were fairly easy and quick to use. But they do involve a few issues that I’ll discuss, and it’s possible that readers will have more to add. Boat wiring may seem mundane, but it’s important and to some extent controversial.

A Wirefy solder seal wire connector explained

These clever connectors are called solder seals by some manufacturers like Wirefy,  which is also responsible for this helpful illustration of the various components involved (though the bottom line should read “Starts to melt at 138° C / 280° F”).

Before we get into further details, however, I can almost hear informed readers muttering something like “Wait a minute, soldered wire connections are not allowed on boats!” That’s only a partial truth as best I can tell. The actual wording of the ABYC Standard for Boats E-11 (excerpted here) goes “Solder shall not be the sole means of mechanical connection in any circuit” and Ed Sherman further suggests the standard’s flexibility in this ABYC blog entry.

I’d argue that these heat shrink solder connectors with waterproof adhesive provide a lot of mechanical connection beyond the solder, especially when compared to what’s otherwise possible with wire gauges thinner than 22 AWG. Heck, ABYC E-11 also states that “Conductors shall be at least 16 AWG…” and the smallest Ancor heat shrink butt connector is for 18-22 AWG, but smaller gauge NMEA 0183 wires are still in use on a great many boats. And while 0183 is slowly going away, many of new boat monitoring systems use various sensors like magnetic door intrusion detectors that work fine with skinny wires, except when you need to splice them.

I’ve vented about thin wire difficulties before, and have also had good luck with 3M Scotchloks and similar mechanical connectors (though several issues came up in the comments to that entry). Could solder seals be the best solution?

Three stages of heat shrink solder sleeve wire splicing

Here I tried to illustrate the steps required for this type of butt connector, aside from stripping back the two insulating layers. Note how one black wire is already fished through the heat shrink tube and twisted together with its mate, but the connector has not yet been worked along the joined wires to position the solder sleeve over the twisted bare strands, as I have done with the red pair.

Lastly I carefully applied heat to the black and red connectors until the pre-fluxed solder bonded with the wire strands and the adhesive end bands flowed as the tubing shrank, as evident in the blue wire splice. It’s great that an installer can see the results well, but I wasn’t completely happy with mine (check top photo), and — mainly because one of those 3-wire cables had zero slack available — I was also reluctant to apply more heat and possibly torch the job.

Therein lies what may be the real issue with this connector design.  If you dig into the more negative reviews of Amazon’s many solder sleeve brands, a fairly common complaint is how easy it is to overheat (torch) the shrink tube before melting the solder. And we’re talking about the smallest and likely most fragile sizes, like these Sopoby white-bands (sizes are color-coded to at least a vague standard). Ben Stein has also had these issues, but I have a theory that it may be about manufacturing quality than connector design.

Two summers ago a Mazu Marine engineer kindly left me a small bag of white-band size solder seals at the end of a Gizmo install visit, but I only realized how kind today. These TE Connectivity brand solder sleeves cost 82 cents each in small quantities, which is far more than the brands already mentioned and many others I’ve seen.

But maybe that’s why they’ve worked so well for me? I’ve used about a dozen for various projects without any problems at all. None burned, for instance, despite my using a questionable variety of butane heat sources, even a cheap Bernzomatic utility lighter. In fact, the most recent three seen above are the worst looking (and I did, in fact, add more heat shrink tubing around the whole cable splice for extra mechanical strength and waterproofing).

So can these little widgets that all look almost exactly the same actually be quite different in construction and hence in how well they work? I don’t know, but it does seem like we’re seeing more and more inexpensive knockoffs that are not really the good deal they seem to be. The good news with solder seals is that you will very likely know a badly made one when you use it, and maybe some readers will report on experience with less expensive brands.

The project I used to illustrate this entry could have involved a GPS cable that barely extended beyond the end of a center console T-Top tube, but in fact I was turning the Flash V1 ebike I discussed last summer into what I think is the even better Flash Commuter design. So those red and black 26 (or maybe 28) AWG wires are powering a 60 lumen LED rear light while the blue data wire tells it whether to be a safety flasher, a brake light, or a turn signal. That’s possible because of the bike’s 36v DC power system, and I won’t be surprised if many boats move to even higher voltage main DC systems eventually, and thinner wires.

