Written by Ben Ellison on Feb 18, 2014 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

The Garmin and Volvo Penta Glass Cockpit won a lot of awards and shook up the competitors. I think it’s why Raymarine rolled out its nifty-seeming ECI-100 so quickly, and I suspect it motivated Mercury Marine to put together the clean “glass dash” above. The Simrad NSO evo2 driving those two MO19-T monitors is not only doing the boat’s CZone switching — even able to activate the four outboards — but its Mercury Vessel View app seemed a terrific interface to all those engines…

While we never got underway in the quad-powered center console, I began to buy Mercury’s claim that they’ve gone way beyond virtual analog engine gauges with both its own VesselView displays and especially the just announced Navico integration. The idea is to put essential info on one screen and abet it with automatic pop-ups and/or user customized sub windows. During the NSO demo we experienced clear engine fault alarms, managed cruise control, and even saw a backup camera pop up when the motors were shifted into reverse.
You need at least a VesselView4 display on a boat to monitor/control two outboards and to serve as a bridge between SmartView and the NMEA 2000 data Navico uses. But a VesselView7 — which is actually based on Simrad NSS7 hardware design and built by Navico — also has an Ethernet connection and can serve as a full navigation display. It’s unlikely that anyone would swap normal uses like I did on the Mercury show demo above, but consider how a single VesselView7 could provide both engine and nav screens on, say, a tuna tower.

There are many aspects to the glass bridge concept and though the Furuno TZT arguably led the display part with its multi-touch screen under edge-to-edge black glass, they don’t yet have a separate keypad for hard-to-reach screens or hard sea conditions. But it’s coming soon — see above — and it looks quite compact and able. It features a combined rotary knob and cursor joystick, and its shallow backside only has a USB cable to hook up.

Also, coming fairly soon, is a glass-style color autopilot head for Furuno’s line, and of course, the screen looks sharper than my show photo indicates. It seems obvious that similar color instrument displays will follow, but the Furuno reply on that hypothesis was just a grin.

If you want a multi-screen glass bridge with a bright 7-inch touchscreen that controls them all, KEP has you covered. The company has also become the U.S. distributor for various heavy duty NSI trackballs and keyboards.

Iris Innovations was showing a new line of monitors in Miami. Glass bezel style versions will be coming soon, but these were already showing the interface style with touch panning of Iris Nightrunner nav cams and zoom controls hidden in the corners. I gather that small navigation computers with cue and slew camera integration are also part of what Iris is calling IceBridge.

Green Marine (on Panbo in 2010) was showing off all glass BridgeCommand monitors with a nice glassy feature: The on button is invisible under the logo, and you don’t see the flat red controls until you touch that button either. Unfortunately, a new color touch multi-monitor controller didn’t make the show, and it has WiFi and remote apps, too.

Smart phones and tablets are definitely part of the general glass bridge idea where boat systems are integrated together with multiple easy interfaces. The big press event announcing the partnership between Garmin and Mastervolt CZone also included Scout, the first boatbuilder to install the systems. Check out the clever holder that Scout designed for the iPad that comes with every boat. When the door-like mount is closed the charging iPad running the CZone app (or Garmin Helm app) it looks like it’s part of the down below control center.

And while the helm of Navionics’ founder Giuseppe Carnevali’s sailing cat doesn’t look glassy, I think the new Raymarine Plotter Sync — where fresh chart data, community edits, and routing moves easily from app to MFD, with tracks and sonar logs coming back to your cloud and beyond — is in the glass spirit. I look forward to trying it and writing about it soon.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Apr 21, 2014 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

When Garmin recently introduced GNX20/21 displays, it led to questions about the power needs of similar but all-color NMEA 2000 instruments. And that led me to finally make up a special N2K cable that I can use with my trusty Power Analyzer Pro to measure the 12 volt current flow to an individual N2K-powered device. So what you’re seeing above is that a Raymarine i70 working with live data at 100% brightness level is using 0.13 amps. That’s not much by most standards, but dropping down a hair to 90% brightness reduced the power draw 20%…

I got into this testing, trying all the NMEA 2000 displays above at almost every brightness level they offer. The Maretron only has 3 brightness levels, the Garmin GMI20 is unique for 5% increments, and I took an educated stab at balancing the Furuno RD33’s separate screen and keypad backlight (you only need help seeing the keys when the screen is quite dim). As you’ll see in the results table below, all of the displays use significantly less power at slightly less than maximum brightness with power savings declining to almost zero as you dim them way down. I’ve seen similar results with large, individually-powered multifunction displays, though of course, the amperage saving increment is larger. It’s great that marine screens have gotten so bright and readable, but if you’re sailing or at anchor, it’s power smart to keep displays turned down a notch or two. Interestingly, it made no power draw difference to invert colors — all that bright white to black — or to use red themed night colors.

What doesn’t show in the table, though, is the huge difference between all the color screens and the Simrad IS20 representing monochrome technology. In my fairly well-lit lab, the color screens became unreadable somewhere below 50% brightness, but I could not detect the backlighting on the IS20 screen at all. In other words, a sailor can watch a monochrome screen all day for about 0.04 amps an hour, while a similar size color screen might need 90% brightness using twice the power. That’s why Garmin came up with the GNX series, though for many boaters all those relatively low amperage readings are good news. Please note that this is not a definitive test of display efficiency; I don’t have any way of measuring comparative screen brightness levels — though they all look good — and the power increments are so small that accuracy is dubious.

In fact, even the small scale Power Analyzer declines to measure tenths of a watt, which is why I used the amperage figures (while trying to keep the voltage steady at about 12.4). But as a testing bonus, I got to try the gray Posi-Twist wire connectors seen below. The Posi-Lock company also makes Posi-Tite waterproof inline connectors — which were suggested when I revealed my infatuation with Scotch-Loks, especially for splicing thin wires — but the Posi-Twist is more like a much-improved wire nut. They probably make the ABYC cringe, but I felt like that two-piece collar and cone design really clamped down on the twisted fine gauge wires (note that the packaging specifies use for 18-26 gauge, though the shop online listing says 20-24). They’re much faster and easier to use on skinny wires than a conventional crimp and shrink connector, and with a dab of waterproof gel and some strain relief might hold up as long. I will definitely try the Posi-Tite connectors I also purchased.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Apr 23, 2014 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

If you like sailing with some electronics running, or just anchoring without a generator, you’re probably very interested in the State of Charge (SoC) of your battery banks. Voltmeters, however, only hint at what’s going on, and true battery monitors require careful calibration and the installation of shunts, but still tend to get out of whack over time. Well, darned if the great RC Collins of Compass Marine didn’t go to extraordinary lengths to prove that the Smartgauge — a little known product that’s been around for almost a decade — can somehow accurately measure SoC without calibration and without a shunt, and yet still get even more accurate over time. Apparently when it shows your Charge at 92%, as above, your battery bank really is at 92% capacity…

RC Collins is knowledgable on many boating subjects, but I first wrote about his Compass Marine site in regard to a highly detailed 2011 article titled Installing a Battery Monitor. You can learn a lot about traditional amp hour counters in that article, particularly the popular Victron BMV-602 which Collins also used as one reference in the elaborate Smartgauge test setup you see in these photos. Let’s note that unlike the Smartgauge the BMV and other monitors with shunts can display realtime current use — which I found useful for understanding Gizmo’s power needs when I first got her — and can also calculate remaining amp hours in addition to charge percentage, at least theoretically. The Link 1000 Gizmo came with seemed very accurate about actual current use, but nearly drove me bonkers with inaccurate amp hour info (until I was calmed down by battery-smart readers).

A Smartgauge only delivers voltage and SoC (and voltage for a second battery bank) but, wow, it seems to do that amazingly well. While I highly encourage you to read the full Compass Marine Smartgauge review, know that after four months of testing with all four major battery types, RC wrote “If I had three thumbs this product would get all three!” Reading the full test is also a lesson in how difficult battery monitoring really is. In order to calibrate the testing, Collins built a system able to properly measure batteries against their 20 hour capacity rating. Gizmo’s “245 A.H. @ 20Hr” AGM 8D batteries, for instance, should each be able to deliver 12.25 amps per hour for 20 hours while going from full charge to 10.5 volts at about 77 degrees. But these batteries — now at least five years old — no longer have such capacity (if they ever did) and the difficulty of making an accurate 20 hour test would be strike number one against the accuracy of a traditional amp counting monitor (followed by Peukert’s law and other nuances that make this subject so complex).

In fact, RC sometimes had to run three complete 20 hour discharge/recharge tests to determine the capacity of used batteries, and that’s when the Smartgauge really started blowing his mind. Even though it only sees voltage, via a pair of 14 gauge wires going directly to the battery terminals, the Smartgauge usually came up with an accurate State of Charge percentage before Collins and all his precision equipment could even determine accurate capacity. He notes that the device can’t handle Lithium batteries and is less accurate when a bank is being charged, but in discharge mode he believes it’s more accurate than the two traditional shunt sensors he compared it to even though they were painstakingly calibrated (and won’t stay that way on their own). And on top of it all, RC manages to includes some battery geek humor; for cripes sake, if you do act on the results of his hard work, buy your Smartgauge at Compass Marine.

As much as I appreciate RC’s testing and writing, I do feel like an idiot for having had a sample Smartgauge for years but never getting around to testing it. I even installed it on Gizmo’s power panel last spring but then got sidetracked when I realized that I could use the already wired Link shunt with the wonderful CZone Signal Interface (so SoC and live current load are on NMEA 2000, though of course that setup needs better calibration). Another possible test this season is the Victron Color Control QX discussed here, which could conceivably monitor Gizmo’s inverter/charger, batteries (via the latest BMV 700 series) and even the solar panels, with N2K output too.

Finally, I’d like to apologize for an extremely delayed product test to Smartgauge designer Chris Gibbons (though I certainly won’t come close to RC’s super thorough review). The SmartGauge Electronics website is an interesting place to visit but I’m not sure much has happened there since Merlin Power Systems acquired Smartgauge in 2009. At Merlin you can see some of Gibbon’s other power products like SmartBank split charging, and note that Balmar now distributes Smartgauge in the U.S. (reportedly with excellent technical support). But it’s at the original site where you can learn about the Smartgauge test boat — a “trad style” 70-foot narrow boat — along with neat details like how the gauge’s alarm relay outputs can be used with SmartBank to automate a battery locker venting fan. “Smart” is a badly overused word in modern electronic products, but maybe not this time.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Jun 30, 2014 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Redoing almost all of Gizmo’s electronics has taken longer than I would have guessed last fall, when it seemed like a good idea to rip everything off the boat. And sadly, I’m not done yet. But the hoped-for glass bridge theme is revealing itself and I like it a lot. But then again, new equipment and even just re-installed old gear also means fresh opportunities for things not to work together correctly. In this entry I’ll go over much of Gizmo’s test setup for the next year and a half — though by design there’s room for more — and also note a couple of features that have worked well and not so well during recent shakedown cruises…

Incidentally, the Garmin seen in the top photo is the 8212 I began testing in the lab, which fit quite neatly in the impressive second generation ScanStrut Deck Pod. A normal user wouldn’t then mount the Deck Pod on a V-Lock, but I want some further placement flexibility. Eventually, a Simrad NSS16 evo2 will also be installed on the flybridge, mounted in a Seaview Power Pod which is also impressive (and there will be a comparative review). Note the flat, rubbery sun cover on the Raymarine gS125; its sticky but non-marring backing seems to keep it well fixed to the glass screen, actually better than some other soft Ray covers I’ve tried.

There’s a lot more to the glass bridge concept than dark edge-to-edge glass over bright displays, though that certainly looks good. Consider what’s not on Gizmo’s flybridge anymore, like analog engine dials, stereo remote control, thermal camera joystick or even an autopilot head (the B&G keypad is probably a temporary holdover from the 2012-13 test suite that’s been Panbo’s header image too long). Glass bridge era multifunction displays have more functions than their predecessors and seem to get yet more with each software update. It’s not just about multi-touch controls either, though those can feel wonderfully intuitive and even elegant. That Ray keypad just past the wheel is very useful, and all four major brands now offer something similar (with the Furuno MCU002 Remote just released, great demo video here). Again, normal boats wouldn’t have two brands of glass MFD on their main panel, let alone four altogether, but I’m still getting the sense of how these clean, fast, easily controlled MFD’s can contribute to relaxed and successful navigation. One data point is how the always awesome Furuno TZT charting engine seems even more so in its new spot.

The glass bridge concept also isn’t exclusive to large, expensive MFDs. Once the Simrad NSS7 evo2 arrives, Gizmo’s lower helm will have three panel-mounted 7-inch touch MFDs each networked to their bigger siblings above as well as radars, sonars, and lots of NMEA 2000 sensors. (Furuno doesn’t have a contender in the hot 7-inch touch category — the relatively new GP1870 plotter/sonar looks a powerful value, but a TZT sibling it is not — though then again the TZT14 can closely integrate with MaxSea or Nobeltec TimeZero running on a PC like Chart Table 21). Once the first-generation NSS8 goes back to Simrad, Gizmo’s lower helm will also have much better sight lines than it used to.

Of course, a normal boat wouldn’t have so many N2K instrument displays, either, but this is a particularly great test bed for seeing how the different developers are dealing with somewhat less common data like engine, electric and tank monitoring. I’m tickled about having the data above in digital color and being able to easily flip to other useful screens when the engine is shut down, but every display needs more work, both in terms of data messages understood and gauge customization. I also intend to test their alerting and alarming abilities, though I doubt that any are even close to what Gizmo’s Maretron system can do (and good alarming is arguably more important than good data display).

Gizmo’s orginal engine gauges are not gone, but they are now tucked away in the flybridge console and in this main cabin wiring cabinet. I even created a new wiring access hole (which will get a nice door eventually), which also opened new space for the various black boxes behind the scenes.

