Look how NMEA 2000 can make a guy grin. That’s Kevin Binnie, Systems Product Manager at Xantrex Technology, showing how his MS2000 Inverter/Charger can gateway to NK2 and hence display its operating status to other displays (here Teleflex and Maretron). The hair dryer let him apply a load so us gawkers could see some action, which was instantaneous. Behind Kevin is Bill Remster of Blue Water Data, who showed me his neat PC program that can read and log raw 2000 data. One thing he does with it is engine warranty “start ups” in which he goes aboard a new boat, hooks into 2000 power plants like Yanmar's, and records all sorts of engine data at various RPMs, including speed and pitch using 2000 sensors he brings along. Neato.
Also shown at the NMEA Conference was the first generator whose ECM outputs NMEA 2000, which means that installing control panels anywhere is simply a matter of T-ing into the boat’s backbone. The generator also provides power to the backbone, eliminating another cable, and generator status can be viewed on other NK2 displays as all the messages are standard (remember, a certain number of proprietary messages are allowed). Westerbeke (no information on its site yet, but some here) will eventually offer this option on all its generators. Yes!
This software (bigger screen here) is still in beta but it seems quite stable and adds a lot to the Airmar Weather Station, including a new name for itself, Weather Caster. Note the new pitch and roll dial; heck, I didn’t even realize that there was also an inclinometer in that casing, along with wind, GPS, heading, temp, pressure, and humidity sensors. The other big update is in the “Advanced Setup”, where you can now flash the weather station firmware (worked fine), and also control the sensor to some degree. Below is the NMEA 0183 output screen, bigger here, which is impressive, giving an ‘advanced’ user or installer complete control over the limited bandwidth, even pop-up definitions of 0183 sentence types. It’s interesting that while this and the Maretron weather station are largely meant to sit in the background feeding data to your main displays, you need a PC connection to keep them up to date and either dedicated PC software like this or a dedicated display (Maretron) to see every bit of the information they generate. At least until the display guys catch up with the available data.
I think the input/output architecture of Raymarine’s C- and particularly E-Series is really quite good. In fact, I’m amazed that the E is still the only system out there offering both NMEA 2000 and Ethernet networking, though the two work together beautifully. But a problem is cropping up. C’s and E’s have only one NMEA 0183 port, but Raymarine keeps adding things you can do with it, mostly recently AIS and Navtex. As the E manual says, “You can connect either AIS or Navtex or other instruments to one display” (emphasis added).
Now, if you have more than one display in your E-Series setup, each can handle a different 0183 input, and the data will be shared across both the Ethernet and NMEA 2000 networks (nice!). But if you only have one E, or a C, well then you may need to investigate the sometimes complex world of multiplexors (referenced at the bottom of this AIS entry). But don’t expect them to multiplex Navtex because apparently that’s not really 0183 protocol anyway. Raymarine tells me that they really wanted to put more 0183/whatever ports in these machines but just couldn’t fit them along with all the other I/O. The limitation might come in to play when, say, choosing between a 2000 or 0183 ultrasonic weather station.
This example will be less funky once I get this whole test rig on the water, but still that’s an impressive screen shot. All that data is coming from, or calculated using, the NMEA 2000 output of Maretron’s weather station, compass, GPS, and water speed/depth sensor. The simulated ‘boat’ is underway but almost standing still (SOG = 0.1 kt) though there’s 0.8 kt of water going by the hull (me flicking the paddle wheel). True Wind then—sometimes called True Relative to Boat—is Apparent adjusted for Speed Through Water and Heading, and Ground Wind (sometimes called True!) is Apparent adjusted for COG/SOG. (A more thorough discussion of True Wind might be in order).
And—yes, contrary to yesterday’s post—there’s Barometric Pressure and Air Temp from the WSO100. It turned out that the E Series doesn’t recognize the standard NMEA 2000 “Environmental” PGN, but will display an alternate PGN that can be turned on in the WSO. This sounds like the screwy stuff that happens with NMEA 0183, and sure enough the E also has an issue with the 0183 “Environmental” sentence, which apparently is marked “do not use” in the NMEA handbook. But Airmar says it’s the only message available for pressure, temp, and relative humidity.