Speaking of neat modern tech, I recently learned that the Flash team can track my battery usage thanks to the bike’s associated app, and that’s quite helpful because I’ve only put it through 15 cycles due to my fat tire preference and I want to sell it. So consider this: you could visit beautiful Camden Maine, try out an extraordinary ebike, and maybe go home with it at a steep discount that in this case makes sense.

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Prior to being a boating geek, I made my living running mission-critical computing operations for financial services firms. Which is to say I was a professional geek; I have a deep background in networking and still enjoy when I can use networking tools to make things easier. I have a lot of data on the NMEA 2000 network on Have Another Day but no way to access it all remotely. I’m getting ready to leave the boat for a few weeks so I really want to access all that data off the boat. After some digging for a way to make that off boat access possible, I found one with which I’m currently thrilled.

If I were at home with my cable internet connection I could configure port forwarding on my router to make a web server on an NMEA 2000 gateway available via the internet on the public IP of my internet connection.  But, on the boat I’m either connected to marina WiFi or via a cellular connection. Neither of these connections typically gives you a public IP — instead you get an address that looks like 192.168.x.x or 10.x.x.x which are RFC 1918 non-routable addresses designed for use on private networks — and without a public IP there’s not a way to make that web server available on the public internet.

My searches lead me to ngrok.io, a company who does nothing but provide tunnels for the remote access and management of devices. A lot of their customers are internet of things (IoT) companies who are deploying lots of little devices that they need to centrally manage. I was actually referred to them by Blue Guard Innovations who uses it in their BG-Link IoT boat monitor. What you see in the drawing above is a graphical representation of what ngrok accomplishes.

It might be easier to understand what ngrok does with a practical example, but first I want to make sure I’m clear about my relationship with Yacht Devices since I’m going to concentrate on one of their products. Prior to joining Ben Ellison at Panbo, I started Yacht Devices U.S., the U.S. distributor of Yacht Devices Limited’s excellent line of NMEA 2000 sensors, gateways and converters. I believe it’s critical to keep my work covering the marine electronics industry separate from my ownership of Yacht Devices U.S. so I’ve errored on the side of not covering Yacht Devices’ products. But, in this entry I’ll discuss the YDWG-02 NMEA 2000 to WiFi gateway, the built-in web gauges, and how I’m using them. There are other excellent products out there from companies like Maretron, Digital Yacht, and Actisense that do a lot of the same things, though each with their own unique features.

The Yacht Devices NMEA 2000 to WiFi Gateway (YDWG) makes all your NMEA 2000 data available to devices on your network so apps like Aqua Map, iNavX, and Navionics can access NMEA 2000 data.  The YDWG also features web gauges allowing nearly any data present on the NMEA 2000 network to be viewed in a web page that’s served up by a web server built into the YDWG. This is a great way for me to drop in and check on the boat. But, without a public IP on my internet connection there’s no obvious way to access these web pages remotely.  I needed to find a way to tunnel my connection out and make it available. That’s where ngrok comes in.

Setting up ngrok starts with a download of their executable to your computer.  For testing purposes, I ran the Windows version but I think I will probably move it over to a Raspberry Pi that is always on and running.  Pis are great for applications like this because at $35.00 per unit they’re very cheap and they use very little power.  Their program establishes a connection out from your computer to their servers and then starts listening for connections that destined for the service you’ve started publishing. So, in my case I told ngrok that I wanted the webserver for my YDWG to be available on the internet. Because I’m using a paid plan ($5 / month) I am able to use my own hostname, in my case haveanotherday.ngrok.io, instead of a randomly assigned string (something like 0a35cd1.ngrok.io).

So now when I want to check out what’s happening onboard I can fire up a browser and head to http://haveanotherday.ngrok.io/g.html and check it out. If you want to take a look yourself you can use username and password of ydwg and see in real time what’s happening aboard.