One goal was to create more space behind the lower helm panel. I swear that this space was almost completely empty at one point this spring and will also claim that it’s potentially neater than it looks right now, with power feeds grouped to the right, N2K networking (eBay style) in the middle, and Ethernet/Wifi/Bridge matters to the back left. Note, too, the Vesper XB8000 blue box lurking behind the scenes glass bridge style but supplying AIS and more via WiFi, N2K, and NMEA 0183. I’m particularly pleased about the latter, which I didn’t really test much for the March XB8000 review, but it’s also where an odd bug turned up.

If I had a better photo, you’d see that Rose Point Coastal Explorer (running on Gizmo’s nearly antique Datalux Tracer police car PC) is not only getting full GPS and AIS info over a NMEA 0183 USB connection with the Vesper, but also Depth, Wind, Boat Speed and Heading that originated in N2K sensors (that spot-on Heading seen above is from the Raymarine EVO AHRS recently discussed). So the Vesper XB (and Vision sibling) are gateways as well as transponders. But, doh!, CE is regularly showing Gizmo’s screen icon going in the opposite direction of the boat’s actual heading. A log file has been recorded and Rosepoint is trying to figure out what’s going on. CE has numerous recent improvements, incidentally, including an update on that already nice route feature where WPx equals any future waypoint in your list, like a bridge with specific opening times.

The CE screen also shows STW (Speed Through the Water) almost two knots under SOG (Speed Over Ground). This is not due to a strong following current — millions of lobster trap buoys give us lucky Mainers nearly constant visual current info — but rather the fact that the poor paddlewheel is located right behind the protruding transducer used by the EchoPilot FLS (I haven’t finished wiring yet). It would be interesting to see if the disturbance to STW can be overcome with calibration, but while the Garmin system seems willing to give it a try, the results are just an error message. Perhaps the DST2000 Airmar loaned me years ago needs a firmware update before it can be calibrated?

But that’s quite minor compared to the problem with the boat’s new Maretron fuel flow system. Though it ran bone dry in last fall’s initial testing, the sensor plumbing started weeping diesel into the boat’s fortunately huge engine pan. It’s very likely an install error on my part — I wasn’t 100% positive about the thread goo I used, for instance — and wasn’t I kicking myself as the problem unfolded during Gizmo’s first cruise of the season, which was my annual gig with a WoodenBoat School nav class. Everything worked out fine, and I may even have fixed the leak by tightening everything possible, but the leak almost overshadowed how interesting the data is. I have much to learn about how the flow info will coordinate with tank levels and work with various MFDs’ fuel management systems, but I’m already seeing a seemingly accurate relationship between reported fuel economy and actual conditions, even a modest headwind at a low cruising speed.

And now for a 100% positive shakedown experience. When I casually tested the slick Raymarine sonar log uploading feature that Navionics recently added to its mobile apps (see end of entry), the data apparently included at least one past trip to this somewhat daunting-looking Barred Island anchorage. A few weeks ago the SonarChart seen at left had the deep water detail (probably from the older fishing bathy data that was somewhat confusingly folded into SonarCharts), but no detail of the anchorage, where the official chart is also quite vague about depths. It was real kick motoring in there with the new SonarChart I updated on a Navionics+ card, seeing useful info I’d collected myself and that is now available to every boater with access to SonarCharts. I’m collecting sonar logs regularly now — it’s nearly painless — and am up for trying any other easy sonar data sharing system. Navico just announced community-sourced Social Map, for instance, and — cool! — UPS just delivered the test NSS7 evo2. I have an install to do this afternoon :-)

For some totally unknown reason, though, I keep assembling these long (but overly infrequent) entries. But the last two images are just oddball fun. Usually, when you look at an AIS target overlaid on a satellite photo map, a boat that might be shown at the location is not the same boat that’s there now. But Gizmo and I have been hanging out in Camden Harbor so much that we made the Google map. I even know that the photo is at least current to August 2012 because the solar panels are at work and I’m aboard because the tender is clipped on. And note how close the Vesper GPS is registered to its actual location on the flybridge aft starboard rail.

Finally, here’s an image from a recent shakedown cruise to the Burnt Island public park I once enthused about in Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors. Someone has sweetly framed my article and hung it in the unusual little cabin I had discussed and photographed – an honor I got to enjoy with Gizmo anchored down the shore in nearly the same spot as 2010. Is that meta or what? And when are you coming to cruise beautiful Maine? I’ll probably be working on installs and bug control at my Camden float.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Aug 1, 2014 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Bob and Elaine Ebaugh did it, leaving Florida in April, 2011, on their DeFever 44 Mar Azul and spending more than two years cruising a big Caribbean loop. Their blog, Mar Azul Adventures, is a good read, but you might miss the fact that during the cruise Bob managed to research, assemble, test and install a 1,200 amp hour do-it-yourself lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery bank to replace the 12 golf cart batteries they’d worn out. He also wrote a thorough white paper about why he chose DIY lithium and how he put the system together…

Here is Bob’s lithium battery blog entry, but you really should download the 14-page PDF mentioned there. Even if you’re not ready to build your own LiFePO4 battery bank — and most of us probably shouldn’t at this point — Bob seems to have done a fine job of analyzing the pros and cons of different battery types, particularly for fairly heavy power users like Mar Azul (at 400-600 Ah per liveaboard day on the hook).

This photo shows the DeFever’s “workshop” (forward cabin). Bob’s first task was to assemble forty-eight individual 3.2V cells made in China by GB Systems into twelve 100 Amp hour 12V batteries, and here I believe he’s bench testing the Elite Power battery management system (BMS) whose components are seen below. His PDF gives specifics about where he sourced the GBS cells and BMS and why, as well as a link collection for further research.

There’s a lot to managing lithium batteries properly, and there’s a definite safety concern. Their wonderful ability to take a large charge quickly, thereby reducing generator and/or alternator times, also means that they can release their charge very quickly, which means intense heat in the wrong circumstances. There have apparently been boat fires that originated in lithium battery banks, though the facts usually seem hard to come by (possibly because most marine lithium installs so far have been high-end projects).

At any rate, I’d suggest that anyone (including myself) who doesn’t thoroughly understand Bob’s well-written explanation of how he set up his BMS, diagrammed above, and adjusted his various charging sources for their new LiFePO4 target should not consider a DIY lithium bank. But I’m really glad that guys like Bob are trying such things and sharing their findings. Note also that since coming back ashore, Bob has been doing marine electronics professionally and hopes to write a Panbo entry about a substantial ePlex distributed power system he’s working on, which will join his earlier pieces on bridging NMEA to Ethernet, his Chetco engine monitoring system, and testing various sat phone systems. Meanwhile, here’s the latest on Mar Azul’s lithium batteries:

The lithium bank is still functioning well. But I have not done any cruising for almost a year now, maybe 2 Saturday nights. I really like the operational characteristics, but the cards are still not all on the table.
About the only thing additional I completed {since writing the white paper} is a benchmark test on capacity. My theoretical 1200 Ah bank is really more like a 1050 Ah bank. So in one year of cruising, theoretically I lost about 15% of rated capacity. What I don’t have is an actual pre-installation benchmark, though the importer suggested that as shipped, and tested the way I did, they would have shown 95% of the rating; so maybe we only lost 10%. We did have 330 cycles in that timeframe.
Some research indicates capacity loss is also very related to calendar life and storage temperature. The end of August gives me another 12 months so I will run another test and see what we have now, with the bank essentially in storage.
There is so much we don’t know. Not only about “life”, but exactly how volatile they are if severely overcharged. This winter, I may buy a few 40Ah cells and do some destructive testing.

RC Collins is apparently also testing lithium marine batteries and he, Bob, and several other marine power luminaries sit on a ABYC subcommittee studying LFP (another name for LiFePO4) battery technology under the chairmanship of Bob’s current boss/mentor Charlie Johnson. Thanks to them all, and don’t we look forward to hearing the results?

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Written by Ben Ellison on Sep 18, 2014 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Gizmo is fenders down, awning up, in bustling Baltimore Harbor, and I have tales to tell. This old powerboat sails! That’s no surprise given her windage, but now I have precise data about how much wind (and current) can help her along thanks to a fuel management system. In this photo, for instance, we were making around 10 knots over the ground at 1,350 RPM but still getting over three miles to a gallon thanks to a stiff easterly wind pushing us down Long Island Sound. That’s a wake-pulling, inefficient RPM when running on flat summer water in Maine, but is much easier on crew and autopilot when in following seas like these. While I’m usually willing to spend more fuel money to shoulder through conditions like this, I was pleased to learn that the dollar difference wasn’t great…

I failed to get a photo of this underway (and may never learn to dust before snapping), but this was our default fly bridge engine screen. In the scene I described, the Fuel Economy value — nautical miles per hour divided by realtime gallons of diesel per hour burned by engine(s) — was wavering around 3.1 nm/gal. As explained when I installed the Maretron fuel flow system, measuring instantaneous flow accurately is very hard, especially when a diesel is being run at a relatively small percentage of its maximum power. I’ve learned from the flow meters that my 450 hp Volvo Penta was sucking in about 36 gallons of fuel per hour during that 1350 RPM run but sending about 33 gallons back to the tank. Set your sink faucet to fill a gallon jug in 20 minutes and you’ll see what a small flow the Maretron gear was trying to measure in realtime, then consider the accuracy difficulty when that flow is actually the differential of two flows ten times greater.

So I’ve gotten used to seeing jiggelty fuel economy numbers, but find them valuable nonetheless. The fuel burn at different RPMs in still conditions is generally consistent, and all summer I noticed how I could see the effect of fair or foul winds and currents. Besides, the difficulty of measuring instaneous flow doesn’t mean these meters aren’t extremely accurate over longer periods…

I have reasons to believe that Gizmo did indeed use 238 gallons of fuel steaming from Rockland to Baltimore. For one thing, this Garmin GMI20 totals fuel flow independently but is within a (rounding error) gallon of the count kept by the Maretron system itself. Moreover, the Garmin calculates Fuel Onboard by subtracting flow from the total you told it was onboard when the trip started plus what you record as added later. So a full 280 gallon load (at a nice price thanks to Journey’s End Marina’s fuel key program) plus 115 gallons added at fabulously funky Miss Chris Marina in Cape May equals 395 gallons, less 238 used equals (rounding error) 157 remaining.

Ah, but you skeptics out there are wisely thinking, “Wait, the counting may be independent but isn’t it all based on a single source of fuel flow data.” Which is why I was pleased to learn that Maretron does not calculate remaining fuel using flow, but instead does it based on tank capacity and level. Right now it reads 159 gallons remaining, which is darn close for an entirely different way to measure fuel volume. Skeptics must conclude that either the Maretron flow system and the tank calibration I did using a CZone Signal Interface (using existing Wema senders) are both quite accurate…or they err in a currently copacetic way.

There are many aspects to fuel management, and potentially many sensors, and confusions, involved. This screen shows how Raymarine let’s you choose to display gallons used and remaining by either counting the flow rate like Garmin does — the Ray a77 warns that it must always be on when the engine is running — or by referencing NMEA 2000 PGN 127497. That set of data fields is called “Trip Parameters, Engine” and the Maretron FFM100 module is always transmitting a current “Trip Fuel Used” count.

I don’t know why but you can only start the Ray fuel manager when you’ve done a fill up (and already set up the tank capacity). I did all that in Rockland but somehow the manager got reset somewhere along the road; it may have been operator error, but I won’t be able to get it right again until I do a full fill. However, my extensive paper records indicate that Raymarine can count fuel flow well and, like other displays, their MFDs can also calculate range and/or running hours at a given RPM. My records are revealing some oddities too, like the way the Actisense EMU-1 (discussed here) adds engine hours when it’s on but the engine isn’t running.

There will definitely be another entry on fuel management as I learn more about it and try other data displays. But I should mention the unfortunate fact that at least one of my Maretron flow sensors is weeping about a gallon of fuel per month into Gizmo’s engine pan. I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t screw an NPT fitting tight enough into a meter’s resin body, or so tight that it caused a crack. Maretron says that either is possible and admits that the tolerance either way is slim, but also says they’ve never seen a catastrophic failure (sensor blows apart, bad things ensue). Plus most of their current sensors — they’ve added models for really large flows — now have aluminum bodies.

I look forward to switching flow sensors so I don’t have to mess with spilt fuel, and I also look forward to displays that make even better use of flow information. For instance, none that I know of can collect an average nm/gal figure for a trip. And I haven’t yet seen the “money meter” I’ve joked about (and that Maretron is purportedly working on). A display system just needs to be able to accept the per gallon price when you input a fill and it could then give you realtime and trip time cost per mile…if you want to know.

I can crunch a spreadsheet, though, and have enough data to tell you that Gizmo averaged 3.1 nm/gal over the 740 mile trip at a fuel cost of $0.87 per mile. Most of those miles were at more than penny-pinching RPMs, but very few at mile-per-gallon 17 knots. Plus we got more than our share of tail winds and also tried hard to time the currents, even leaving Atlantic Hightlands at 4 am. Sailors can justifiably scoff at my fuel “efficiency” but then again we enjoyed briefly catching up with a couple of big 20k+ yachts because they apparently had to refuel in Atlantic City (or play a few hands). Yet then again, those guys might enjoy seeing a big number on their “money meter”; we’re not all the same and I’m OK with that.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Oct 21, 2014 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

It was easy to gather a slew of devices currently on board Gizmo that hunger for a USB power supply at least occasionally. Heck, when the Verizon Android Galaxy phone is providing an LTE WiFi hotspot and also streaming Bluetooth audio to the Fusion IP700 stereo as it is now — I’m online while listening to a Maine radio station — it needs to be charged almost constantly. The hard-working phone is also why I keep those two USB charged/charging batteries topped up for shore trips (and, yes, they do make great press event swag, thank you Simrad and FLIR). The Phonak hearing aid accessory needs nightly charging and while the DeLorme InReach Explorer in the background can go for days doing satellite tracking and a few messages, I prefer to keep it plugged in so my Share Map stays complete. In short, I need multiple 12v USB power sources to keep this crew happy and thus this entry will cover several types I’ve tested. There are a lot of cables involved too, but it’s nice that all the gadgets pictured use a standard USB mini or micro size power/data plug, with one very significant exception…

Of course it’s the Apple iPad mini that uses a proprietary Lightning connector instead of a standard USB plug. The tablet does have excellent battery life and I understand that it needs more than a standard USB 5 volt 1 amp charger (or .5 amp laptop USB port) to renew the battery efficiently, but iPad charging issues go well beyond that. My experience is that even if you use a charger rated at the 2.1 amps purportedly needed by most iPads — newer models have gone to 2.4 amps — you won’t know for sure that you’ll see the charging screen above when you plug the Lightning cable in. There are endless online discussions about this and it may be that Apple uses a unique way of detecting a higher amperage charger that you’ll only find for sure in Apple Certified chargers, none of which is ideal for a boat (in my opinion).

