Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Category: Network & control

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Wireless & Apps / Network & control / Safety & SAR / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K / Monitoring & Tracking

NMEA 2025: Digital Yacht Bilge IQ

Last week, the National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) held their annual conference in West Palm Beach. This year’s conference featured quite a few interesting product introductions. I had the opportunity to see most of them while helping judge the NMEA’s Best New Product and NMEA Technology Awards. I plan several articles covering the various product introductions, though I’ll have to be quick about it as IBEX begins next week. Digital Yacht’s Bilge IQ is a NMEA 2000 and WiFi connected bilge pump control and monitoring system. The clever system monitors bilge pump activations, runtime, and current draw. My fellow judges and I thought enough of it to give it the Best New Product award. What did we see that intrigued us enough to award it? Let’s take a look.

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Getting Technical / Editors' Blog / Wireless & Apps / Network & control / Safety & SAR / The future

Getting Technical: Getting it together

When new classes of technology are introduced to the marine marketplace, they tend to focus on core functionality. Niceties like integrating with the rest of the boat’s control systems are not a priority. Hence, new technology and systems are frequently introduced with dedicated control systems. One result is that helms and control panels are littered with disparate controls, making real estate at the helm a hot commodity.

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LiFePO4 / Network & control / Electrical & Engines

Mastervolt MLi 12/1250 premium system integraged LiFePO4 battery

Mastervolt’s MLi batteries are some of the most capable, premium batteries in the marine marketplace today. With features like native MasterBus, CZone, and NMEA 2000 support they underpin some of the most complex marine installations you can find. These batteries are built on a foundation of quality, engineering, and reliability. The 12-volt, 1250 watt hour battery is the smallest entry into the line but gives up nothing to its larger brothers and sisters. The obvious question is, how do I benefit from this battery and how is it different from others in the marketplace? Let’s take a look at the battery and what it can do.

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Wireless & Apps / Network & control / The future / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K / Monitoring & Tracking

DBMIBS 2025: Digital Yacht’s NjordLINK developer friendly boat monitoring solution

Digital Yacht’s streak of specialized and interesting NMEA 2000 products continues with NjordLINK. NjordLINK is a $139 gateway that connects to a boat WiFi network and shares data from the NMEA 2000 network with Digital Yacht’s Njord cloud. But, NjordLINK and the Njord cloud aren’t just a one way repository of data. Digital Yacht plans an entire ecosystem of cloud apps that can alert the boat owner and send data back to the boat.

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Wireless & Apps / Network & control / Communications / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Icom’s M510 Evo VHF radio, a modern feature packed radio with an app

Icom introduced the world to its M510 about 3 and a half years ago. The M510 came with a slew of features including a bright, crisp color display, WiFi, AIS receive option, remote CommandMic second station capability, and control of the radio via a phone app. However, access to a NMEA 2000 network as well as hailer functionality required a separate interface box. Now, Icom has refreshed the M510 line with the M510 Evo. The Evo offers all the M510’s features and NMEA 2000 and a hailer with listen-back in a single unit. So, with a new radio from Icom and a new boat for me, the timing was for an extended test on the water.

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LiFePO4 / Getting Technical / Editors' Blog / Wireless & Apps / Network & control / Safety & SAR / Electrical & Engines / The future

Getting Technical: Top tier technologies

Innovation in the past five years or so has been a little bit lumpy. The impacts of a global pandemic, followed by severe supply-chain shortages, slowed the pace of product introductions and advancements. Even so, three major innovations are hitting the marine marketplace with a big splash. Each one is changing the way boaters use their boats, and leaving a lasting imprint on the industry.