Making it all work is pretty darn straightforward. When you sign up for an account — account options start at free and work their way up to as much as $12 a month depending on which features you need — you’re given an authtoken that needs to placed in the config file. From there you can configure individual tunnels. The free plan is limited to four tunnels, so you can make the web interface of four devices on your boat available.

If you’re looking for less of a DIY solution, FloatHub — which Ben E. has discussed — and other boat monitoring products make a lot of the same data available.  FloatHub’s WiFi only monitor does something very similar to what I’m doing but it’s all preconfigured for the user and a few of the components are moved around.  They use the internet connection on the boat to make a connection out to a server.  They then upload data that’s been collected from the device to the FloatHub server and in turn, make that available to the user via their web application.  In the case of what I’m doing that server is running on my boat and I’m using ngrok to make it accessible on the internet.

Up next for me will be making my Digital Yacht iKommunicate available remotely as well.  Signal K is designed for this sort of light-weight quick access to data, though the adoption has been spotty.

With both free and low-cost options, ngrok is exactly what I was seeking. I can now easily access devices I previously had to be physically on the boat to control. Now, since I’ll be able to access them remotely, my desire to link all the sensors on my boat to either NMEA 2000 or by IP is even stronger.

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Way down the long list of new features that came with April’s LightHouse v3.9.46 for Raymarine Axiom MFDs is “Tank naming and Sender Calibration” and it turns out that means NMEA 2000 tank senders made by Oceanic Systems. Which is a semi-big deal because a significant disappointment of N2K is that while many standard data PGNs are truly plug-and-play across brands, sensor calibration is usually not. What’s more, I learned about this from my friend and Camden Harbor float mate Jud Sawyer, and I got to attend the semi-exciting proceeding.

I sometimes thank Jud on behalf of the marine electronics industry because while being a true frugal Mainer he also enjoys treating his well-aged Shannon Brendan 32 to some tasty technology, and his taste (and DIY skills) are well-honed from a lifetime of engineering and tinkering. Nonetheless, he did not at first realize that the potentially accurate Oceanic tank sender info he hoped to display on his very capable Garmin GPSmap 1222xsv could not be calibrated by the Garmin.

For a while the possible options were sending the senders and tank measurements to an Oceanic dealer for volumetric calibration or buying Oceanic’s 4-inch 3345 display. But then he learned that the job could also be done by a similarly priced Raymarine Axiom 7 — thanks to sales volume, not liquid — which could also do a whole lot more on the pontoon boat he trailers to lakes.

So when we rendezvoused last Saturday morning, Jud had the Axiom and the port tank sender temporarily installed on his NMEA 2000 network while the starboard sender was fully installed in the new and empty starboard tank. (How the port sender gets fitted into the tank that doesn’t need replacement remains a mystery). He’d also lugged in a lot of full five-gallon diesel jugs.

One of the first things we learned was that 14 is not actually the right number of calibration points for a 70-gallon tank divided into five-gallon increments (because point 1 is zero). Once Jud set that number to 15, the Axiom asked for the first five gallons (instead of 5.38) and he was off. Drain a jug, press OK, drain another, press OK, repeat, repeat, repeat, go to the marina for refills, and repeat.

I’ve seen more flexible tank calibration routines — like how Gizmo’s CZone Signal Module tank settings can be tweaked at any time for any known fluid level, and also saved as a file in case of module replacement — but credit to Raymarine for a pretty good start. You can find all the details well explained the LightHouse 3 v3.9 Advanced Operation instructions (PDF), starting on page 77. And, yes, configuring a rectangular tank is much, much easier.

In Jud’s case, the next step was making sure that the tank level information got to the Garmin which will stay on the Shannon, and I got to show him how Menu/Edit Gauge Pages let him select which tank showed where. The hoped-for “100% Full” on Tank 2 (aka “Starboard Fuel Tank,” which can also be specified on the Garmin) got him grinning, and I suspect he’ll also grin when he gets to check the Garmin’s fuel used number against his next fill-up.