Before describing my search for a good marine iPad charger, let me grumble a warning about the Lightning cable itself. The official Apple one above failed during my trip from Maine to Baltimore, which caused some anxiety as I didn’t have a spare and I use the iPad mini a lot. Fortunately I was able to get this connector to pass a charge again by gently sanding the contacts with fine emory paper lubricated with a little oil. But I’ve had Apple-made cables fail before, and cheap knock-off cables have done worse. The back-up Lightning cable I should have brought from home and highly recommend is Amazon’s own Apple Certified design. It seems sturdier than Apple’s and reasonably priced, especially given that Apple apparently gets a few dollar fee for every one.

By far the most common way to charge USB devices in a car or boat is with adapters like the ones above. They fit what are now called “12v accessory outlets” though oldsters like myself know that the “outlet” was originally designed for cigarette lighters. That’s a limited and very short-term use and as that Wikipedia entry rightly notes, the design has “poor contact stability” even though my boat came with four such power receptacles installed. Of course I tried them and adapters like the one at left with the 2.1A output sometimes charged my iPad. Sometimes, not always. Then one day I realized that the adapter had gotten quite hot, apparently because it was trying to draw those 2 amps through a poor contact. It was not the first time I’ve had such trouble, which is why I wonder if such “outlets” should be used untended on a boat.

First I tried the type of 12v USB power source designed to install behind a dash, which work neatly with accessories like the Tallon Ultimate iPad Mount or just a regular USB cable snaked to your favorite charging station. I couldn’t find a known brand model but both the CPT (no longer available) and the RioRand (available here at Amazon) charge every USB device on Gizmo just fine…except the iPad. Even though both chargers claim 3A output, sometimes the iPad says it’s charging, sometimes not.

I realize that iPads often charge slowly even when they aren’t acknowleging it, but I was frustrated nonetheless and was often using the Apple AC charger with Gizmo’s inverter just to be sure. And when I recently shopped for the type of USB charger that can replace an existing cigarette lighter receptical, my expectations for iPad compatability were low. So far, though, the Blue Sea Dual USB Charger Socket is working very well and the similar XYZ Boat Supplies model pretty well. Specifically, my iPad mini has always shown charge status when plugged into either Blue Sea outlet, but it failed once when plugged into the XYZ’s high power outlet (and its blue LED even went out). I’m not surprised that the Blue Sea product seems more reliable, but I don’t know how either charger will work with new iPads that would like 2.4 amp charging. Anyone?

Finally, don’t these annoying incontestabilities, worn cables, and so forth make one yearn for a universal inductive charging standard? I don’t know if that will ever happen, especially for Apple devices, but at IBEX I saw how inductive charging is coming neatly to boats, and will write about it soon.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Jan 19, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

I declared my love for the Torqeedo 1003 electric outboard in 2011 and the feeling only deepened after two seasons of long testing, despite a glitch or two. Well, wow, the same motor has run like a top ever since, and as of a few days ago, it has a very cool accessory. The TorqTrac Bluetooth module and apps were announced some time ago, but apparently the $149 kit is only becoming available now. The version 1.0 app does not look like what was originally announced, or even what’s shown at Torqeedo USA right now, but my first underway tests suggest that TorqTrac is going to add some nice spice and utility to my Torqeedo 1003 relationship…

First I did a dry run in Gizmo’s salon. It’s always been possible to connect the tiller to the battery to see its state of charge, but I was pleasantly surprised that the TorqTrac app found the Bluetooth module without any pairing hassle whatsoever. It just worked and has every time since. This may be because the wireless module uses Bluetooth 4.0, which may also be why TorqTrac for Android isn’t compatible with my three-year-old Samsung Galaxy Phone. Note that the photo, even if you click it bigger, makes the tiller screen look harder to read than it really is. In fact, during some sunny testing conditions the tiller LCD was easier to see than my oldish iPad Mini. But the tiller screen is often not where I want it to be. While it’s fine if I have passengers and am sitting on the tender’s aft seat, I often drive solo with an extension tiller (seen here).

So, while most of the data on the left-hand iPad screen above is already on the tiller display, my first TorqTrac run was also the first time I got to see that the wide open 1003 throttle can push my latest tender at 8.6 km/h or 4.6 knots (which seems pretty good for a decidedly non-planing 9-foot Fatty Knees that’s 4.5 feet wide). If I had stepped back to the tiller at that speed, it would have knocked the boat way out of trim, or worse. It’s also nice to see the live battery range shown as a graphic circle on a map, though a chart would be better, and the device must be online to get these maps. The distance and time to Home is another unique TorqTrac feature, though I obviously hadn’t figured out how to use it during test #1.

In fact, I did a lot of “testing” during the recent balmy days here in New Bern, North Carolina. I learned that simply tapping on the units of speed/distance cycles through km, m, and nm. And one tap into the Range screen makes the map zoomable and lets you long tap waypoints, one of which can be designated as Home. This feature could be useful for kids or guests using the tender, and I wonder how long it will be before a drunken sailor uses this feature to find his boat at night in a crowded anchorage. Note how much lower the power draw is at just over 3 knots and how much the range increased even though the battery is down from test 1. I’ve never felt the need for a second battery and I generally use the boat many times between charges.

Apple iOS TorqTrac is like the Android version and the third main screen you can swipe to lets you start and stop tracking, which could also be useful for harbor navigation, not to mention electric-quiet gunkholing. But it took me a while to figure out that it uses the mobile device’s GPS instead of the one built into the Torqeedo tiller. Maybe that has something to do with the long time it took to get the app through the Apple approval process. At any rate, once I fired up the Bad Elf Pro, the tracking got very accurate.

The lower window on that All Trips page shows the crazy tracking the iPad did when just connected to my phone’s WiFi (for the map downloading). Yes, I ended up using three wireless devices plus the TorqTrac module for this testing and was impressed that they all got along, but a user with a compatible Android or iPhone won’t have any of these issues as the phone has its own GPS and is probably online. So many current Torqeedo owners will find TorqTrac very easy to set up and use, and probably very desirable. And I imagine that Torqeedo will start building the Bluetooth right into the tillers soon, plus perhaps the controls for their ever larger systems (Deep Blue Hybrid is on its way).

Here’s a look at the test tender, which may deserve the name Gadget. That is a Vexilar Sonar Phone T-Box transducer attached to a board that’s about to be clamped to the transom, and I did indeed use it with the Navionics Boating live SonarChart feature. It all worked fantastically well, but there are some data interpretation issues to iron out, and I’ll be writing about all that soon.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Feb 5, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Two Maine blizzards later it’s nice to recall that just a week ago I was casting a lure off a similarly tricked-out Yellowfin 24 Bay Boat. I didn’t land a pose-worthy fish like my friend Chris Woodward, but the important thing about this photo is how well that trolling motor is holding an “anchor” position. Note the nonchalant skipper, despite a brisk wind and strong current both pushing him toward the channel marker aft, not to mention rocks to starboard and us to port. The pro I was with — the impressive Tom Rowland of the Saltwater Experience TV series — seemed equally confident about the reliability of the MotorGuide Xi5 and its do-anything integration with the twin Lowrance HDS 12 Gen3 displays, and it was easy to buy his claim that the combination has significantly improved his boating life.

The MotorGuide Xi5 Pinpoint GPS-equipped model they’re using is the beefiest available, with 105 pounds of maximum thrust, and it can be had with a seemingly powerful wireless remote. But it only takes a little NMEA 2000 gateway to get the user even more controls with easy access from any HDS Gen 2 or 3 display. (And right now the $250 gateway is “free” with an Xi5 and HDS purchase.)

Sorry for the poor photo, but here’s how the Xi5 trolling motor autopilot and “anchor” controls are included among the many other big touch buttons you can get to from any HDS Gen3 screen by simply tapping the HDS’s physical power button. (Simrad NSS evo2 and B&G Zeus2 use the power button in a very similar way, and I think it’s a good idea all the MFD interface designers should consider.)

Lowrance made a good video about Xi5 SmartSteer (which can work alongside their outboard autopilot), but there’s nothing like seeing it in action. Tom Howland was using the trolling control pop-up window above to modify a spiral mode he’d already set up, but he could have had those controls in a regular screen window. Either way he could easily control the speed or stop the pattern altogether if he “found” whatever the spiral search pattern was set on. You may notice that setting a pattern or getting the Xi5 to follow a route or track can make a plotter messy with waypoints, especially if you do the demo repeatedly in a small harbor, but I presume there’s a fast way to delete or hide them.

Let’s step back a minute to see some of the other HDS Gen3 integrations that were at work on the Yellowfin. That’s Sirius satellite weather and radio showing on the lefthand HDS12 (there’s SonicHub and UNI-dock audio also available) and note how Capt. Tom likes to have his Remaining Fuel overlaid on the weather screen. In fact, full instrumentation for the big Mercury outboard is seen on the righthand HDS12, while the Mercury VesselView 7, which gateways SmartCraft engine data to the Lowrance system, is showing the C-Zone digital switching controls usually seen on Navico displays (and many of which are duplicated with the physical switches).

This screen versatility is possible because Navico manufactures the Vessel View and thus seems to have a special relationship with Mercury, and — hey — MotorGuide has been part of the Mercury Marine since 2000. Now Humminbird MFDs and the Minn Kota i-Pilot I once enjoyed both belong to the same company (though I’m not sure they’ve yet enabled this level of integration), but I have to wonder if there’s another trolling motor company for Garmin or Raymarine to partner with? (Remember that advanced autopilot control is unfortunately, if understandably, the big exception to normal NMEA 2000 brand interoperability.)

That seems like an important question once you realize how nice deep trolling motor integration can be. Tom Howland described several of his day-to-day routines that are now much easier. Perhaps most dramatic is how he’s traded the 600 feet of anchor line and chain he once struggled with to fish the Keys drop-off in fair weather for the Xi5 Anchor mode, which he can jog 5 feet in any direction with each screen tap. On the demo run we first saw Anchor mode at work in some current near a bridge to Route 1. We could have been fishing but accidently came across another use for the feature when we noticed a nest of iguanas in the shrubbery. I could have gotten the photo below by myself using Anchor mode, or sat peacefully with my grandaughter discussing these creatures and being glad they don’t fall out of trees where we live. Lawrence Husick and I even started imagining how useful this technology might be on a daysailer or maybe as an oddball bow thruster hung from a sailboat’s anchor guide.

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Written by Ben Ellison on May 16, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

I’m happy as an oyster slow cruising Chesapeake Bay with my favorite first mate, but if I had a teleporter I surely would have jumped on an invitation to check out a Volvo Ocean 65’s systems in Newport yesterday. I doubt I would have encountered a scene as tidy as the photo above — which looks forward in the main cabin of Dongfeng with most of the engine, power, battery, and keel ram covers removed, as well as the pedestal galley — but then again all that technology has now zig-zagged almost around the planet in often demanding conditions. There’s a lot of gear on these one-design racers that has performed impressively, as best I know, but I’m particularly taken with the Mastervolt Lithium Ion battery system…

The VOR 65 power system diagram above is detailed here. The self-managing 24v batteries, alternators, regulators, shunt, fuse, DC/DC converter, and (in port) charger are all Mastervolt products, and that MasterBus subsystem bridges to sister brand CZone (NMEA 2000) for power distribution, digital switching and onboard/offboard monitoring. There was concern about overlapping lines when competitors BEP and Mastervolt both became part of Power Products a few years ago but the evidence is strong that they’ve worked things out.

Here’s more detail of the twin 150 Amp alternator, twin 180 Ah Li Ion battery set up, with several of the diagrammed components in view. And note the massive swing keel rams, which are driven by an electric-hydraulic pump that is just one of several serious loads that the battery system must supply.

In fact, these batteries are fully cycling about three times every two days, as shown in the graph above (which you can click larger). Specifically, it shows the State of Charge for the port battery on ADOR (Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing) during the 6,500nm first leg from Alicante to Cape Town, though I believe the profiles were very similar for all 14 batteries in the fleet. At the left end you can see it being charged at the dock, but then driven down to 30% SoC and rapidly charged to 80-100% over and over again. My boat batteries can’t work that hard, and probably yours can’t either.

Here’s a detailed charge and discharge profile for about two days during the February Sanyo, China, to Auckland leg with SoC on top and voltage and current below. It’s the promise of Lithium Ion power storage not only writ large but delivered over Inmarsat satellite communications to VOR HQ and then to Mastervolt so their technicians might catch problem trends the racers might miss. No problems in sight, though, as the battery goes from about 97% SoC to 30% with very little voltage loss, then an alarm prompts an automated charging cycle which brings the battery back to 97% in about an hour, with the alternator pumping out close to 130 amps the whole time.

