If you delve into the many fields of electronics we encounter in every day life, you will find it mind boggling to say the least. Mobile phones, wireless broadband for laptops, blog sites, youtube.com and the list goes on. It is not only hard to ingest all that new information on current technology, but extremely difficult to keep up with new products that are hitting the shelves at your marine dealer at a rapid rate of knots.

State-of-the-art instrumentation with capabilities to interface engine management to instruments, as well as your GPS or depth sounder screens is becoming the norm.

To get a better understanding of this, we need to go back to the basics of how some of this transfer of information is made possible.

NMEA is an abbreviation for National Marine Electronics Association and this group has been working on an electronics data protocol referred to as NMEA 2000.

Many marine electronics and outboards are NMEA 2000 compatible; which means they transfer information from the generated source (outboard) to the receiver (screen or gauge). There is a distinct difference between NMEA 2000 compatible and NMEA 2000 compliant. The latter is where the entire electronic processing protocol gives complete diagnostics but it’s extremely expensive, and NMEA are still grappling with the technicalities and enormity of the entire concept. The earlier mentioned ‘compatible’ will give some information but not specific trouble shooting information.

SMARTCRAFT

Navman, prior to their buy out by Navico, purchased the rights to a compatible system for use with some Mercury engines, both in and outboard. It was a system which we now see as SmartCraft gauges on boats that converts information using a Navbus (Navman protocol) system via a gateway to Navman instruments that allows specific and dedicated information to be shown on screen. On this system, information such as engine temperature, water pressure and the like will not only get displayed but, if there is a fault, the screen will change over to the monitor for the affected function and advise so, along with alarms and a diagnosis of the problem or fault.

NMEA 2000 is not quite there yet, but does give overviews of functionality, albeit without diagnostic trouble shooting.
Yamaha, Evinrude E-TEC, and Suzuki engines can display this function through instruments that are NMEA 2000 capable.
The reason I get to this point is that I am connecting this system to watch fuel management from an E-TEC outboard, with information fed to a Lowrance LCX37c combination chart plotter/depth sounder. To say the inside and topside of my console looks like the waste bin at a San Remo spaghetti factory is an understatement! Wires going in all directions with plug-and-play bits and pieces, T-connectors, extension cords and a variety of plugs in more colours than the rainbow! So what’s the big deal? Well, looming marine park closures near me (and you will get your fair share, possibly not long after the next election if Labor gets in) will mean long hauling to greener pastures. If I can run at increased speed with the same fuel consumption, it becomes a time and motion issue. Less time for the same fuel consumption means less drain on the wallet. That’s what I am hoping for anyway.

This system not only covers fuel consumption, but monitors fuel levels in tanks, speed, water and engine temperature, engine trim and hours run, plus tachometer on the same screen - simply by plugging in an EPS (electronic probe) into the bank of connectors. My GPS antenna is in the same line.

Adding to that, a NMEA 2000 device(s) can be used for on-screen interfacing of wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, depth, speed, and water temperature.
It doesn’t stop there. In the Lowrance website, I saw a press release for a sonar optimiser called Broadband Sounder-1. We won’t see this till 2008, but is said to digitally purify the marking and separation of fish, structure, thermoclines and bottom, while eliminating surface and turbulent water clutter.

The manufacturer Navico claims a boost in the analogue power output from a nominal 250W peak-to-peak (31W RMS) to 30,000W peak-to-peak (3750W RMS). The maximum power the transducer will experience will be 250W, much less than many low powered entry level units on the market today, but give brilliant resolution and the return power equivalent to 3kW.

By Rick Huckstepp, as featured in Trailerboat issue 224.