Unwire your boat with Bluetooth

ShipModul Marine Electronics has come out with a new product, a Bluetooth enabled NMEA multiplexer, that facilitates wireless communication between your PC and marine instruments like a GPS, wind & depth meters or compass. The multiplexer functions as a sort of ‘hub’ between these different devices, and since it’s a Class 1 Bluetooth device, it operates within a theoretical range of 300ft. It works with all products that are based on the NMEA-0183 standard. This surely a nice product, but let’s hope Zigbee-devices will arrive soon so that we can cut all cords between sensors, displays, multiplexers (if required at all al that time) and PC’s.
“The MiniPlex-42BT communicates with a computer through its’ Bluetooth interface for computerized nagivation. No cables need to be attached. Just placing your laptop at the chart table, or just being on board for that matter, is enough to communicate with your navigation system. Both NMEA outputs (talker ports) allow distribution of the NMEA data to up to eight instruments.”