My April PMY column about Charles Industries, and isolation transformers specifically, is now online. Also up are some new product write-ups meant, in part, to illustrate how companies that traditionally supplied engine and boat manufacturers are now making plays for helm space and consumer attention. One is instrument maker F.W. Murphy, whose HelmView is seen above as part of Volvo Penta’s EVC system but is also capable of chart plotting using its SD slot for Navionics cards (below). This puppy can handled three simultaneous CANbus connections, including NMEA 2000, as explained here, and at the Murphy site (and also as used aboard a Cruisers Yachts 447). HelmView’s retail price is not trivial, but it might make a super geek gauge. I also covered Charles’ new IMcharger series, which has optional helm display and/or N2K output, electronically controlled fuel tank selectors from Parker Fluid Control, and a nifty BilgeWatch8 monitoring system that I still have in the test lab, and will expand on here one day.
Though CruzPro deserves more attention than it gets, as Panbo has noted before, I managed to let this neat new MaxVu110 multifunction display slip ever since METS. Too many electronics subjects, too little time! The Max110 is a monster, able to display up to five pages of data (from 16 stored configurations) in the three numeric fields and two bar graphs seen above. It has numerous possible inputs, knows just about every NMEA 0183 sentence written, and “contains built-in calibration curves for all popular engine temperature, oil pressure, fuel and tank level senders manufactured by VDO, Teleflex, Faria and Stuart-Warner”, including both American and European resistance ranges. And any field can be high/low alarmed. Finally, it comes with a Windows program that seems to make setting up all this instrumentation power easy. I can’t find the Max110 on CruzPro’s Web site, but it’s well presented in the online PDF catalog. I’ve got to think that this display could be useful to a geekish boater or imaginative installer, and hope we’ll get some reports about how it’s used.
I had a hard time getting enthused about the original SeaKey (explained here, with humor, by good ole Bill Pike), because its communications link seemed pretty flaky. SeaKey v2 is a major upgrade from v1, adding an LCD interface and two-way satellite communications, but the goal remains the same…an OnStar-like service for boaters. There’s a call center able to both handle emergencies and deliver concierge service. Plus you get geo-fence security and simple monitoring—bilge, battery, and main power switch—when you're ashore. You can even send e-mails (though short, and hard to key in), and subscribers get a personal Web site where friends and family can they follow their cruises. Stolen boats have been recovered using SeaKey, as documented in this PDF, which contains the wonderful:
Miami-Dade Police officer Neubauer stated while talking to the SeaKey Response Center Coordinator, "[Darn], this thing works good!"
But I’m not sure that SeaKey has really caught on, or even if it has any direct competitors. Opinions, or references, anyone?
Well, I’ve updated the Ideal Marine Electronics pages with new entries, even pictures and diagrams. One professional installer has weighed in so far, and I thought it interesting that at the end of his high-end-gear-that-doesn’t-break list—mostly brands of IBM stature—is relative newbie Krill Systems. Which reminded me of this snapshot taken at the Ft. Lauderdale Show. Krill was demonstrating live how easily their software can monitor a boat via IP and Krill’s secure server. In fact, the volunteer yacht was in a marina somewhere in the Pacific Northwest and not a lot was going on, but apparently if you were a little bored in a show booth, you could keep track of when someone flushed a head, causing a noticeable rise in the black water tank (bigger image here)!
There were several reasons for that grin on John Gass, Electronics Manager at Wayfarer Marine, the most obvious being that he was beating a particularly nasty February Maine day by testing a possible upgrade system in his shop. Second would be how unusual the system was, closeup here, a Mac Mini running MacENC (review link here) and talking to both a Furuno RD-30 and a NavNet vx2, black box model. John was stressing the whole kit by inputing GPS either from the laptop running Nema Talker or a Garmin 192, plus he had an AIS simulator running on a PC in the next room and connected to the Mini via Bluetooth, and a radar simulator that Furuno apparently supplies to dealers. There was also a Keyspan serial-to-USB converter plus lots of wires and alligator clips involved, which made me feel better about some of my test setups, and may account for the embarrassed portion of that smile. Regardless, John got all the data—routes and waypoints included—running around quite well except for one little MacENC-waypoint-to-NavNet glitch. Despite good support from both companies, he didn’t get that one solved before the potential owner of this system—who already has a very nice one, but wants MARPA and AIS—decided to put the R&D on hold. At any rate good geek fun was had, and I also became acquainted with Firma Mats Kagstron’s AIS Simulator (source of many other NMEA software products) and Effective Solutions’ combined AIS and NMEA Simulation, both of which I’d like to investigate further. Thanks, John!