Here’s the aft nav station with some of the CZone system exposed to starboard. I like how the cables aren’t buried on a “working” boat like this, but then again, it isn’t easy to hide them. At a Miami Boat Show presentation where B&G also explained their VOR involvement, we got to talk with Alvimedica skipper Charlie Enright as they worked to windward on that same Auckland leg and the background sounds of sheet tweaks resonating through that super stiff carbon shell were scary. Enright seemed a bit on edge himself — who wouldn’t be? — but not about the power system, which he characterized as flawless. (Mastervolt applications engineer Menno Ligterink, who also helps with regular boat installs in North America, told me that the “power systems have performed outstanding so far considering the conditions they are used in. Heavy G-forces, deep discharges and a quick recharge has not compromised the performance.”)

Besides for the Volvo 65’s, Mastervolt has thousands of their Lithium Ion batteries working on boats around the world, and their pride in the systems seems justified. There are lots of rumors around about Li Ion related boat fires, but I’ve never heard one involving these highly engineered Ultra models. A DIY lithium battery bank is possible, but only if you’re as smart about it as Bob Ebaugh is.

What may be more controversial is Mastervolt’s analysis of Li Ion costs versus AGM batteries, though it’s certainly a conversation starter. Gizmo’s 12v house bank, for instance, is two Deka 250 Ah 8D AGM’s that are at least 6 years old now and may well have exceeded 600 cycles (and a fair bit of owner abuse). I can tell that they are near the end of their working lives and replacing them will require more muscle than I have, but it looks like the cost will not be as bad as suggested below. But the main thing to notice about the analysis is that you really have to use your boat a lot to make it work. I don’t know how exactly many cycles the VOR 65’s will consume during their long circumnavigations, but it seems like they could use the same batteries for a couple more!

The VOR In-Port race starts at 2pm today in Newport and will be live streamed on YouTube, as will the start to Lisbon on Tuesday. If I had that teleporter — Lithium Ion powered, to be sure — I’d also like to attend PlugBoat 2015 in Holland at the end of September. But if all goes well, I’ll be back down here in Gizmo and still grinning about it.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Aug 20, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Full disclosure: a major motivation for this entry is to help sell my old friend Joe McCarty’s boat by describing how well he rebuilt it, particularly in terms of reliable systems. The Furly B is being brokered by Robinhood Marine, where Joe was general manager for 20 years, and I had a good look at her just before the Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors Show opened last Friday. The visit confirmed what I pretty much already knew; Joe bought an excellent old boat and he made her better than new. Actually, the background story for a new owner is far better than that…

Furly B was not the first Allied 42 that Joe owned, and he was not my only sailing buddy who thought of the 60’s as a golden age of racer/cruisers. Boats built to the CCA rule tended to have long ends, moderate drafts and easily manageable rigs; they also tend to look good and sail well, even out in blue water. And since the hulls were typically overbuilt of solid fiberglass, many still survive and are often good rebuild candidates. The result can be a classic beauty that’s not at all fussy to use or take care of, like Furly B.

The Allied 42 XL-2 has a particularly sterling pedigree, as you can read in this 2009 Rob Jordan review, where you can also download the must-read original brochure seen above. (Take care, though; seeing how much new sailboat $68,800 could get you even in 1975 may make you weep.) Sparkman & Stephens still proudly profiles the 42 design and it’s characterized on the Allied Owners Group site as “disputably the best interior and exterior finish and the best sailing ability of any Allied model” (which included much loved models like the Luders 33 and Seawind 35). I borrowed Joe’s first Allied 42, Rhapsody, for a few days back in the mid 90’s and can attest to his excellent taste.

What Joe hoped for the second time around was a 42 yawl that had never been rebuilt so that he could do it all his own way. And he lucked out in 2005 when just such an Allied was sold by the estate of the original 1969 owner. Perhaps not coincidentally, that’s also when Joe retired from boatyard management responsibilities and went back to hands-on rigging, mechanical, and electrical work during Robinhood’s busy spring and fall seasons. Thus began a nearly five year semi-retirement project that included the restoration or replacement of all hardware, engine, sails, systems, etc. — as suggested in the inset above — and it’s hard to imagine a better man for the job.

In fact, I know exactly how Joe began his career as an all-around boat guy with a special facility for systems. It was June 1971 when he and I went directly from college graduation to Camden, Maine, as the new owners of the good sloop Alice. The 40-foot boat had nearly sunk that winter so before we “sailed off around the world” we had to replace the completely seized Red Wing engine (above) with one that worked, though we had no practical experience whatsoever and were living aboard at a mooring with our three partners plus a cat and a dog!

It was primarily Joe who figured out how to install the Mercedes OM 636 diesel that would help Alice make three round trips to the Caribbean during our seven years as boat partners and that was still running fine when the next owner finally sold her in about 2001. So the August ’71 Joe seen in the other photo above deserved to feel great pride during one of our first trips out of the harbor. And incidentally, sharing the helm is the original Furly Brown, the first of many memorable Springer spaniels whom Joe trained and doted upon.

You’ve probably already gathered that Joe McCarty is no longer alive. While I’m grateful for the terrific Gizmo passage we had last fall — Joe’s electronics skepticism made Panbo — and two visits to his Florida home as the damn cancer took him down, I will grieve this man for a very long time. But visiting the Furly B was not maudlin, and a new owner needn’t worry about ghosts. For Joe, rebuilding the Allied 42 was an intellectual and physical project with the end result being a low-hassle bareboat charter business that he could operate during his summer months in Maine. He did enjoy an occasional sail around Robinhood’s tricky waters, but I understand that he only spent one night aboard and that was charter business.

So the most personal thing about the Furly B is the easily changed name and maybe some of the notes Joe kept about recent maintenance projects. He’d also written a detailed manual that will be a big help to anyone taking charge of the boat, and I’m pretty sure that “Thanks, Joe!” will be uttered many times as system niceties are discovered.

For instance, I learned that the 42’s entirely new electrical system is neatly organized into several function group breaker panels. This quality Blue Seas model might be called the main panel and includes a built-in multimeter that can display voltage or current draw for each of the two house batteries and the engine start battery. The major household functions and all lighting circuits are controlled here. Note how the yawl has both standard and offshore masthead running lights and is set up right so that you can only turn on one or the other.

All the wiring I saw seemed correctly sized, color coded, and secured. This “main” panel is particularly accessible, but I wasn’t surprised to find reasonable access to every system I checked out. That’s what you get when the renovation designer and future maintenance guy already spent most of his working life fixing boat systems or supervising others in the same pursuit.

Here’s a view looking forward over the nav table with its nav specific breaker panel and a crib sheet showing vessel dimensions and the color coding on the centerboard control line. (The manual has suggestions about where to set the board for different points of sail and sail configurations.) Note the Lewmar Roller Shade/Screen added under the hatch at the top of the photo, and the forward hatch has one too. I adore the same super convenient shade/screen system that came with Gizmo, but wish the installer hadn’t used loose felt weather stripping to fill the gap between the flat frame and curved cabin top. So I noticed that Joe carefully cut teak fillers.

The aft end of the galley is a practical location for a few more circuit breakers and monitoring devices, especially given the minimal cable raceways built into a 1969 sailboat. But Allied gets credit for the nifty butcher block counter with built-in trash hatch. I believe that the aluminum door slide hardware seen on the right is also original and speaks to Allied’s practical-but-not-fancy aesthetic. I don’t know what prompted the “Hot Water is very HOT!” signage but I do know that Joe strategized to prevent common bareboat chartering mishaps.

For instance, the Allied 42 is set up so that it’s nearly impossible to run down the start battery accidentally. And Joe was proud about how well his high amperage alternator, Balmar smart regulator and right-sized AGM house bank system meets the design goal of supporting refrigeration and other cruising loads with only two 45 minute charging sessions per day. Note the “fuel filter chng kit” at the back of the battery locker; there are several other helpful maintenance aids stowed around the boat and apparently a Robinhood locker with original bits and pieces that didn’t make the renovation cut.

I laughed, though perhaps bitterly, at some wag’s theory about “cruising being the time you spend between fixing pumps” and I’m actually jealous of Furly B’s SeaLand T series waste discharge pump. I’ve painfully fixed Gizmo’s Jabsco macerating pump twice already in five years, and it’s broken again. Joe helped me troubleshoot that system the first time, but in the process let me know that a bellows-type pump like this one is a much better way to go (though in Gizmo’s case it means upsizing a seacock and tank output hose). Note the excellent accessibility, switch and instructions right at the point of action Joe-style, and how he used scrap hose to quiet the pump and possibly prolong its life. Nice!

I sought Joe’s counsel about various problems and projects on every boat I’ve ever owned, so it was nice when he sought mine regarding Furly B’s electronics. He was not a “latest and greatest” type — in fact, he enjoyed teasing people like me by calling smartphones, the Internet and much else “The Google” — but he had come to appreciate the value of plotter and radar right at the helm. So what you see here is a Garmin 4208 — no touchscreen for Joey — and a pair of GMI 10 instrument displays. The Garmin wind and depth sensors are NMEA 2000 and on the same network is a Garmin VHF200 at the nav station with a wired cockpit remote (the current listing is wrong on that, though otherwise thorough). Meanwhile the Raymarine autopilot remains purposely standalone. Everything seems to be working fine, including the waterproof inline Ethernet connector I helped source so that it’s easy to remove the mizzen with the Garmin xHD radome.

So how do you value a boat when a guy like Joe thought through every system and installed it as if he was going to maintain it under charter use for a long time? Someone is going to get a wonderfully reliable boat here, I think. And incidentally, the Robinhood broker they’re going to deal with, Dave Perry, is a totally upstanding pro, which is why I had him represent me when I purchased Gizmo.

Besides for the sales pitch I guess I’ve also memorialized Joe a bit, so I’ll finish with a collage that includes some mutually embarassing images from the 70’s. And for all those help calls (and for the future owners of Furly B) I say “Thanks, Joe!”

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Written by Ben Ellison on Sep 17, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

On Oct. 4th I’ll present a seminar titled “Electronic Engine Monitoring Comes of Age” at TrawlerFest Bay Bridge in Stevensville, Maryland. This Garmin 741 photo will be useful as it shows three new and different ways Gizmo’s old diesel engine can now indicate a low oil pressure problem. Thanks to the Actisense EMU-1 I installed in 2013, the simple low pressure alarm switch on the Volvo Penta can trigger an informative pop-up (and audio alarm) on all the networked Garmin screens regardless of what function(s) they’re showing. And if the engine gauge page is up, the familiar low oil pressure icon lights up and, better yet, the customizable digital psi dial can go red based not on the alarm switch, but rather on a minimum pressure I’ve set. That’s all good, but modern marine electronics can do even better…

This week I’ve been exploring the engine alarming features found in current Garmin, Raymarine, Simrad, and Furuno MFD operating systems, and I came away impressed with how well organized and comprehensive they’ve become. For instance, the screens above show how Simrad and Raymarine have put all alarm info and settings into one place, and they also suggest the dozens of specific engine warnings and alarms that can be displayed if the MFD sees the requisite NMEA 2000 message (PGN) on its network. Garmin multifunction displays also seem to understand more PGNs these days, as do the all-in-one N2K instruments from the same manufacturers. Let’s note, though, that these alarms are just on/off signals sent by the engine — with no custom set points possible — because that’s a limitation I’ll be griping about.

I also checked out MFD engine gauges, but only see minor changes from my tepid 2013 review. That’s not surprising for the Furuno TZT14, which hasn’t gotten a software update since early 2014. While some useful customization is possible — engine nicknames a small but unique one — the TZT has trouble translating some of the data on my network, like oil pressure and fuel rate/economy. Furuno, however, has been busy getting out the new TZTouch2 series, which boasts of “Fully Customizable” gauges as well as improved PGN compatability (and a favorable Panbo review by Fred Khedouri). Hopefully, TZT owners will eventually receive some of the Touch2 features via a software update.

And maybe TZTouch2 full customization will motivate Simrad to make their fixed “dashboards” more flexible. Credit Navico, though, with letting you use just about any numeric value on an N2K network, pick the source when they are multiple, and also configure min/max gauge limits and min/max warnings (the red parts). Note, for instance, how the top middle gauge is showing “ENGRM” temperature. Engine Room is one of the more arcane categories built into the NMEA 2000 standard, and in my case it’s actually a Maretron TMP100 temp sensor bolted to the engine block. 165 degrees really is when I want a head’s up, and this may be the single most valuable sensor value on all of Gizmo!

Raymarine’s gauge pages remain the most flexible in overall design, TZTouch2 aside, and the customization seems improved in ways I can’t quite put my finger on. However, RPM is still the only gauge you can configure limits on, and neither of the Ray displays can “see” my Engine Room Temperature at all. And notice all the wasted black space on that otherwise snappy looking gauge window (and others). If possible, wouldn’t you rather use those pixels for radar or fishfinding, or to go full screen with that handsome NV Bahamas chart (that just became available)?

Meanwhile, Garmin also recognizes the Engine Room Temp value on Gizmo’s network but — doh! — won’t let me add it to the otherwise fairly customizable engine gauge pages on the 8212 (the 741 is more limited). The interface designers apparently tried to make the customization easier by limiting the data choices to general Engine, Fuel, Tank, and GPS categories, but odd temperatures are collected in the Vessel category. But I can show any value on any data bar on either display, Engine Room included, and also in the “Numbers” page seen above. This is the sort of screen I often pull up when warming up Gizmo’s engine, but actually I rarely use any of the test MFDs for engine monitoring.

In fact, after at least 2,000 miles of running with EMU-1 digitized engine data, my favorite gauges are the homely Maretron DSM150 at lower helm and the bigger DSM250 above, and I sometimes use them for other underway tasks too. But that’s because I’ve developed a lot of confidence in their ability to let me know visually and audibly if anything is amiss. The screens themselves flash yellow for warnings and red for alarms, with explanatory pop-ups that I can phrase myself, but it’s the audibles that usually get my attention first.