Then again, I felt obliged to explain what’s required to install his recently purchased Maretron fuel flow monitoring system — either a Maretron USB100 bridge and laptop, or a Maretron DSM — and how’s he going to end up with two possibly discordant counts of fuel used, remaining, and so forth (as I went on about here). But here’s the bottom line: we both enjoyed a good Saturday morning on our float.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Jan 19, 2016 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

A memorable moment of 2015 was waking up in Kees Verruijt’s attic guestroom in Harlingen, Netherlands. If my lens were wider, you’d see the thick thatch capping his sturdy brick home. And if I’d waited a bit, the photo might include one of the family-owned-and-operated cargo vessels that often motor by enroute to or from the Wadden Sea. What you can see clearly, though, is Kees’s own dream boat Merrimac, which I would soon tour. I’d been following this boat project for years, knew that it motivated Kees’s valuable CANboat work, and given that CANboat helped birth Signal K, I figure that Merrimac may earn a special spot in marine electronics history…

Before the electronics, though, let’s have a look at an impressive cruising vessel. Merrimac is a custom aluminum Stadtship 56, and quite an upgrade for Kees and his family, who once cruised a boat he could barely sit up in. One detail he’s proud of is how the open stern can accommodate and provide good access to a hard tender. Another that especially impressed me is that leafed companionway hatch system, which easily stows down into a pocket or can be set at any height. Note, too, the solid rails extending well forward and also the harness track running along the cabin, thus allowing a crew person to stay continuously clipped in all the way to the foredeck. More interesting detail is included in the builder’s Merrimac profile along with some good sailing photos.

Besides looking lovely under sail, that album also shows how Merrimac can lift her keel and rudders to sit securely on a sand flat (or low in a boatyard). In fact, the keel’s run is so great that you’re seeing the top of it popping out of that ventilator box just ahead of the mast. The big sloop can go from a draft of about 10 feet to about 3, and also has 5,500 pounds of water ballast to help her go. Enjoy videos of Merrimac comfortably near reaching in 20+ knots or running down the Swedish coast on the boat’s YouTube channel.

This photo collage hints at Merrimac’s elegant and functional white-walled and wood-soled interior, but what I was mainly trying to illustrate is the boat’s unusual hydronic underfloor heating system (supplier Yacht Floor Heating B.V. put up an illustrative video). The plumbing even extends to that hatch over the storage area and the little circular tank inspection hatch. Putting a similar system in my own home was one of the best improvements I ever made — I’m comfortably barefoot as I write, though it’s 14°F outside — and what a welcome luxury it would be when cruising northern climes. But once you get into it, you don’t want to step on cold spots.

Later that day, Kees took me to visit the nearby KM Yachtbuilders operation where Merrimac was launched in 2010. Wow! The aluminum parts may be precisely and smoothly cut by a subcontractor with waterjet CNC machines, but it takes a craftsman with a great eye (and a sure foot) to glance at the plans and make the proper bends. KM builds many interesting sailing yacht designs and I spotted a powerboat or two in the busy shops.

While I’m no expert on aluminum boatbuilding, the work I saw at KM and onboard Merrimac seems exceptional. In fact, I’ve become quite a fan of Dutch practicality and craftsmanship (and most everything else) over the years, and of course they know a lot about boats. Excuse the sidetrack, but I highly recommend the writings of Russell Shorto for a big picture view of Dutch history and culture, first focused on early Manhattan in The Island at the Center of the World — which I used years ago in writing up my own little history (PDF) — and then the whole nation in Amsterdam: A History of the World’s Most Liberal City.

Now let’s discuss CANboat. When Kees started his blog Yacht Electronics back in 2009, you can see him contemplating many systems that would eventually go into Merrimac, particularly an ambitious DIY switching and monitoring scheme. And when he wrote that it was a “new playground for exercising some skills that I haven’t used for 25 odd years,” he was humbly leaving out his serious tech background as a co-founder of Redwood Software whose biographies always seem to emphasize his belief in open source solutions. Many of his early YE entries are about Packetlogger, the program he wrote to reverse engineer NMEA 2000 so he could access the PGN details the way he wanted. Thus, Merrimac has a breaker panel with unusual trouble lights like Linux and Windows Systems, not to mention an owner-designed Wago PLC system.