It’s just been announced that Raymarine and Remote Knowledge have inked a deal to develop a Ray branded communications product. Remote has been fairly quiet since I wrote up their initial RK3000 product back in my January, 2005, PMY column (this part below not online for reasons unknown), but—man-o-man—it’s not too hard to imagine how their CANbus/N2K and sat/cell comms technology could be married beautifully to Raymarine systems.
I believe the hip hop expression is “baby’s got back!” I like this rear view, bigger here, of the new Garmin 4xxx for both its industrial design sleekness and the implied power of all those connections. The three MarineNet (Ethernet) ports, for instance, are a new feature which means that simpler systems—say sounder box, radar, and XM weather/audio—won’t need a hub (though note that one is still possible, and advantageous in multi display setups). But what’s truly lovely is this standard plug—NMEA 2000 straight up, no patch cables, no “GarBus” or “GarNet” nonsense to confuse everyone. I also learned today that the rumor I repeated in that same “nonsense” entry was wrong: Lowrance is soon going to put standard N2K connectors on its LowranceNet displays and cables. Yo!
Unfortunately, a worse rumor is surfacing. Twice in the last week someone has asked me something like, “Is it true that theU.S. Coast Guard has some objection to NMEA 2000.” Well, I have more research to do but I very strongly doubt that the USCG has a problem (in fact, it was actually one of the earliest and strongest proponents of the standard , because it’s more reliable and hence safer). While there may be a little bureaucratic nonsense going on behind the regulatory scenes, I’m confident that it will not become a true problem. Especially so as today I attended the first ever European Connect Fest, where some 17 manufacturers with 42 different physical devices all shared data on the same backbone, and a lot of trade folks got down with it. Yo!
Well, Garmin (having quite a week) didn’t mess around, releasing marine 2007 preview dope before METS opens its doors. Even an elaborate Flash presentation. Key features at the new 4000 series high end: 12” XGA screen, NMEA 2000 compliance (big news for the protocol!), support for new g2 Vision charts with worldwide satellite imagery and under/over-water 3D, and a brand new interface, including simplified “navigation with Auto Guidance.” A hands on look later, hopefully.
The screens above, bigger here , show Maretron’s prototype for N2KView, an engine (and more) monitoring program. Of course it handles most any raw NMEA 2000 data in a boat’s backbone, including J1939 engines via Maretron’s gateway. But an extra neat feature is that N2KView is actually a server, able to deliver the goods to all sorts of Flash clients, including that WiFi enabled phone. Perhaps even happier N2K–wise is the news that Carling Technologies—the substantial old line manufacturer of switches, breakers, etc (and owner of Moritz Aerospace, i.e. Octoplex)—has just invested in Maretron. And soon I’ll be able to tell you about another big brand that is adopting NMEA 2000. Could we be reaching a tipping point? Heck, even some of the habitues of Google Groups are having an intelligent conversation about its costs (for a change). But I also just finished up an N2K feature for Sail, and this morning took this plug picture below. Left to right they are NMEA 2000 standard Micro size, SeaTalk2, LowranceNet, and SimNet. They all do the same thing with those 5 pins, and all could have the same name! (I also heard that Lowrance may not change plugs to the standard as promised {a rumor later shot down, thankfully}). Patch cables work but this confusing nonsense has really set a good multi-manufacturer data standard back. If you too want to see the tipping sooner than later, complain!
I hadn’t noticed this in my first pass through photos of the Cape Town trip, but now it’s got extra meaning. That big sculpted helm belongs to a Stealth 540, in fact hull #1. While most South African boatbuilders seemed just a tad behind the curve electronics-wise, Stealth plans to fill in that white space with fairly cutting edge systems—MAN electronic diesel monitoring, an OctoPlex power distribution system, and Raymarine E-120s (given the size of this salon helm, maybe they should consider an E on the fly bridge and the new G monitor here?). If I understood the project manager correctly, all three can be interfaced via NMEA 2000, but the plan is to run them separately at first. The electronics, though, are minor compared to the 540’s hull design and hydrofoil assist, which Stealth claims will result in a 55 mph top end, a soft ride, and good fuel efficiency. Plus it seems pretty good looking for a power cat (much more info and art at StealthYachts.com). Of course all this is conjecture until the 540 is actually in the water, and that’s what tickles me about the picture, just confirmed: Hull #1 will be at the Miami show in February, where a PMY team, myself included, is scheduled to test it.
d XM weather/audio—won’t need a hub (though note that one is still possible, and 