Also, on the same N2K network are two Maretron ALM100 annunciators. The one seen above is on the main circuit panel above the steps leading from the lower helm to the galley/head/stateroom area, with the other at the flybridge helm, and I can testify that their “105 dB SPL Piezoelectric sounders” can be heard anywhere aboard, even though they’re only powered by the N2K network, and even by someone asleep with the engine running fairly hard. Which would be terrible except that Maretron alerts can be tweaked in numerous ways so that false alarms, or even unnecessary repeat alarms, can be minimized. I’ve detailed this before, and overlaid on the photo above are a couple of virtual DSM250 screens showing the high Engine Block Temp alarm setup (which pops up as “Engine Hot!”).

I’ve also written about Maretron’s great labeling feature before, but here’s a reminder screen showing that I can use N2KAnalyzer on Gizmo’s PC to give the TMP100 sensors more accurate labels than the temp category names supplied in the N2K standard, particularly when I use the sensor in a somewhat odd way. These labels, like the rest of the configuration, gets pushed to the sensor box itself and can then be seen on the DSM displays. All this can done with the DSM itself, but it’s tedious and for tasks like alert setups, which can only be done on the DSM (or with N2KView), I usually use the virtual DSM250 (which you can demo yourself on a PC).

Now I’m not saying that the big MFD manufacturers could or should emulate everything Maretron does (though I have fantasized about what, say, a Garminized Maretron monitoring setup might look like). But any one of them certainly could allow a boater like me to customize an alarm based on engine temperature, oil pressure or even an oddball sensor like the one on my engine block. By the way, the reason I find that one so valuable is that it tells me the moment my diesel is getting abnormally hot and is independent of the Volvo Penta alarm, which only tells me when the engine is way too hot anyway. And, look, many MFDs like the Simrad above already have nicely customizable alarms for some non-engine values. (Where you see two custom % or gal figures above, those are Warning and Critical limits.)

Here’s a similarly flexible alarm on Raymarine, meant for fishing, though I set it up to let me know if I ever get south of Maine again. And while I don’t have an illustration at hand, I know that Garmin already allows limited labeling (just tanks and engines as I recall), but I don’t know why any of the manufacturers couldn’t enable extensive labeling, including what a given sensor value really is about and what an alarm really means. It might just work within their own display networks, but heck, I believe there’s some sort of labeling built right into the N2K standard, though so far hardly used.

If, like me, you hope for better MFD alarming, please speak up. These are the glorious days when MFDs have become so powerful and connected that the developers often aren’t sure what feature to improve or create next!

But wait… how about something truly new in engine room monitoring and alarming? Just today FLIR and Raymarine announced LightHouse 15 support for the AX8 camera, which combines standard video detail with low res but very accurate and stable thermal sensing. The results can go to a Ray display network over Ethernet, and I understand that the interface not only shows your propulsion plant like you’ve never seen it before, but also lets you program different temperature alarms for different sections of the thermal image. More to come.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Oct 12, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Veethree is a serious instrumentation company with significant engineering and manufacturing facilities in Florida and India (impressive corporate video here). The vast majority of their business is OEM, so while the ruggedly-built Engine Gateway Monitor (EGM) above is packaged as a retail product, you’re not apt to see one at a marine store and it’s even hard to find at Veethree (go to the bottom of this marine page). But my testing suggests that it could be useful on many boats, especially with a few of the firmware features coming to its big brother, the 800 EGM…

The Veethree EGM seems tougher and more waterproof than competitive gateways that similarly translate analog sensor data to NMEA 2000, like the Actisense EMU-1 I’ve long used or the AlbaCombi I’ve also been testing recently. The backside, for instance, shows a capped USB port and the two gasketed and snap-in Deutsch connectors that help the EGM earn an IP67 rating. The wire harnesses do necessitate multiple butt connections but they should end up fairly strong and waterproof if done right, and it would be easy to replace an EGM if it were ever necessary.

Of course, the EGM is a monitor as well as a gateway with a 3.5-inch sunlight-readable 320 x 240 pixel gauge display that can dim down and/or be put in night colors. The interface can also be used to configure the EGM, and that includes specifying the source of each data type the display supports, whether it’s coming from an anlog sensor, the N2K network, or even the J1939 CANbus input that’s part of the wiring harness. In fact, as first tested and seen on several of these screens, the EGM was nicely showing engine data being generated by Gizmo’s EMU-1 (as well as other N2K data), and if I had a more modern diesel with J1939 output, I trust that the EGM would be able to display at least the more common data types, as well as gateway them to my other N2K screens (like the Maretron J2K100 does).

The EGM offers three gauge screens, all the same design except that you can easily make each one unique by stepping through the three “dials” and the numeric window selecting whatever data type you want from the available sources. So in the screen above I’ve “Selected” the lower right dial and am using the “Option” button to choose between Fuel Rate, Oil Pressure, etc. By the way, if you click one of these screen images bigger, you’ll see the many “trouble light” alarm icons that can often be triggered by J1939 or N2K engine streams (but usually aren’t sensored on analog engines).

Finally, there’s a fourth screen that can display the fuel burn of up to three engines with flow totals and MPG calculated by the EGM and fuel level based on one tank level sensor. (Remember, if you have fuel flow, you may have two ways to tell how much is left.) There’s a lot going on under the EGM’s hood, though in fact it’s only a version of what Veethree makes available to OEM engineers as the Veecan 320 customizable display (via master distributor New Eagle). I believe we’ve seen the underlying 320 elsewhere in marine electronics, like this Offshore Systems tank monitor, but if you want the EGM model, the best source seems to be a dealer with a Gemeco account (and expect a retail price of about $700).

Given all the Veethree engineering behind the EGM, it’s not surprising to find extensive configuration and diagnostics. And it’s easy to use with the five-button soft key interface, plus a decent manual (download here). A true geek, for instance, can see and log the raw data coming into either CAN port, check out the NMEA 0183 port (I hadn’t mentioned yet), or monitor the raw analog inputs alongside their calibrated output.

I was pleased just to get the whole list of possible data types, sources, and live values. In this case I was still using the EMU-1 engine data already on Gizmo’s N2K network, but then I detached that gateway and temporarily connected three of the resistance-based sensors — coolant temp plus oil and boost pressure — to the corresponding EGM inputs.

I was again impressed with the calibration routine, which starts by picking one of several curves that mimic traditional gauges. This is similar to the Actisense configuration, though the EMU-1 automatically determines whether the gauge is still in use, which is to say whether or not to provide signal current to the sensor. On the other hand, the EMU-1 does not offer further adjustment (though that’s promised in a future update). I have not yet been underway with the EGM enough to really see how close I’ve calibrated it to Gizmo’s remaining analog gauges — better yet would be independent sensors like a flywheel RPM counter — but it looks pretty good (and actually it only takes consistently inaccurate results to monitor and alarm an engine pretty well).

However, the Veethree EGM has two significant limitations. If you look closely at the Deutsch connector diagrams above, you’ll see that it has 7 analog resistance-based inputs, but they are set up for specific sensors. In Gizmo’s case, I can monitor and gateway 3 important engine values but not transmission oil pressure (like I can on the EMU-1). Plus, I can only monitor one of the boat’s two fuel tanks, and 3 of the EGM’s inputs would go unused when they could be wired to other tank senders and/or temp sensors on, say, Gizmo’s shaft log and raw water pump. Veethree certainly has the chops to make these inputs more flexible, but that would also make the interface more complex and might add to the technical support burden. But then again, Sales Engineer Eric Mueller — who I met at the Miami Show — emphasized that Veethree does respond to customer input.

The EGM also lacks the voltage-based analog inputs needed to display and gateway the simple on/off engine alarm sensors found on engines like my Volvo Penta, but Veethree has worked around this in an interesting way. As explained in the manual, the alarms are programmed into the EGM using the regular sensor values instead of the alarm sensor. This is not ideal in my book — I like redundancy — but it seems to work fine and suggests that the EGM could be tweaked so that users could set their own custom alarm points below the extreme values typical of simple on/off alarms (as I strongly favor).

In fact, after hearing my input on this subject, Mueller wrote, “…both the high and low settings for those [programmed alarms] as well as additional alarms for all of the predefined analog inputs of the EGM can be modified via the configuration INI text file. For an advanced user who would like to do so, we could provide the text file along with a script that would be both placed on a USB stick and used to upload to the unit.” Nice! That means you could have early warning alarms showing up on the EGM, which would be even more useful if the EGM gets more flexible inputs (sorry, Eric).

And here’s evidence that the EGM does a good job distributing alarms over NMEA 2000 (if the display knows what to do with the PGN). As discussed recently, the EMU-1 does have inputs for on/off alarm sensors and the output triggers a similar pop-up, but the only way I can program and display custom early warning engine and related alarms is within Gizmo’s Maretron system. Obviously, I’d like this situation to change — sorry for such a long entry — and it can easily; all the pieces are available.

At any rate, much of the info seen on this Simrad NSS evo2 utility screen is coming from old analog sensors via the EGM (some is demo, as shown on the EGM Data Viewer screen further up). Most interesting for me is the Boost Pressure value, as neither my analog gauge nor the EMU-1 show any. I had presumed a broken sensor, and maybe what’s shown above is just aggressive calibration of a very weak signal. Only a high speed test will tell the story, and I’ll report back in the comments section, but then again, Veethree has a lot of experience with analog sensors.

So here’s the EGM displaying and gatewaying my analog engine sensing to all sorts of N2K displays at Gizmo’s lower helm. But I’m not done yet, as Mueller also sent me a simulation of what the bigger EGM 800 will look like when released, and wow, couldn’t it do a lot of good work on many boats? Before I go on, though, note that the original EGM also has two relay outputs so it can drive at least an audible alarm system.

The Veethree EGM 800 will be based on the VeeCan 800 OEM product, like the EGM is based on the VeeCan 320, and hence the screen is 800 x 400 pixels. If you download the VeeCan 800 datasheet, you’ll learn that this gadget is also touch screen and has three 12-way Deutsch connectors on the back. So, in addition to NMEA 2000, J1939, RS232 (0183), tachometer and Ethernet ports, the EGM 800 will have 14 analog inputs, 3 digital/flow sensor inputs, and 8 switched outputs now called Relay/Solenoid because it can conceivably go beyond display and gateway duties to controlling other devices.

As best I can tell from the beta firmware simulation, the EGM 800 may only have one display screen, but it can show a lot. And I’m told that one design goal is the ability to show every possible J1939 engine value, including new Tier 4 data. What I can see in the simulation is how Veethree is making the EGM 800 much more flexible than the orginal.

For instance, when you go to the nifty graphic analog input setup screen, your touch pick can apparently handle any resistive sensor you want. On Gizmo that might be the four main engine sensors, the four tank sensors (currently on a CZone Signal Interface), the four active temp sensors on a Maretron TMP100, and I’d still have 2 free inputs. Given that and the fact that no N2K-to-PC gateway is needed for setup and calibration, the EGM 800’s anticipated $1,400-1,500 suggested retail doesn’t seem so high.

Calibration also seems improved or at least prettier, and the Title and Line fields suggest the ability to custom name the inputs and perhaps keep notes on their installation, both similar to what Maretron N2KAnalyzer can do. Now wouldn’t it be nice if Veethree, Maretron, and the MFD/N2K instrument manufacturers all adopted the Label function supposedly built into N2K so something somewhat exotic like “Starboard GenSet Raw Water Pump Temp” traveled around the network like the value can?

But I saved the best for last. The EGM 800 offers excellent gauge building, almost as flexible and complete as Maretron’s but a lot easier than what it takes on a Maretron DSM (though N2KView is likely also much easier). Note from the screenshot how you can not only change the range, but also the large and small markers and even the increment of change. Moreover, every single value in the EGM 800’s database, regardless of source, can be alarmed high and/or low with a choice of alarm severity, as seen below. That’s what I’m talking about!

Actually, Maretron is still ahead in sophisticated alarming — like a Hatch Open alert conditional to SOG over 1 knot — but Veethree’s EGM series puts some really valuable possibilities into rugged, self-contained devices suitable to small and medium size boats. And while I’m not sure many do-it-yourselfers are up to this sort of install, despite Veethree’s quality manual and interface, it’s good to know what your trusty professional has available. There also may be developers in other marine niches who might like to partner with Veethree (I know one that already has), and let’s hope that the big MFD programmers take a good gander at how well gauge customization and alarming can be done on a touch screen.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Nov 30, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Digital switching is one of the most intriguing aspects of modern marine electronics, but also one of the most mysterious. At FLIBS, for instance, I wasn’t the only boater jealously admiring sexy screens like the one above running on a Raymarine gS15 multifunction display. But when you try figuring out how you can get this elegant level of system control and monitoring onto your boat, you’ll eventually realize that there is a complex conglomeration of hardware and software behind it, and it’s usually under marketed and lightly documented. In fact, the whole concept still mainly makes sense for new and higher end boats, because it’s an expensive and entirely different way of doing things, and those builders remain understandably cautious about adopting it. Nonetheless — and another sign of a re-invigorated recreational marine industry — I detected lots of digital switching progress at the fall shows…

Raymarine seemed to show even more elaborate MFD digital switching screens at METS, and rumor has it that such features are becoming standard on certain Azimut and Sea Ray models. But don’t expect to see specifics about digital switching systems on the websites of those builders; they seem especially reluctant to call out separate brand subsystems like these, preferring to let them look like the custom integrations they largely are. (This Azimut Technical School page is revealing, however). At any rate, lack of publicity is one reason why I hope you’ll tolerate my poor boatshow photos – fingerprints and glare included.