Kees briefly considered commercializing his system, but PacketLogger was eventually renamed CANboat and donated to the open source DIY marine community. I saw the Merrimac implementation running beautifully in Harlingen – I’d even say simple and sturdy, Dutch style. In fact, that’s my phone’s Chrome browser running it above — all it took was a URL and a password — and Kees had opened monitoring pages on his iPad while we were having breakfast in his house. You can see examples of those pages here, along with a good explanation of the overall system design.

I especially liked how I could switch something on or off on my phone and the change would immediately show up on Merrimac’s panel, or vice versa, though the panel can function fine on its own. And at least to my inexpert eye, the software design and server specs behind the browser pages seem quite modern though they’re more than five years old now. But it certainly wasn’t easy putting it all together then, and wouldn’t be today, as Kees acknowledges with a grin.

Now, however, we’re about to see Signal K in action. Kees is a member of the core SK team — all of whose boats would likely be interesting to tour — and CANboat an important SK development tool, at least until NMEA encouraged its regularly licensed NMEA 2000 developers to work with the new protocol. When I asked Kees to confirm my understanding that Signal K will make a system like Merrimac’s much easier for a techy boater or a company to build, he said “absolutely yes” with many grins. Cool boat, cool guy.

Click here to read comments about this Panbo entry, or add your own.

The post Kees’ cool sloop Merrimac, home of CANboat and more appeared first on Sailfeed.

Well, dang, I was steeled up to write an unusually negative entry about the AIS feature that Navionics recently added to its Boating app, but then I learned that they’re already planning virtually all the improvements that I intended to vigorously champion. So, if you too are having trouble making the WiFi connection work — or if you too are disappointed with the resulting target display — don’t worry; apparently, we just have to wait for future versions.

In the meantime, however, let’s discuss how boat data over WiFi can and should work, and also what makes AIS target display actually useful when you’re underway.

AIS data via WiFi

First of all, congratulations to Navionics for deciding to support AIS data coming from a boat’s own receiver instead of using possibly spotty and/or delayed AIS info from the internet (even though the latter is easier to do on a mobile device that’s likely online much of the time, and is also desirable as a secondary source).

Moreover, while the Navionics AIS feature announcement only mentions AIS receivers with WiFi built-in, their PDF list of compatible devices also includes many Navico multifunction displays (possible because of GoFree Tier One 0183) and numerous NMEA-boat-data-to-WiFi gateways. Plus the Navionics app tries to make the connection automatically, which sounded great until it hardly worked with any of Gizmo’s many WiFi AIS sources.

This is an extreme example but it illustrates at least part of the problem. While WiFi connected to Gizmo’s boat router, version 14.1 of the Boating app running on my iPad automatically connected to three AIS data sources but couldn’t reliably receive data from any. Yes, the source identified as a “Digital Yacht WLN10” (though I don’t have that device installed) did deliver some AIS info as well as the Sonar (depth) and GPS that the app can also use, but not well. In reality, there were about twice the AIS targets you can see (faintly) overlaid on the chart and meanwhile the Sonar and External GPS data feeds were fidgeting on and off, which is why they seem conflicted in the screenshot.

It’s not surprising that the Navionics app chokes up while trying to digest multiple sources, but it’s discouraging when I can use other apps running on the same iPad to successfully choose whichever of those same data sources I want to use. Moreover, even with an easier single-source situation like a direct connection to a new Actisense W2K-1 WiFi gateway (I’m testing) Boating v14.1 failed to even find the AIS, GPS, and depth data that other apps can display fidget free.

So while trying to make the data connections automatic is a worthy goal — and is working for some boaters as reported in this recent Panbo discussion — I began hoping that Navionics would also let us set up the connection the way other developers do.

Hurray then that “in the next few releases” of the Navionics Boating app there will eventually appear a “Custom device configuration”… whereby “There will be a way within the App to enter IP address and Port Number to connect to virtually any device streaming AIS, GPS, Sonar data via WiFi and NMEA 0183.”