At any rate, the data on the screen below is all coming from Airmar’s all-in-one ultrasonic weather station (and will be joined by pressure, etc. when Raymarine does another code release). True Wind and Set/Drift aren’t calculated because there is no source of Boat Speed, though that would be easy by wiring a speed/depth Smart Sensor into the Weather Station’s Combiner box (multiplexer). Some other day I’ll discuss comparative accuracy, value, etc., but for now I think it’s impressive that the E Series (and C) can interface with both these super sensor systems. The screen shots also illustrate the vastly improved data window control that’s come to the C and E. You can customize the five preset panels pretty extensively (blame me for the asymmetrical graph cells), and use the panels full, half, or quarter screen on any given page. Well done Raymarine, Maretron, and Airmar!
As you may have noticed from the antenna farm, I’m trying the Maretron Weather Station announced last fall. It’s hard to imagine an easier physical install…unscrew a T in the NMEA 2000 backbone, add new T and the WSO100 sensor, power and data done. The Raymarine E, plus RayTech 6.0 on the SeaTalk HS bus, immediately got the ultrasonic wind speed and direction data. Coastal Explorer got it too, as no doubt other PC programs would, via the Maretron USB Gateway (in other words converted into NMEA 0183 messages). Air temperature, barometric pressure, and relative humidity are a different story. There are NMEA 2000 and 0183 sentences for this data but so far nothing I have reads them all except Maretron’s own display. Obviously that’s also true for derived values like wind chill and dew point. At any rate, the display did need updating to understand the WSO100 and put up new screens like the one above, and Maretron has developed a nice program called NK2 Network Analyzer (below, and bigger here) that can update any device on the backbone. (PS: Just noticed that Maretron has put up a demonstration program).
OK, I admit that at least half of the hideous mess above is the fault of yours truly, being sloppy with a temporary install, in this case interfacing a DSC VHF, a GPS, and an AIS receiver all to a Garmin 3210 (possible because it has two 0183 ports, plus a special Garmin GPS port). But I also blame the standard itself, or non standard really, since there is no common plug, let alone standard wire colors (so you’re delighted to come across nice labelling like Northstar’s at right), or even a uniform nomenclature. Plus the typical bare wires are fine gauge, making them hard to handle and hard to secure strongly. Finally, the variable way the negative side of an 0183 data IN or OUT wire pair works—sometimes wired to its negative OUT/IN opposite, sometimes wired to ground, sometimes not wired to anything—further confuses things, and often means that there’s a partial crossover between the power connection strip (upper left) and the data strip. The photo below, and bigger here, shows how this can all be neatly done, in this case by pros, but it’s still a bit fragile, I think, and it’s going cost you time or money. The chaos and complications of NMEA 0183 wiring make the rugged NMEA 2000 combined data/power cable scheme look very, very good.
I wear a watch with hands, but I’m not crazy about traditional engine gauges, especially when there are rows and rows of them, and most especially when they’re digitally rendered. Yes, a screen like this SmartCraft/Northstar combo looks ‘wow’, but isn’t Simrad’s version above, bigger here, much more screen efficient and informative? By my count, the bar gauges on this half display represent nine data points, or eighteen dials with dual engines. I haven’t seen this monitoring in actual use, but I’d hope that there could be ticks for ‘normal’ values, and maybe changing or flashing colors for critical values. Electronic engines combined with the smarts and displays of navigation electronics offer such wonderful possibilities (which, of course, is why the break up of Brunswick New Technologies seems especially mysterious).
Note that Simrad can display data from engines that use the NMEA 2000 protocol, or can speak it through an electronic bridge. Note too that this screen also shows Simrad’s unique radar overlay “sandwich”. See how the yellow targetry lays over the charted land but then the nav aids lay over everything (like the lighthouse at about 2 o’clock and 2 range rings from the boat). This is a little nuance that everyone else should copy!
So what do I mean that the new Zeus propulsion system has nerves as well as brains? Well, hooked into the drive controller is an ultra high precision GPS and inertial navigation sensor which feeds it fast updates on the boat’s location along with which way she’s heading, sliding, twisting, rolling etc. Thus the drive gets instant feedback about how well it’s doing what you asked it to do. In other words, if you’re coming alongside a dock and you push the joystick a little bit to starboard, Zeus will take you a little bit to starboard no matter if the current or wind are pushing you hard toward the dock, away from it, or in some other direction. Zeus can do what the very best boat driver does, i.e. observe what the yacht is actually doing in real time, figure out all the forces involved, and compensate for them to get her to go where he wants her to go. Of course the ultimate expression of a totally integrated drive/navigation system like this is its ability to hold station, which seemed rock solid during the demo. It works so well, in fact, that the Cummins guys say they have put Ingenuity next to dock and stepped ashore—no dock lines (though that will never be an advertised feature). That well!
