Yet more LifeTag, battery issue resolved?
Well, it seems that new Raymarine research pretty much obliterates concerns about the battery life of their LifeTag MOB pendants. A note from Product Manager Paul Tiller says that “…following exhaustive life testing by the engineering department, they are happy to report that the LifeTag tag battery will last for over 2000 hours of continuous usage, equating to 83 days or almost 12 weeks!” His excitement is understandable; that’s ten times longer than the previously published estimate!
Plus, this morning, when I took the LifeTag innards shot above (bigger here), I did a little testing myself. I opened and shut the case ten times and then vigorously drowned the unit in a bucket. It survived fine. (Though the server support personnel I was day dreaming about probably would have sputtered some!)
It makes me wonder what led to the original 200hr forecast; it's pretty easy to divide the battery's power capacity by the measured power consumption. I guess we'll know they are serious when they put the 2,000 hrs in the product brochure.
Beyond that, it's interesting that the installation guide specifies the insertion of a double pole switch (apparently not provided) into the SeaTalk cable (being careful to leave the third wire intact) so that the base station may be turned off. This seems a little klugy for a safety system and I would hope they would produce an appropriate switch with a SeaTalk connector in/out. The switch presumably enables the LifeTag system to be manually turned off so that the tags can be "automatically" shutdown (extending battery life) while the remaining SeaTalk devices continue to operate.
Also interesting to note the 30' range, but provision is made for a repeater. My guess is that it would take a little experimentation to find the right locations for the two base stations, given each boat's distribution of foil backed insulation, carbon fiber, etc. while maintaining the recommended distances away from the compass, engine, radios, etc.
We look forward to hearing the results of your testing.