The Marine Electronics Hub
I’ve often heard wireless headsets referred to as marriage savers but before cruising full time I didn’t realize the accuracy of the nickname. Now after several years of regular use, I wouldn’t want to cruise without them. But there are multiple brands and types of headsets, and two we’ve used extensively each has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Weego’s Crankenstein is the first lithium chemistry jumpstarter under $1,000 that can start large 24v diesel engines, and its intuitive display with multiple powering options are noteworthy features that will hopefully come to more modestly priced designs. My testing started in an unusual way and while my first test turned out not to be a big diesel it did offer a nice glimpse of the 9-pound, 12x6x8 inch Crankenstein’s always ready design.
Lumishore, manufacturer of high-performance LED lighting systems, announced today the marine industry’s first plug-and-play module with a pre-installed, universal lighting Application Programming Interface (API) – the Lumi-Link Command Center. Offering boaters complete control of on-board Lumishore LED lighting systems…
Scheiber is a substantial French electronics company that provides sophisticated systems to large boatbuilders like Beneteau and Lagoon, but it’s now offering its lighting control technology in a retail kit form that means a local installer or DIY could use it for refits or custom builds. Moreover, the $350 Light Air Switch is distributed and supported in the U.S. by the crack team at Marinebeam, and what technology it is!
Lumishore, manufacturer of high-performance LED lighting systems, takes above water interior and exterior illumination to a new level with the introduction of its new Smart Lighting product line. Smart Lighting by Lumishore, which is the world’s first and only marine DC system with tunable color and white light, recently caught the attention of DAME judges, garnering a special mention in the Marine Electronics and Marine Related Software category at METSTRADE in Amsterdam…
Razor is the world’s first sleek, low profile light bar specifically designed to drop into a contoured pocket molded into a hardtop, radar arch, brow, or other surface. Lumitec’s careful thermal analysis and self-venting design puts an end to ‘pod’ mounted light bars, which can overheat and damage surrounding composites in hardtops…
NavPod, the leading manufacturer of waterproof housings for marine electronics, announced today there is a NavPod for every chartplotter and fishfinder available in the industry. The company now offers over 1000 precuts to fit multifunction displays from all major marine electronic manufacturers…
Ben Stein’s cabling frustrations reminded me about the value of good cable glands, like the selection from PYI Seaview. They are designed so that you can pass a cable with a fair-sized connector, or several such cables, through a deck or superstructure, but end up with a tight waterproof seal around the cables…
Though multifunction displays have been steadily gaining new functions, the Seakeeper and Lumishore buttons above represent a new era. Garmin calls it OneHelm, but the underlying HTML5 app technology is an important innovation that all the major MFD manufacturers are embracing. It significantly simplifies the process of creating MFD control…
As I sat down to write this article I flashed back to an eye-opening technology experience at the 2015 Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. My wife and I found ourselves on the Seakeeper roll stabilization demo boat in the mouth of the Port Everglades inlet with a Viking 60-foot sportfish doing circles around us throwing as big a wake as possible. Our demo ride led to a major install on our Carver motor yacht, which I can recall in vivid detail, but which also significantly improved our subsequent family voyage around the Great Loop…