Now it must be noted that the specific navigation sensor hardware being used on the demo is apparently a very expensive Oxford Technologies RT3000 working with private Omnistar differential GPS corrections, which adds a serious subscription expense. But it’s clear that Brunswick’s electronics division is hard at work trying to provide the needed level of precision by the time Zeus becomes a real shipping system. In fact, Zeus may explain why Brunswick picked up MX Marine, which I couldn’t figure out last Spring. The image above shows a Navman/Northstar auto pilot that’s been souped up to work with Zeus’s amazing capabilities (note how the pilot is neatly showing you what the drives are up to as you cast a line, or take a picture, or whatever). It seems obvious that many Zeus boats will be Brunswick hulls with Brunswick drives and Brunswick electronics—all one—which is worth one more Zeus entry, tomorrow.
Above is a 42’ Maxum that Brunswick, specifically the Cummins MerCruiser division, was using as a special demo boat at the Miami Boat Show. Obviously (bigger here ) it’s loaded with Northstar’s new 8000i multifunction displays (and, yes, that lower one seemed a bit odd as you could kick it if you were being ‘casual’ like this model). Now I’d love to test the 8000i on the water (especially once the finished system ships in June), but this demo was much more about that fat joystick, and the engines, drives, and electronics it’s attached to, all called Project Zeus. I got to experience it myself and, by golly, it’s a very big deal indeed. The drives are similar to the IPS system that Volvo introduced last year, except that the props face aft (which I, from the bays of rocks and lobster traps, strongly favor). I won’t go into Zeus’s claims of efficiency, low noise, etc., though you might want to check out the press release. What I want to tell you about is how I watched a guy joystick this boat’s bow within a few feet of a day marker and then do a 360 around the mark with the bow always within those few feet. I also saw how you could push the “hold station” button on the Navman pilot and boat would sit exactly in place despite wind and current, and without thrusters. This is really revolutionary stuff, and important, I think, to the future of boating and marine electronics. More tomorrow.
It made sense to me that Simrad’s WR20 RemoteCommander shared an innovation award with the Northstar 8000i at the Miami boat show. It uses Bluetooth to wirelessly connect (“up to” 300’, as they say) with a boat's SimNet (aka NMEA 2000) network, and Simrad has equipped it with custom messages able to duplicate nearly every button push on all its SimNet-equipped devices. (These are the proprietary messages I was talking about here, and a good example of how they can be used innovatively). Potentially you can use this remote to power steer with your autopilot, zoom your chart plotter, change channels on your VHF, just about anything. Plus, if you do have the Simrad RS80 Series VHF that's SimNet enabled, the remote can also be a wireless handset (the Bluetooth audio going directly to the radio, not through SimNet). The remote can also display one to four lines of data from many sources on the network, including non-Simrad sensors. And finally, it is supposedly ready to work with Simrad equipment that hasn’t even been developed yet, though I don’t understand how.
By the way, Simrad’s purchase of Lowrance seems to be a done deal. It’s interesting that both companies have done a lot with NMEA 2000, though in different ways. I wonder how their product strategies and lines will be merged, if at all.
Xantrex Technology, showing how his MS2000 Inverter/Charger can gateway to NK2 and hence display its operating status to other displays (here Teleflex and Maretron). The hair dryer let him apply a load so us gawkers could see some action, which was instantaneous. Behind Kevin is Bill Remster of Blue Water Data, who showed me his neat PC program that can read and log raw 2000 data. One thing he does with it is engine warranty “start ups” in which he goes aboard a new boat, hooks into 2000 power plants like Yanmar's, and records all sorts of engine data at various RPMs, including speed and pitch using 2000 sensors he brings along. Neato.
special Garmin GPS port). But I also blame the standard itself, or non standard really, since there is no common plug, let alone standard wire colors (so you’re delighted to come across nice labelling like Northstar’s at right), or even a uniform nomenclature. Plus the typical bare wires are fine gauge, making them hard to handle and hard to secure strongly. Finally, the variable way the negative side of an 0183 data IN or OUT wire pair works—sometimes wired to its negative OUT/IN opposite, sometimes wired to ground, sometimes not wired to anything—further confuses things, and often means that there’s a partial crossover between the power connection strip (upper left) and the data strip. The photo below, and 
I won’t go into Zeus’s claims of efficiency, low noise, etc., though you might want to check out the 