The Marine Electronics Hub
Blue Guard Innovations announces the introduction of its boat monitoring and control system, Smart Skipper. Smart Skipper enables owners, operators, and captains to monitor the security and safety of their unattended vessels.
It’s certainly noteworthy that KVH now offers a smaller, simpler, and less expensive VSAT antenna, but the TracPhone V30 announcement also mentioned new service rates of potential interest to those cruising and working on slimmer budgets. Although the more affordable plans only include small amounts of high-speed data, they also offer unlimited low-speed data. Is it fast enough to make working by satellite a reality at a reasonable cost? Depending on how you use the KVH mini-VSAT broadband service, it just might work for you.
There’s probably no good time for a bow thruster to get stuck in ON mode, but it happened to me while backing into our marina slip on a windy day. Moreover, that maneuver included...
In part one of this series, I explained our motivations for upgrading to a lithium house battery bank, my choice of all Mastervolt components, and the pleasing results of early testing. Now let’s talk about what makes lithium different and what you need to consider if you too plan an upgrade. Active battery monitoring and control are critical to protecting other power components, for instance, and there are other important install details. Plus, I’ve got more real-world testing results to share.
KVH Industries, Inc., today introduces the TracPhone V30, an ultra-compact Ku-band VSAT antenna designed to deliver data speeds as fast as 6 Mbps down/2 Mbps up for leisure and commercial boats wanting to experience the benefits of Internet at sea. Measuring just 37 cm (14.5 inches) diameter and weighing 10.6 kg (23.4 lbs), the TracPhone V30 is designed to provide ease of installation and retrofit with a single power-data coax cable, versus multiple cables, and to utilize DC power, a plus for small boats with a limited power supply.
There’s a lot of talk about installing lithium batteries in boats, but the enthusiasm often comes to a crashing halt when boat owner hears the cost. I’ve just installed a Mastervolt lithium system in Have Another Day and I’m over the price shock. But as I work to understand the results of my upgrade I’m amazed by the benefits I hadn’t anticipated. Follow along with my math and see if you reach the same conclusions I do about the benefits of upgrading to a lithium house bank.
Volvo Penta today announced the commercial availability of the industry’s first fully integrated Assisted Docking system. The system gives the captain better control when docking a boat by automating his or her intentions, compensating for some dynamic variables, such as wind and current, and helping the vessel stay on its intended course…
I’ve just completed an entire electronics refit on a 60-foot boat without ever plugging in a power tool. Besides never having to find a working AC outlet, and never tripping over a power cord, I think that my families of drills, drivers, saws, grinders, vacuums, and heat gun with interchangeable lithium batteries made the job faster and neater. There are many decent cordless tool families to choose from these days, but some detail on my experience may help you make the right choice.
At a mere 2.4″ in diameter, the Veratron GO is the smallest NMEA 2000® certified GNSS antenna on the market. Truly plug-and-play, the high-performance integrated GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo receiver is available in two navigation models and a Bluetooth version for monitoring onboard networked systems.
Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. today announced a strategic alliance with Siren Marine, manufacturer of marine-based IoT (Internet of Things) solutions. It is Yamaha’s most recent step to reinforce CommandBlue™, a philosophy that represents a commitment to move engineering and development into the realm of the customer, ultimately delivering products that are easier to use and creating greater satisfaction and confidence on the water.