I’ll illustrate what that means below, but first let’s look at how Navionics Boating v14.1 displays AIS targets and where that’s headed.

AIS data display

In this example, Boating v14.1 is connected directly to the WiFi access point created by a Si-Tex MDA-5 AIS transceiver (a SOTMA type Class B+ that I’m finding to be quite able and fairly priced). Nevermind that Boating identifies it as an “em-track” (another issue with auto-discovery) and nevermind that I seem to be on a dock instead of Gizmo’s nearby float (the cause may be my install of Si-Tex’s external GPS antenna, not fidgety data reception). But please do click the screenshot larger to better see the display of AIS target info, which seemed to be delivered consistently.

While Navionics uses transparency to de-emphasize vessels that aren’t moving — nice, I think — the four underway AIS boats plotted in Camden Harbor at this time don’t seem sufficiently obvious in this presentation. The colors are quite similar but mostly I miss the COG/SOG vector line that’s common to nearly every other AIS target display I’ve used.

Moreover, and again this is an extreme example, I was quite surprised to look up and realize that the underway vessel plotted as alongside Gizmo was not actually there or anywhere close. Now it’s common to see differences between plotted and real AIS vessel positions — the typical Class B dynamic data transmission rate of 30 seconds is one cause (that Class B/SO can improve on). But this seemed to be a case where maybe the vessel had been alongside at some point prior and then turned off its AIS before docking somewhere out of sight. AIS displays usually mark a target that has not been seen for a while, or you can dig into the detailed target info when in doubt.

But a Boating v14.1 individual AIS target info window does not include a timestamp, which to me is like a tech review without a date. Also not included is the size of the vessel — Helix is not 109 ft long, but was that close to Gizmo supposedly — and the type of AIS in use, all of which is included in the Si-Tex data stream. What’s not included for Class B vessels are items like IMO number and Navigation Status, which is why those uninformative lines above are filtered out of most Class B info windows.

Also missing from Boating v14.1 are calculations for Closest Point of Approach (CPA) and Time of (TCPA), along with a sortable list of current targets. And these are critical items if and when you seriously use AIS as an aid to collision avoidance.

But, yes, I am indeed picking on the first version of a worthy feature. However, that’s because Navionics Boating is already a terrific boating app in my opinion, and this expanded WiFi data feature could take it to the nav tool level of good apps like iNavX, iSailor, SEAiq, and TZ iBoat. Moreover, I fear that some boaters have not developed a critical eye for effective AIS target display, so maybe my rant is helpful that way.

The best AIS target display I’m familiar with is still Vesper’s WatchMate app, but it requires particular Vesper AIS devices. Hurray then that the Navionics Boating app WiFi AIS feature will eventually include:

• Display of ROT, COG, SOG and Heading on each target.
• Anti-Collision.
• AIS targets search.
• Targets on the map will reflect proportionally the actual size of each vessel.

iNavX doing WiFi AIS data right

While we’re at it, let’s look at how some other apps have been handling WiFi AIS data for some time, and iNavX is a worthy example as it trail blazed this feature before Panbo even had an iPad. The iNavX v5.5.6 screen above came from the same iPad and Si-Tex WiFi AIS as the Navionics examples.

Note that I’ve set the highly valuable underway target vectors to represent two minutes at current Speed over Ground (SOG), my preference in coastal waters, and that this setting in iNavX is the same as your own vessel vector (in other apps and on MFDs these are often separate settings). Note too that one of the many AIS display settings you can see in the gallery below is the ability to show / not show target boat names, a setting I use enough that I wish the switch was right on the chart screen.

The top left screen above shows how iNavX handles the WiFi device IP address setup that Navionics has tried to protect users from but will add as a secondary connection method. It does indeed look frighteningly geeky. How the heck, for instance, did boating come to involve the difference between TCP and UDP, and how do you find those numbers on the source device anyway?

