Now that we’ve had a look at Navico’s WiFi1 router and the 0183 Link, let’s examine the Toolkit that will purportedly give developers easy access to the higher level numeric data that’s running around in a boat’s Simrad, Lowrance, or B&G systems. Of course that means NMEA 2000 data and it could lead to all sorts of interesting apps like that instrument screen prototype above. We’re talking about 38 data groups ranging from GPS to Bait Well to Inverter with 303 data types already defined by Navico. I’ll link to the list below and I think even non-programmers will get excited about what’s possible…
Thanks to Dan Corcoran for submitting a valuable Panbo install entry while your regular editor slacks off ~ Ben:
While the ST70+ — which I wrote about here — continues as the largest and most readable of Raymarine’s many instrument displays, the svelt i70 and its sibling p70 autopilot control heads may be the right size and price to be easy replacements for your existing displays, as they were on my sailboat Breeze Pleeze. As shown in the picture below, the new i70 can drop into the same hole as an ST60 or ST70 with re-positioned mounting screws ready to grab into fresh fiberglass. The display can also be installed in territory previously out of reach, such as shallow cavities that lack good rear access, with a new “front mounted design for simpler installation”. The physical installation is done by securing the display from the front with self tapping screws in each corner that are hidden behind a slim silver snap-on bezel seen two pictures below.
It looks like Actisense has some serious competition when it comes to translating data back forth from NMEA 0183 to NMEA 2000. And while that’s not a sexy marine electronics topic, it’s an important one as many boats use a changing mix of the two protocols. The AMEC NK-80 adaptor above was recently NMEA 2000 certified and it seems quite able. If you go to the NK-80 page of Milltech Marine — which helped develop the product and distributes it in the U.S. — you can download the manual and thus check out the nitty-gritty of specific data fields translated. What I notice is that the NK-80 seems to cover every AIS PGN and lots more, which seems to be a problem for the otherwise able Actisense NGT-1 series of adaptors…
Yes, I have known something about this for a while (because I promised not to write about it), but it’s purely coincidental that NMEA is announcing OneNet just after we once again discussed the crying need for a NMEA 2000-to-Ethernet/WiFi standard. OneNet appears to be all that and much more…
On Friday I got a press release announcing Digital Yacht’s NavLink NMEA2000 to WiFi Server, and while I certainly understand the desire to get boat sensor data of all sorts onto iPads and other tablets, I remain confused about how it will all play out. For instance, how is the NavLink “revolutionary” when the Chetco SeaSmart and DMK boxes purportedly do the same job? And whereas there is no NMEA standard for putting N2K onto Ethernet yet, are all these products doing it differently so they won’t necessarily work with even the few marine apps that already accept data over WiFi? Then there’s the issue of NMEA 2000 certification; though I sure wish the standards organization would get this sorted out, I still think their certification process must especially be honored when a product is all about translating NMEA’s intellectual property. When I wrote about that several of you disagreed, but I understand that Chetco is very close to certification and I trust Digital Yacht will also work on it. But I don’t see NMEA 2000 certification on the NavLink box and also don’t now what DY means by “Digital Yacht has their own, certified version of NMEA2000, called N2NET, and in the future customers will see more and more products enabled with this interface.” I’m hoping DY will clarify — they just did, and well, see first comment on Panbo — but in the meantime I’ve been testing some other means to the same end…
It was a beautiful weekend in Maine, and we deserved one, but sorry to report that there were sighs and curses of surprise and disappointment emanating from the good vessel Gizmo. I may be late with this year’s (way over the top 😉 electronics installations, but that’s what Gizmo is about, and I was looking forward to seeing how a new-to-me Em-Trak B100 Class B AIS transponder would work with a wide variety of displays that could use its NMEA 2000 output. As discussed here last June, the B100 is a compact, feature-rich, affordable transponder, especially compared to the others with N2K output. And while there was a glitch in early implementations of AIS over NMEA 2000, I had presumed that the major manufacturers involved had worked that out. Damn it, I was wrong…
I’m starting out with a backside shot of the B&G Triton T41 color instrument display — first announced here last September — because I’d like to highlight the novel installation scheme. After fastening that flanged collar at left into the appropriate size hole, the Triton simply inserts and twist locks — or vice versa — without the need of a tool, and also without any “snap on/off” fastening covers to get broken or lost. It worked fine for me in the lab, and I suspect it will work fine on Gizmo’s bridge, but the very day I took this picture I stumbled on an early Triton user who doesn’t like this system at all…
This is not the scene most boaters want to see in the middle of their salon going into Memorial Day Weekend, but at least I can look forward to checking out how well that Victron MultiPlus 12/2000/80 charges and inverts. It may seem crazy to replace the perfectly functional Xantrex Freedom 25 that used to occupy this spot, but it’s part of an aggressive “re-power” plan that’s had me busy recently. Besides the Xantrex has already replaced the broken one on my in-law’s M/V Brilliant — which partially subsidized this upgrade — and I’m nearly as happy pulling cables as I would be lounging on the fine settee that will eventually go back here…
When we argued recently about how much NMEA 2000 rules inhibit hardware innovation, one success story I thought of was Offshore Systems (UK) Ltd, which developed an interesting N2K solid state tank sensor I first wrote about in 2005. Some 4,000 installations of the 3271 Volumetric Fuel Sender still doesn’t make Offshore a large company, but founder Bruce Coward has continued to create innovative N2K hardware, all of which is both NMEA and CE certified. The photo above shows a few such items seen at IBEX…
Aside from the StructureScan HD demo just discussed, I also got to try out the remarkable Teleflex Marine Optimus 360 system in Miami. Yes, it does bring joystick go-any-which-way control to twin outboards — YouTube videos here — but there are several impressive subtleties too. One is the underlying Electronic Power Steering (EPS) system that’s diagrammed in blue above and can be had without the “360” throttle, shift, and joystick if desired…