This is a good time to note that digital switching almost invariably includes microprocessor-based circuit protection and monitoring. The results are a significant reduction in wiring, often called distributed power, and the ability of the system to sense the electrical currents passing through it. In other words, the switching seen on the screens above is not just the fancy equivalent of an electromechanical button or toggle switch panel; when the nav light graphic icons illuminate with a screen touch, for instance, the system knows that they’re actually consuming a specific current at a specific voltage and can alarm you if otherwise.

As described here in 2013, the primary module in Raymarine’s digital switching system has been the powerful EmpirBus NXT. But now Trigentic has developed the Connect 50 “for smaller and less complex installations.” The Connect still has 20 programmable DC output channels with niceties like built-in light dimming and advanced wiper controls, plus 11 input channels for mechanical (like) switching and analog sensors. Measuring and digitizing tank levels, voltages, pressures, etc. is another common feature of digital switching systems and, as you’ll see way below, EmpirBus is not the only brand adding flexible multi-channel I/O designs that should cost less and install easily in smaller boats.

I was surprised to find EmpirBus Graphic software available for download on the Trigentic site, and it appears that a boat builder, electronics installer or end user can use it to build those lovely Raymarine digital switching screens. However, the EmpirBus Studio program used to actually configure the modules — and thus create the function file represented in the upper left window above — is not available. The process, as I understand it, is that Trigentics does the module programming in consultation with Raymarine and the client, and then Ray maintains an offboat copy as part of its global support for the system, which seems like a good thing.

Simrad — which trailblazed digital switching on an MFD with CZone in 2010 — showed off a new partnership at METS. I was not familiar with Naviop Marine Automation, but it didn’t take much time in their booth (or on their website) to see that they are deep into the complex world of bigger boat system management. They offer their own nav/monitoring touchscreen displays, for instance, and the graphic interfaces are highly customizable. So the Simrad relationship is not so much global distributor as alternate interface screen provider. In fact, Simrad told me that it was relatively easy to create a Naviop server within NSS evo2 and they’re open to doing similar with other digital switching developers.

Note the large quiver of Naviops power distribution and data interface modules available, like the Egon, the Nova, and especially that wild T-Box N2000 sprouting Ethernet, N2K, multiple CanBus and RS232/422/485 ports. “More than 50 communication protocols implemented (engines, air conditioning, generators, battery chargers, entertainment systems, digital switching systems, etc.)” is the Naviops’ claim, and I was told that EmpirBus and CZone are included. In short, the sophisticated-seeming digital switching I’m most familiar with can be a subsystem of a bigger boat install, and all of it can now be seen and managed on Simrad helm displays.

Offshore Systems now has similar capabilities. While the company used to specialize in relatively simple though often unique NMEA 2000 sensors — like this cool fuel fill — at METS 2015 they were posing in the Superyacht Pavilion with their own BlackGlass Bridge Systems, touch screens and highly evolved control and monitoring software/hardware included. Managing Director Bruce Coward (at left) is very proud of the highly flexible screen design software they’ve developed, but before I get further into BlackGlass, let’s sidetrack to that Dual Engine Display, which we honored with an Innovation Award at IBEX 2014. Its beauty is not just how sleekly it can fit onto a modern helm — as seen in this Princess 68 sea trial video — but how it can completely display whatever is coming from the engines in J1939 or N2K format, replacing the clunkier gauge displays from most major engine manufacturers at significantly less cost and with no warranty issue! (Note to the trade: Coward allows that it was big engine customers like Princess that got the manufacturers to relent on the warranty issue, not his electronics company.)

The home screen for the 88-foot sailing yacht above is just one of many BlackGlass interfaces you can check out online, but again you can see how digital switching has moved well beyond lighting and similar commonplace functions. Apparently you can lock off the boat’s halyard with this touch screen, for instance. One thing that’s going on here, and with Naviops too, is that N2K sensing and switching is becoming a component of the bigger do-anything PLC-based systems that are nearly “traditional” on very large yachts. Hence Offshore developed its NMEA 2000 to Modbus Gateway and added ABB Programmable Logic Controllers to their behind-the-scenes tool kit.

When it comes to bigger boat switching and distributed power, OctoPlex is still very much in the game, with Gen2 components coming online and the relationship with sibling brand Maretron deepening. (Maretron has its own basic digital switching, by the way.) Digitally managing AC switching and circuit protection remains one of the tough issues in this niche, because it still can’t be done solely with transistors, and (probably thanks to the Carling Technologies mothership) OctoPlex seems to offer exceptionally slick solenoid-activated AC breaker panels. Note the redundant N2K control cables, the included breaker removal tool, and the “all’s well” green LED that usually glows through the window on the panel’s (not shown) outer cover, but will go red if a breaker trips. The OctoPlex team at FLIBS was especially proud of the stellar uptime record their many Viking installs have accrued, evidenced by the fact that their system has been chosen again for the new 80 Series (great in-build PDF here).

I’ll add that not all digital switching systems have accrued a good record, though the stories are very hard to document. Rumors abound of light switches that suddenly operated anchor winches, not to mention total system burnouts from nearby lightning strikes, plain old fires, and — perhaps the technology’s greatest setback — builders who had to replace entire bow-to-stern systems with the traditional power cabling they could have done for a small fraction of the cost in the first place. But those stories are mostly old, some of the purported culprits have shrunk or vanished, and there are getting to be a fair number of successful boats out there with digital switching.

Integration with the big color touchscreen display systems that dominate many new boat helms these days is certainly part of how digital switching is succeeding, and Mastervolt CZone is seen as the current winner in this area, with relationships to both Garmin and the Navico brands. At FLIBS, I was pleased to see that Garmin now lets users modify CZone pages, though the underlying configuration remains at OEM level.

But the big CZone news is the new COI module seen below (though there’s nothing about it online yet). The COI will pack the capabilities of several existing CZone modules into one less expensive box that can conceivably control all the power needs and many of the sensor needs of a modest vessel. Note that all the labeling on the show demo below is for one specific boat configuration. The 14 power outputs can protect and switch most any circuits as long as the total amperage doesn’t exceed 150, and similarly the 8 analog and 6 digital inputs can do all sorts of tasks besides the ones listed. Meanwhile the IN-D port is for boats that don’t even use N2K interface and the USB port means that a CZone system with a COI can be programmed without a separate gateway. And remember that CZone seems more willing than most to deal with a retrofit and/or a lone dealer/installer (or sometimes even a DIY guy like me).

Mostly though, digital switching is going to be seen on new boats, and I believe it will make those boats more and more tempting.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Dec 11, 2015 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

It’s easy to understand and appreciate Spinlock’s new Lume-On lifejacket illumination lights. The $20 pair should stick easily to the underside of any inflatable bladder (as long as you can get access) and then use the bladder’s translucence to nicely diffuse their flashing LEDs if and when they are water activated. It seems a small cost in money, weight, and hassle for an added aid to person overboard recovery, and thus Lume-On won a 2015 DAME Award in the safety category. It also shared the overall DAME award (the Grand DAME?)…

The other overall DAME award went to this Electric Stabilising Fin & Interceptor System designed by Humphree. It should improve boat comfort both at anchor and underway, and the judges expect its fully coordinated pitch and roll control to result in “much better handling and reduced fuel consumption.” But it’s certainly not simple and probably not inexpensive, a contrast with the Lume-On that was not missed by the judges. This was the first time ever that the overall DAME Award was shared, and I like how it highlighted two possible sides of innovation and design excellence.

It’s not online yet, but Actisense’s Pro-Buf-1 will clearly be a powerful alternative to, say, their existing NBF-3 NMEA 0183 buffer. There is a bit more Pro-Buf detail here and apparently it’s just the first in a new Pro range. I particularly like the incorporation of an Ethernet port and web server, which allows for extensive Pro-Buf custom configuration easily done by an installer with a laptop or mobile browser. This sort of configuration interface would also be quite handy on the EMU-1 analog-to-N2K engine gateway and I suspect that Actisense’s experience developing devices like this will pay off further when they’re able to work on a NMEA OneNet gateway.

Victron is offering similar access to some of their many power-related devices, except with a Bluetooth LE dongle and mobile apps. The Android version is just coming out with configuration features that will eventually get to the iOS app. At METS I also saw a 1.30 update to the Color Control GX that can manage generator start/stops on many factors including desired quiet times or periodic test runs, more detail here.

Meanwhile, Eric Steinberg of Farallon Electronics recently sent in this short video as “too cool not to share!” What you’ll see is a semi-custom carbon rudder tiller arm with a stainless engagement pin and remote disconnect via a control line, all crafted by GC Rigging & Composites in Richmond, California. The result is a helm with zero pressure from an AP drive when you’re steering, and in this case Eric was able to get some weight out of the back of the boat by connecting the tiller arm to a Simrad SD10 Mechanical Drive unit with a Morse cable.

I’ll close with an ad so good it’s a must see. It was already notable that the trolling motor can deploy (and stow) itself, work with a wireless remote (or with an MFD), and can hold station (among many other manuevers). But it took a clever team to show how coolly and humorously that could all come together at a launching ramp. Enjoy the video and wishing you a nice weekend.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Mar 18, 2016 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

The time has come. Actually, it was a specific day late last October when I Torqeedoed out to Gizmo only to find a dead ship. Not even a modest LED light nor the panel voltmeter would power up, and this dual Deka 8D house bank measured 5 volts at the studs. While I later figured out that only one had suffered a catastrophic malfunction, I’d already sensed that these AGM batteries were on borrowed time. They’d been on the boat at least a season when she became mine in early 2009, and at least occasionally mistreated since. But the real issue is what to do next…

A favorite homily these days goes, “Old age is a high price to pay for maturity,” and in fact my understanding of boat power may have increased at roughly the same rate that my ability to remove those damn 158-pound dead batteries declined. Then again, current battery technologies are wickedly complex if you dig down, solid real world comparison testing is scarce as hen’s teeth (for several good reasons), and the factors involved in a specific boat/boater choice are many.

I remember how much Panbo readers helped me when I was house-battery young and naive in 2010. (The 70’s liveaboard years don’t really count, and even seem quaint in terms of amp hour capacities, SOC, expected cycles, and so forth.) So the goal of this entry is to lay out my perceived options for discussion. I know I’m not the only cruiser scratching a chin or two about battery replacement, and a bonus is that now I know some guys who have genuine expertise on the subject.

Go with the tried and true?

For instance, it only cost me a Reuben sandwich and a Bloody Mary to talk this over with my “power guy”, Alden Cole, who’s still very much in the business — now at Lyman-Morse Wayfarer — and who has reached a point where he can discuss boat battery varietals and individual brand bouquets like fine wines. Heck, he once explained to me that it’s good practice when putting together a bank to use batteries with sequential serial numbers (they aren’t popped out like widgets, after all, and a close match helps with a long, balanced life). Alden likes the East Penn Manufacturing 8A8D AGM’s that Gizmo came with — which are sold under Deka, MK and other brand names — and it certainly could be prudent and easy to simply replace them.

I can’t fault the Dekas’ service life and I got used to what their total (original estimate) 490 amp hours could do, even after upping their role by replacing an extra noisy generator with solar panels (which, I realize better now, probably helped a lot with their health). But I surely like a boat fix project that includes some improvement, though then again, batteries aren’t just batteries. They’re part of a system and much of a change can also mean changing alternator, regulator, main fuse and/or the safe containment scheme, maybe more. Yes, I may have become a tad obsessed, though Alden didn’t flinch; he grinned.

Charging truths & PSOC

I haven’t put my battery quest to RC (Rod) Collins — the proprietor of MarineHowTo.com who once wowed readers here with his Smartgauge battery monitor analysis — but I did figure out that he’d recently designed an even more elaborate testing challenge, this time focused on the way many of us actually use AGM house banks and published in Practical Sailor. I even purchased an annual subscription to read the three part (so far) series, and highly recommend it (not easy for a curmudgeon who finds some PS practices, like the lack of bylines, annoying).

If you sometimes run your engine to charge your house bank, you probably don’t want to do it often or for long (me too). What RC has painstakingly proven is that if you drive AGM batteries to a 50% depth of discharge and then charge them in a typical way for an hour — generally the “sweet spot” when they’re accepting a high amperage bulk charge — they will lose some capacity every time you do it and even when you top them up, they still won’t hold as much juice. The apparent cause is sulfation, and avoidance of partial state of charge (PSOC) cycling is just one facet of treating batteries well (PS and RC shared tips here). Incidentally, RC neatly terms the 50% capacity we shouldn’t use “dead lead” and there’s lots more to his work, like which AGM brands tested best. But I keep wondering if there is a better battery technology that would make sense for Gizmo?

While I know that Nigel Calder is keen on advancing the energy/hassle to boat-juice-banked ratio, he’s a hard guy to pin down and a hurried conversation in a hallway at METS only yielded a “carbon foam batteries?” scribble-to-self. That, however, may turn out key to this quest, though I’m getting ahead of the story.

Lithium batteries: compelling performance, but…

I’ve known Bruce Schwab since before Bruce Schwab Energy Systems. Yes, now he sells high-tech boat batteries and much more, but that’s not a bad thing. Consider the system awareness a couple of solo circumnavigations has got to instill and, besides, Bruce is probably going to take your call, too. At any rate, he’s pitching me two interesting products and we’re not done. The Lithionics OPE-Li3 Lithium system he helped develop seems state of the art, and I was already impressed with how well Mastervolt’s system held up to extreme demands. But does lithium make sense given Gizmo’s use case, and mine? Yanking the generator did improve performance, but weight isn’t that critical. And while needed capacity is an entirely different calculation when there’s no dead lead with very fast charging possible, the smallest 110Ah OPE-Li3 — the size range is amazing, pricing PDF here — retails for about $1,680!