Well, I’m not an IT person either, but I have learned enough about IP addresses to do this sort of setup many times, and once done it tends to work well. Note too that if the connection is made, you’ll know it immediately from the stream of NMEA 0183 messages scrolling in that lower window, which is common to many apps and also great for data troubleshooting if needed.

The other screens show more iNavX AIS display settings — but please don’t filter out Class B targets — as well as their sortable target lists and an individual target screen with the precise timestamp right at the top (harumph).

I’ll close with the fact that the Navionics Boating development team was already monitoring Panbo comments about the WiFi AIS feature when I contacted them. And hopefully that’s extra incentive to share your thoughts about how this excellent boating app should evolve.

The post Navionics Boating app AIS feature, great idea but… appeared first on Sailfeed.

If you’ve been reading Panbo, boating magazines, or spent any time at a boat show you’ve likely seen boat monitors, connected boat products and smart boat products. But, you may well not know what these things are or how they’re different from each other. Hopefully, I can help shed some clarity on this latest collection of buzzwords.

Many people get into boating as a way of relaxing, but, as most boaters find out sooner-or-later, when things break on your boat it can be anything but relaxing. Nothing will ruin a weekend faster than gearing up for a few days of relaxing on the water only to find a dead boat so there will be no cruising to your favorite spots.

This is the scenario boat monitoring products have been helping boaters avoid for quite a few years. But now, there’s lots of talk of connected boats, smart boats, and the marine internet of things (IoT). So, what does it all mean? I sat down with Dan Harper, CEO of Siren Marine, to try and make sense of all these terms and what they mean for boaters.

Dan described three tiers of boat monitoring and control. Perhaps it would work best to think of these tiers as a three-layered cake. The first layer of the cake of is the boat monitor; a tried-and-true product that monitors critical parts of your boat (like your batteries, bilge pumps and the location of the vessel) and alerts you if any of these things move outside of predefined ranges. Products like BoatCommand (covered here on Panbo), FloatHub (covered extensively on Panbo for its monitoring capabilities and AIS and Amazon Alexas integrations), and BoatFix’s monitor all do an excellent job of keeping tabs on your boat and making sure everything is okay with your batteries, bilge pumps, boat’s location, and a few other items.

The next layer is connected boat products; these devices build on the capabilities of the boat monitor but add more systems to the mix, likely connecting to NMEA-2000, digital switching and other products aboard. Siren Marine’s MTC, GOST’s Apparition, and Navico’s Naviop are all connected boating products. While basic remote functionality isn’t new — Panbo discussed it for both Navico’s GoFree and Siren’s MTC back in 2016 — the depth of control and two-way communications is continuously increasing.

Smart boat products form the final layer of our cake; these products take all of the information gathered in the previous layers and allow you or the system to take action based on that data. These products are just beginning to make it onto boats.

While we’re dealing with buzzwords, there’s IoT, which is connecting previously unconnected devices (like your fridge) and allowing you to collect data from it. That’s something that’s been happening in boats for a while now as we see previously standalone devices like battery chargers, air conditioners and other equipment connect either to NMEA 2000 or IP networks.

At the 2019 Miami Boat Show Sea Ray showed their SLX 350-R with Simrad’s information display (ID) and I had the opportunity to use and explore the system. Built on top of many of the Naviop platform ID integrates nearly all the boats system and gives the user both control and smarts. Those smarts are coming first as modes which give you the ability to get the boat ready for getting underway, anchoring or leaving dockside at the touch of a button. But, Simrad plans extensive automation and intelligence both when you’re on the boat and off.

Now for some practical examples. Let’s say your shore power connection failed (hopefully not as mine did in the picture above) and as a result, your house batteries are no longer being charged. A boat monitor would likely see your batteries eventually decline below a 12v threshold you’ve set and send you an email and/or a text message. A connected boat system would likely also be monitoring your shore power connection and be able to let you know right away that the shore power has failed as well as track the state of charge of your house bank and alert you again when the batteries are getting low. Meanwhile, a smart boat system would have all this information and also the ability to do something about it.

The smart boat system can see the shore power is out and that the batteries are starting to get to a concerning state of charge and see that there’s enough fuel in the tanks. Armed with this information the system knows it’s safe to start the generator. Now, with the generator running the system will allow the batteries to recharge to a safe level before shutting the generator back down and continuing to monitor.

As boats get more connected and smarter I’m hoping we will see meaningful advances in safety in other ways. The photo above shows a melted shore power connector from Have Another Day. Before that connector melted it began to get warm, then hot, and finally melted. I personally would sleep a little better with an integrated, smart-boat system that monitored the temperature of these critical junctions. I could then be alerted before a meltdown and the smart boat system could take action — like shutting down the shore power circuit — when critical temperatures are reached.

Here’s another example that’s front of mind for me. My family and I left Have Another Day for six weeks or so while we have been home in Chicago. She is well monitored and carefully looked after by the marina but I am still concerned about returning to a petri dish of mold and mildew. I’ve made a guess at the best compromise of humidity and temperature control balanced against using as little power as possible. But, I have multiple temperature and humidity monitors connected to my NMEA-2000 network — and I can even see them remotely thanks to ngrok. But, it would sure be nice to be able to use those readings to automatically adjust my air conditioning settings to minimize both cost and any potential mold. A smart boat system with an NMEA-2000 connected air conditioning system could do just that.

Like everything else on our boats, engines are getting smarter and better connected. Brunswick’s Nautic-On advertizes a welcome to smarter boating. Nautic-On has worked closely with their sister company Mercury Marine leveraging Mercury’s SmartCraft protocol to closely monitor engines and report on any issues. But, Nautic-On’s attempt at a smart boating device is a little different. Where other companies have built boat monitors first, then added further connected capabilities and finally smarts, Nautic-On has really skipped the connected tier. They’ve concentrated on batteries, bilge pumps and engines.

Nautic-On has focused on partnering with boat builders to equip new boats with their system and also to alert dealers and builders when issues arise on boats with their system installed. Nautic-On aims to make boating easier by automatically sending your marine service providers notification of any issues on your boat so that if you experience an issue over the weekend they can be ready to fix your boat on Monday. I’ve tried the Nautic-On system on my own boat and don’t think it’s a good fit yet for retrofit installs. I’m also not yet a believer in building the smarts without the foundation of the monitored and connected tiers.

BoatFix is also taking a different approach to boat monitoring and smarts. BoatFix offers a boat monitor that monitors batteries, bilge pumps, location, engine hours and theft sensors, but in this era of complete automation, they’re keeping a human touch in the process. Firstly, for critical alerts, they notify the boat owner — and their designated contacts — via telephone of the trouble. Secondly, they have trained mechanics available by phone 24/7 to assist in diagnosing and resolving issues. The company’s founder, Alastair Crawford, reports 63% of the calls to their mechanics end with the problem resolved.

So, where is this all going? What kinds of capabilities will boaters be able to enjoy in the near future? If I dust off my (cracked) crystal ball I think we should expect the pace of advancement to accelerate in the coming years. We will have a lot more data with almost every major system on the boat connected either via NMEA-2000 or by IP (internet protocol). Once these connections are made and with a good internet connection, we will move past just monitoring and alerting when things go wrong.

We are already seeing customized systems where you can control aspects of your boat remotely. In the near future, you will easily be able to open your boat’s app before you arrive, turn on the lights, turn down the air conditioning, start the gyro-stabilizer spinning, and get a report on the connected systems on the boat. And not just on high-end custom boats. I also expect much more intelligent alerts. Today, we get an alert that the house battery bank has fallen below a preset threshold. But, in reality, this is the symptom of a problem somewhere else, did the battery charger fail? Maybe a breaker tripped? With each of those systems connected, we will get the status of the breakers and measurements from the battery charger of its input out and output levels and know exactly what the problems is before ever heading to the boat.

Many insurance carriers offer discounts for boats that are equipped with qualifying boat monitors so it’s possible your investment will pay for itself over a few years. However, with the capabilities coming the payback will be in convenience, peace of mind and time savings, not just financial.

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