There is a rational method of calculating true battery cost by factoring in expected cycle life, which is discussed more in the Mastervolt entry, but that too has a personal dimension, like if you’re a boat guy looking at 70. I’m looking forward to learning more about Li3 and its NeverDie management system (BMS) in Bruce’s booth at the Portland Boatbuilders Show later today, but…

Firefly carbon foam AGM, may be the one

The real draw is the Firefly carbon foam AGM batteries which Bruce distributes nationally. It turns out that this is the technology that has at least tentatively excited Nigel (PDF here). The Firefly is also the only battery that came back to full capacity after RC’s grueling test regime (though he too awaits more real world user experience). Plus, I didn’t turn tail after a deep dive into Firefly Energy presentations and, hey, they’re made in Peoria.

The Firefly is only available in Group 31 size, and two will not fit in a Gizmo battery box, but neither is box modification or replacement a major task (he said), and never having to move an 8D again is an improvement. Four Fireflys totaling about 440Ah purportedly far more resilient to sweet spot charging with far less dead lead should be an improvement I enjoy on a regular basis. And in this case the $/kWh calculation over battery lifetime might justify the higher initial cost. “All a tentative rationale” you say? Please go on.

Finally, consider the snappy Firefly installation below as perhaps another positive data point. There’s actually 8 batteries total, 4x parallel 2x serial to drive that 48v Thoosa electric propulsion and also step down to house loads. My notion: whoever put this together — Bruce only supplied the Fireflys, though he certainly offers system design — thought long and hard about battery selection. Do I need “real” counseling? Obviously, more to come.

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Written by Adam Hyde on Apr 1, 2016 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Five years ago when I told a friend that I was purchasing an attitude control system he said “does it bolt to your head?” Perhaps it should but I’m happy it didn’t! I’d recently purchased Journey, a 1976 26′ Tollycraft Sedan that I found time consuming to trim properly, even for a boat guy in love (and still so). Purchasing Mente Marine’s automatic trim tab control system was at the top of my list of improvements but would it stand the test of time and be worth the installation effort and cash?

The Tollycraft brand of powerboats are legendary in Washington state and British Columbia where I live. Robert “Tolly” Tollefson the founder of Tollycraft, lived to be 100 and his amazing legacy lives on through the 6,500 boats he built over 40 years. It was the 10,000 lb solid build weight and 6’4″ of interior headroom that really sold me on Journey. Even though she has a relatively small 9 degree deadrise, she handles the Salish Sea nicely.

My broker — an old salt named Jim Young from Island Yacht Sales (and fellow Tollycraft owner) — took me cruising so I could learn to control a shaft boat (with a small rudder) and also how to trim the bow angle to the sweet spot where the she was happiest at her 18 knot cruising speed. I then made the mistake of installing a bubble level on the flybridge so I could tweak port / starboard trim when people moved around the boat. I say mistake because I was spending too much time fiddling with the stiff and flimsy Bennett trim tab joystick-style switch. I needed to be maintaining a vigilant watch for Pacific Northwest deadheads. There had to be a better way?

My first thought: seeing as I had Bennett hydraulic trim tabs (approximately 80% of the US boat market) was that it would make sense to add their automatic trim tab control unit. That was until I realized that I would have to leave my manual switches in place and add wire runs for the automatic controls back to the engine compartment. With two helm stations to wire I didn’t want the hassle of running new wires. I would also incur the added cost of replacing my beat up manual switches. Why not an all in one control unit?

After an online hunt I stumbled across a Finnish company named Mente Marine. With a slogan like “For the right attitude,” how could I resist. After an email exchange with Mente’s helpful Peter Ostberg, I learned how non-proprietary the system is. Mente’s ACS System (developed in 2002) is compatible with hydraulic tabs from Bennett, Instatrim, and the no longer produced Teleflex & Trim Master tabs. They can also control electromechanical tabs from Lenco, Eltrim, Ultraflex, and Lectrotab. Lectrotab has now become a US distributor for Mente, which may be overlooked by hydraulic trim tab owners who might presume that Lectrotab branded (Mente’s) “automatic leveling control” unit won’t support their tab type. Note that Lectrotab doesn’t use the phrase “attitude control.” In fact there are so many names for trim tab control that start with the word automatic; trim tabs, trim control, list control, attitude control, leveling control…

There is also a relatively new type of trim tab which is air powered. If you remember the guillotine, the Greek company Hydrotab has engineered vertical interceptor trim tabs that go chop using an air pump! This is one of the few trim tab types that Mente can’t manage. Air power seems a cool environmentally sound idea with no risk of leaky hydraulic fluid. Hydrotab is a newer kid on the block and their videos infer low pricing, but trust me, this is a pricier product line. DAME award winner and 15 year old Swedish tab manufacturer Humphree also sells a vertical style trim tab (but electromechanical) called the interceptor x-series. With similar iconography to Mente, Volvo Penta offers automatically controlled interceptor style tabs with their boat trim system.

The main enemy of semi-displacement and planing hulls is high wave resistance and surface friction. How interceptor style trim tabs work is by quickly moving a blade up and down causing pressure to be created at the stern of the boat which can reduce wave resistance. There are many other factors at play though such as hull design, weather conditions and weight distribution. Tabs won’t fix all problems! Traditional trim tabs work in a similar way to the interceptor style but they introduce more surface friction with their horizontal design. Humphree has a range of boat control systems, but most similar to Mente is Humphree’s automatic list control system. Humphree sells a nice display unit (as does Hydrotab) but I question how necessary it is to pay for a color display. I want to set and forget. Let the gyros and computer brain do the work while I keep a lookout. Perhaps in large vessels it makes good sense?

Getting back to Lenco – the makers of electric actuators – they sell a system called the autoglide. It’s a similar automatic trim tab system to the others but is proprietary to their own actuators. I like the idea of Mente’s system which allows me to select actuators from a different manufacturer should mine fail at some point. It would just be plug and “pray.”

If you have a single helm boat you can probably install the ACS RP (US$650 – roll and pitch) system in under an hour. Just pull your manual switch and substitute the ACS control panel which contains all the brains of the system. If you use engine trim they have a model that just controls roll – the ACS R. Mente has wiring diagrams for different actuator brands. Just use the color matching diagrams and run no new wires.

When I installed my two helm system (US$1,100 from Mente online store) it was simple to swap the manual Bennett controls (reusing the existing wiring) with the Mente head units and then next to the hydraulic pump, install the black box. The black box is only needed for the two helm ACS version (ACS A + FCP). The box bridges the wiring from the two helms to the actuator control unit or pump. The only new wires to run are the power wires to the black box.

After five years of using the Mente ACS system I’m still impressed. I never touch it. I don’t have to activate automatic, it just remembers when I key on the ignition. It will automatically retract the tabs at slow speeds (built in gps) or when ignition is turned off. When I accelerate to get on plane the system knows and just starts working. Since I installed my Mente the controls have been modernized from membrane to key press style and are expected to last 20 years. I believe my boat is safer and I have lower fuel consumption because roll and pitch is being adjusted safely for me. Here’s a fun simulation on Mente’s website you can try.

Some of the knocks against these types of systems are that they work against your turn as the boat leans inward, or that they make it unsafe in a following sea. While I only have experience with the Mente system, I can attest that these conditions have not been a problem. The Mente ACS delays its control in a turn so it doesn’t fight you. In a following sea it retracts the tabs to keep the bow as high as possible.

The only condition where you might want to switch to manual is when you are in a following sea with a long distance between waves. In this case the tabs will have time to deploy (after a delay) as the boat levels out and might not have time to retract again as you go down the next wave. If you are hunting for more speed, easier steering, better fuel economy, faster time to plane and set and forget functionality, you’ll love automatic trim tab control. We’d love to hear your thoughts or experiences with attitude correction?

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Written by Adam Hyde and Ben Ellison on Apr 30, 2016 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this collage is what you can’t see. There were no Mercury gauges or displays whatsoever on this Navico demo boat thanks to a new Mercury black box called the VesselView Link that offers complete gauge and control integration. Simrad and Lowrance VesselView engine interfaces have also been vastly improved, and Mercury is offering similar full MFD integration on its own new VesselView 702 and 502 displays. So a clean single-brand helm electronics setup is now available under three different brands, and seems reasonably priced even for a relatively small boat. Plus, Mercury offers several other rigging choices including basic NMEA 2000 gauge data output to any brand MFD. Explaining all the possibilities is harder than using them, but let’s give it a try…

Actually, a little history is in order, like how Mercury and Navico’s relationship predates the Navico brand as we know it! Mercury’s powerful though proprietary SmartCraft networking system was first developed by Brunswick’s New Technologies group (BNT) which included Northstar, and thus Panbo discussed Mercury MFD gauge integration in 2005. But then Navico was created from the merger of Simrad and Lowrance in 2006, and it acquired BNT’s marine electronics assets shortly thereafter. Some of the brands like Northstar and Navman got cut as Navico rationalized its product lines, but at least some of the engineers with SmartCraft integration skills apparently stuck around.

Jumping ahead to 2014, here’s a Simrad NSS12 and a Mercury VesselView 7 showing some tight glass-bridge-style integration at the Miami show. Yes, as that entry noted, Navico built the VesselView 7 (and the 4-inch model) to Mercury’s specification, each with a SmartCraft port on the back and an internal gateway to NMEA 2000. That (and Ethernet for sharing charts, etc.) is why the MFD can show VesselView engine screens while the VesselView itself can act as a fairly full-featured MFD. It seems like a useful integration, but you still need to have both VesselView and Simrad displays on the boat, and that’s what’s about to change in multiple ways, thanks to the new VesselView Link, 702 and 502 products detailed below.

First, though, let’s review what Mercury can do with standard NMEA 2000. When the MercMonitor came out in 2009, one noteworthy feature was an included gateway to any N2K MFD or instrument display that understands PGNs (Protocol Group Numbers) for RPM, oil pressure, etc. So you can use the Monitor mainly to control SmartCraft features like Troll Control, while the gauge data shows on a bigger, more colorful screen (perhaps with advanced gauge designs and alarming). MercMonitor is still available, and at the bottom of its page you’ll find a link to the standalone N2K gateway above (PDF here). Note, though, that the separate single and multi-engine gateways have been superceded by one model (part # 8M0105243) as shown on this third party Verado site.

While the NMEA 2000 standard does include common engine control commands, engine manufacturers have avoided them, which seems understandable given the technical and liability issues involved. Standard N2K engine commands probably don’t include nuances like SmartCraft Smart Tow either. So what we’ve seen is partnerships like the Volvo Penta (Garmin) Glass Cockpit, which still use N2K but network critical commands (and deep info-like fault messages) using proprietary PGNs. Now let’s see how the Mercury Navico integrations have evolved…

Mercury VesselView Link

Until now boaters with Mercury Smartcraft engines needed a SmartCraft gauge or display to get full data and control functionality from their (40HP and up) outboard, sterndrive or inboard. Shipping in June, VesselView Link is a complete Smartcraft to N2K engine gateway that enables a complete engine interface on certain Simrad and Lowrance MFDs (and also on the new Mercury 702/502 VesselView displays). Boatbuilders can free up valuable dashboard real estate with either the VV Link single engine (#8M0110639) retailing for $615 or the multi-engine version (#8M0110641) for $1200. That means a single outboard boat with a single Lowrance HDS-7m Gen2 Touch will have glass-cockpit-style engine monitoring and management for about $1,314 retail (not including boat and motor).

Here’s a Lowrance HDS 12 Gen3 showing some of the new VesselView Link engine interface features that will be included in Lowrance and Simrad software updates purportedly coming in June. Note that you can now show the gauges in a window, not just full screen as used to be the case with the V7/V4 integration. We have more about the improved interface further down the entry.

VesselView 702 & 502 MFDs

Mercury also introduced two new VesselView displays at the Miami Boat Show including the 7-inch 702 above. It’s like v2 of the older VesselView 7 it replaces, except that now the SmartCraft gateway duties are handled by a separate VesselView Link. And the 702 isn’t just built by Navico; it seems to be a rebranded Simrad NSS7 EVO2, while the new 5-inch touch-only 502 below seems to be a rebranded Simrad GO XSE. The new VesselViews come bundled with single or multi-engine VV Links, with the 702 retailing for $2,156 single or $2,581 multi, while the 502 is $1,576 single or $2,001 multi. The 702 package includes an external GoFree Wifi1 module, while the 502 has WiFi embedded. (The 2-engine capable VesselView4 will continue to be offered, though with its different software interface and its built-in SmartCraft gateway.)

The VesselView 702 and 502 models are fully capable MFDs with built in GPS and support for options such as radar, AIS, sonar, digital switching, audio control (Sonic Hub2 or FusionLink), etc. Both displays support GoFree cloud updates and Walter Ross — a senior product manager at Mercury Controls & Rigging who helped a lot with this article — said:

What I’m most excited about is the ability to easily distribute these software updates (which we release about twice a year, to include new features, functions and any bug fixes) and also the ability to offer advanced features for Mercury propulsion systems as DLC (downloadable content) from the GoFree store. We have the potential to offer an upgraded or advanced feature to a wide range of users. That’s just cool!

What’s the takeaway so far? SmartCraft descriptive fault codes, comprehensive engine data and digital propulsion control features such as Cruise Control, Smart Tow, Eco Mode and Troll Control (in 10 RPM increments) will soon be available on Mercury, Lowrance, or Simrad MFDs without other helm gauges or displays at a lower total cost than previous options.

Why use Mercury MFDs instead of Simrad or Lowrance? That might be the choice of a boatbuilder wanting engine and electronics all one brand, or a big boat that wants VesselView as a full featured engine display with navigation backup capabilities.

New VesselView interface

The new VesselView interface — seen working splitscreen above with four SmartCraft outboards — seems to be very similar on all the Simrad, Lowrance, and Mercury displays where it will run. Simrad VV Link models are here with other details and similar Lowrance VVL specifics are here.

One feature of the new interface is quick access to numerous popup info screens simply by tapping on the main guage window. If you want more detail on engine trim, for instance, you just tap on the trim icons seen at the bottom of the main engine window. It’s easy to remember! Note that these screens were taken during the Navico writers event in January (also seen in the top image) and the video below was shot on the same triple-engine boat.

The Simard VVL video nicely shows how VesselView can be added to a multi-window screen layout and also the Quick Access Bar that can always be available regardless of the screen layout (which is also seen on all the screens above). Tapping “Mercury” gets you a narrow but informative engine data sidebar and tapping “Vessel Control” gets you to Smart Tow, Eco Mode, etc. all nicely illustrated in the Mercury VesselView 702 quick guide snip below.

The Lowrance VVL video below illustrates the new VesselView interface working with a single engine. And note that engine-related notifications purportedly pop up regardless of what else is on screen, though, as usual, alarm parameters cannot be adjusted. Ben has been lobbying for custom engine alerts based on values like coolant temperature so far to no avail, but Mercury’s Walter Ross pointed out that:

The user can adjust the engine parameter limits, though, and that adjusts the scaling of the data that gets displayed (and what you may consider “red” before the alarm goes off).

Apparently, this was also a little known feature of the original VV7 and VV4 displays whereby you change the preconfigured limits so that you will get a visual indication if, say, your coolant temperature goes higher than what you define as normal (and we’d like to see how it works). And here’s another valuable pro tip from Walter (though you may need a notebook near the helm):

I monitor seawater pump pressure (aka coolant pressure). I know what that nominal value is when I’m at idle and at every 1000 RPM increment. When it drops off more than 10%, I change the seawater pump impeller.

At any rate, Walter’s enthusiasm about all the ways Mercury and Navico are now working together seems completely justified, and we suspect it will spread into the boating world rapidly once all these products become available.

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Written by Ben Ellison on May 6, 2016 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

When I wrote about replacing Gizmo’s house battery bank, I was already inclined to try Firefly Oasis AGMs, and my enthusiasm has only grown. It certainly helped to have RC Collins and Nigel Calder testify further in that entry’s comments about how deeply they’ve “abused” these batteries in ways that boaters like me tend to do. I’m excited about gaining significantly more usable, easy-to-replace power capacity, and the Firefly’s smart, colorful exterior design is a nice bonus. But the switch from two conventional 8D AGMs to a four Firefly bank naturally led me to rethink Gizmo’s battery storage, cabling, charging, and monitoring systems. The job isn’t done yet, and maybe discussion of the details with you all will change the design again…

First, though, let’s review what makes Firefly a truly different lead acid deep-cycle battery. Presumptions about how hard you can use house batteries change radically when you can consume 80% of their capacity (about 1,000 times) and regularly charge them only partially without reducing their orginal capacity (though getting full capacity back does require a full charge/discharge cycle). The presentations available at Firefly Energy help to understand the technology behind the extraordinary claims (like above), and I also appreciate the assurances found in the Firefly Oasis user manual you can download at U.S. distributor Bruce Schwab Energy Systems.

I don’t think that “...can be operated in a partial state of charge for long periods of time without sustaining any permanent damage” is what you’re going to hear about other lead acid batteries if the manufacturer is being completely honest. And, by the way, Bruce Schwab strikes me as an honest salesman who knows his products well. He did not, for instance, mince words about quality control issues that some Fireflys suffered, though they seem to be over now. I’m sorry to add, however, that the $425 retail Firefly Oasis G31 price has gone up to $486 since I wrote the original entry and purchased my bank.

I also met Kurt Kelley, the guy who invented and perfected carbon foam battery plate technology starting in the Caterpillar’s R&D department over fifteen years ago. To my great surprise he is now Firefly’s Chief Technical Advisor, not Officer, and that change included moving to a nearby town in Maine! After a fascinating car ride with Kelley (and Calder), there’s no doubt that Kurt’s background in paleobotany played a part in developing the microcell plates that seem to revolutionize the way lead acid battery chemistry can function. But that’s a story I hope to tell after getting some solid experience with Gizmo’s Firefly bank and hopefully discussing it further with Kurt out on Penobscot Bay.

Spill containment, a recommendation

Now let’s get to the nitty gritty of installing the four new Group 31 size batteries that would not quite fit into the boxes occupied by the old 8Ds. After helping two strong and limber young men get those 158 pound monsters forever out of Gizmo’s engine room — future owners, you can thank me now — I was pleasantly surprised to find that Covey Island Boatworks had built a strong liquid-tight grid to hold the old battery boxes level and that the Fireflys neatly fit inside. I wasn’t convinced that I had to provide battery spill containment because it’s an ABYC recommendation, not a regulation; these AGMs contain a gel, not a liquid; and even spilled acid would not eat fuel, hydraulic or critical power cables unless this boat was also upside down for a while (unlikely). But, by golly, Gizmo got pretty good Firefly spill containment anyway.

I’ll add that while I certainly pay attention to ABYC recommendations, I also feel free to ignore them if they don’t seem to make sense for my particular application, unless an insurance company or another authority tells me otherwise. This is a subject that deserves more discussion, but for now I’ll just add that I made epoxy-coated plywood pieces to level out the bottoms of two containment wells and also fashioned an elevated platform for that center section to hold a cable distribution block you’ll see at the end.

Battery restraint, a regulation

Battery restraint is a safety issue that’s actually covered by the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), and the USCG has done a nice job of explaining the regulations that pertain to marine systems like batteries with their Boatbuilder’s Handbook. So Gizmo’s new battery containment includes bottom cleats as needed to keep the Fireflys from moving fore and aft (and also to give them a little breathing room), plus there will be a top that is held down using the same four stainless studs and cross pieces that held down the old battery box tops. The end result won’t quite be a box or boxes, but I don’t think that’s needed or required.

On the other hand, protection against accidentally grounding high current battery terminals is required and darn smart. Click the thumbnail image above to see the full Handbook page explaining the regulation and suggesting ways to comply. The Firefly bank will have non-conductive boots over all positive terminals and the top will cover the entire bank with a non-conductive surface. And I’ve been wearing safety glasses during the several hours I’ve spent messing around in close proximity to the batteries.

Balanced cabling, smart

I might well have muffed the battery cabling if it weren’t for the sage advice of Alden Cole, who led me to the excellent SmartGauge analysis shown in part above. The two 8Ds that I’m replacing were cabled with both positive and negative load cables going to one battery and short jumpers to the second. It looked sensible and neat. But that’s called Method 1 above and Chris Gibson (inventor of the amazing SmartGauge) makes a good case that it’s a terrible way to install batteries, because unbalanced cable resistance means that the batteries will get used in an unbalanced way. The solution is positive and negative cable runs that add up to the same length (resistance) per battery, and it’s not hard to achieve.

With further Cole counsel, I decided on Method 3, in which there will be positive and negative Blue Sea 600A PowerBars with same length cables going to each of the four batteries, and was glad I hadn’t ever gotten around to putting the one I got to remove along with the generator on Panbo Classifieds. And when I purchased the new PowerBar at Hamilton’s I also got a neat Blue Sea Terminal Mount Fuse Kit for the various small loads that must go direct to the battery bank. Incidentally, I was pleased to see a selection of Marinico BEP Pro Installer power gear competing with Blue Sea Systems at the store, but only a couple of Link Bars might make Gizmo’s final install.

Below is the current temporary state of install. I’ll use smaller gauge cable for the finished battery connections; they’ll be easier to run so that all negative leads are on their proper side of the bar under the top that will actually hold down the batteries. Notice how much lower this bank is than the old boxed one, which really helps working in this area. On the other hand, Alden likes the idea of individual MRBF battery fuses in addition to the required 400A Class T bank fuse now mounted on the bulkhead, but they will raise the top. Your thoughts?

Also left to do are adjusting the bank’s Balmar and Victron charging sources to the Firefly ideal of 14.4v absorption and 13.2v float — the Blue Sky solar panel regulator is fixed but OK, I think, at 14.2v and 13.2v — and working out a monitoring system worthy of this adventure in new technology (that’s a new Victron shunt already in place). However, right now I’m a lucky guy about to check out America’s Cup technology in New York and then fishing tech in south Florida, though I’d be quite happy to climb back into that cramped engine space en route to summer boat life with 12v power to spare.

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Written by Ben Ellison on Jul 4, 2016 for Panbo, The Marine Electronics Hub

I suspect that a lot of now and future Evinrude E-Tec G2 outboard owners are going to appreciate the new E-Link hardware and app system almost as much as the Fourth of July. The easy-to-install NMEA 2000 WiFi gateway will cost about $360 and will neatly put all G2 gauges, calibrations, and fault codes into otherwise free E-Link Android and iOS (Apple) apps. One E-Link gateway will handle multiple outboards and the system doesn’t require or preclude any other monitoring and control options. In fact, you may soon see a full G2 interface on your favorite multifunction display…

The just announced E-Link virtual dashboard app fully duplicates the graphics and functionality of Evinrude’s top-of-the-line Icon Touch 7.0 CTS (the 7-inch color touch screen also seen above). Actually, the app has a few extra features the fixed engine panel doesn’t — as explained below — so G2 outboard owners who already have the Icon Touch 7 (or 4.3) may want E-Link too, aside from, say, using it as a second dashboard in the half tower of a serious fishing center console.

But as seen on the full Evinrude gauge pages, G2 owners can select much less expensive Icon Pro, Icon Basic and even the older I-Command gauges, in which case the E-Link system could be the easiest and most informative engine interface on the boat and the only one capable of advanced G2 calibrations and controls. Except that all of the E-Link and Icon Touch functionality may soon come to that Garmin screen above and/or other brand MFDs because Evinrude is apparently making that possibility quite easy!

Note that almost any modern MFD can show basic Evinrude gauge info because all E-Tec motors over 30 hp output NMEA 2000 — nicely using a standard N2K connector too — but longtime accessories product manager Larry Koschak explained to me that all the proprietary N2K messages that make the E-Link apps and the Icon Touch panels so rich and powerful are available to any marine display manufacturer under an easy no-cost license. Garmin or Simrad or whoever can even design their own custom engine interface; it just has to work right and even the Evinrude testing is free.

I peppered poor Larry with questions while he was doing last minute E-Link installs on many of the boats about to offer demos to some 40 press people (followed by hundreds of dealers), but Evinrude’s generous open architecture philosophy came through loud and clear. They want to sell outboard engines; they don’t mind losing gauge sales to apps or MFDs, and they’re trying to support all the interfaces possible.

Incidentally, the Club Evinrude demos took place on Okauchee Lake where Ole Evinrude himself invented the outboard in 1909 and there’s a new plaque on that bridge commemorating the romantic story.

I can’t yet show a picture of E-Link/Icon Touch style engine monitoring and control on an MFD, but this detail seen at the Club Evinrude Show spoke strongly of the company’s open attitude. Those are the analog SystemCheck gauges that normally go with the E-Tec motors under 40 hp that don’t use NMEA 2000 — sadly, no brand’s smaller outboards do, to my knowledge — but you can, in fact, rig the brand new E-Tec G2 150-200 hp models with these gauges if you want to minimize costs. That’s because Evinrude offers an N2K-to-analog bridge in G2 repower kits (PDF here) and even in a new economy single engine Icon II EST digital shift and throttle controls. Then, of course, you could add E-Link to get access to the G2’s many advanced gauges and controls. Is there any marine engine manufacturer offering such flexibility?

Actually, the latest Mercury VesselView integration with Navico MFDs (as covered on Panbo) is pretty sensational and Mercury also recently announced a VesselView Mobile $275 Bluetooth module and apps sytem (though they don’t seem available yet). It’s all good.

Now let’s take a closer look at the E-Link app, which is available in demo and real forms for Android and purportedly coming soon to iOS. Note how the main screen above efficiently displays a lot of information because it largely dispenses with the round gauge look that was forced by analog data and mechanical pins anyway. I like it, but there is a plainer numerical screen available with double tap in the real E-Link app.

Here’s the Concierge page that an Evinrude G2 owner will not find on Icon Touch panels because it takes advantage of your mobile’s connectivity. You can put your dealer’s email into the User Setup and send them engine data if you have a problem, or just surf over to E-Nation to see how other users are doing.

Larry Koschak told me that G2 engines can generate over a hundred individual fault codes, and here’s hoping that all are explained as well as the one used in the Demo app. Note how the main screen above, and many other screens like the one below, remind you about an active fault.

I joke that a propeller as in “propeller head” is the right icon for this screen, but it does illustrate how deep the monitoring goes (and you can learn more about Control Heads and ADC Inputs in the Icon Touch 7 PDF manual).

Here the E-Link app is in its Settings menu calibrating trim and tilt. This is the sort of NMEA 2000 PGN (message) that a manufacturer needs to keep proprietary so they can be sure that it’s used properly. But proprietary is like open when a company like Evinrude makes it freely available to any display developer as long as it works right.

And trim calibration is especially critical to G2 outboards because a feature that has now come down to even the 150 hp models is the automated trim assist, which I saw working quite well at over 30 mph in a bass boat on an Okauchee Lake bumpy with demo wakes. The G2’s built-in power steering is also unique to this horsepower level and if you think about what’s possible given multiple outboards with digital shift, throttle and steering, you can guess the future control innovation strongly hinted at during the huge “global reveal” presentation Evinrude delivered to its global dealer network.

I will write more about what I saw in Wisconsin, including digital control advances in BRP Rotax powered jet boats, but E-Link and other indications of an open gauge/control philosophy obviously impressed me. This is how boaters get lots of choices. I’ll close with the automated winterization feature that means a lot to me because even the E-Tec 30 hp I may purchase has it. I won’t be able to use my phone, but apparently I’ll be able to flush and fog the resurrected and renamed Li’l Gizmo (formerly the Gizmo) easily, which means flexible trailer boating in northern climates. Then again, it’s July 4th and I’m sort of still commissioning the big Gizmo.

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