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| Furuno and Maretron play nice together sharing a N2K data backbone connection. |
The marine industry is slow to change on standard communication protocols! The first NMEA protocol widely accepted was NMEA 0183 (released 1983) and is still widely used today. There has only been one significant change to the protocol and that is NMEA 2000. Even when there is a newer NMEA protocol some day, interfaces from NMEA 0183 to NMEA 2000 versions are readily available and will be for future changes as well.
Data standardization is important especially with limited funding and a lack of desire to do a big bang replacement of your marine electronics every few years. Acquiring a boat with 1993 electronics and no standardized data connectivity required us to do the big bang replacement of everything, which is roughly costing around $10k+ in order to get "standardized" with newer technology. Fast forward years from now, if there is one component sending out data that fails or "needs" to be replaced with newer technology/capabilities, it can easily be swapped out and connected to our N2K data backbone using the existing drop device cable. This makes it easy to replace components in far away locations instead of being locked into one vendor that may or may not be in business years from now!
Redundancy is also an important factor. Having all our navigational data (wind speed/direction, boat speed/direction, depth, current, temps, atmospheric pressure, engine oil pressure, engine temp, and much more!) available to all our N2K components means if one device goes out we can view the data on another device. Many of the devices today have integrated GPS (position data) built in, so we will have 4+ sources of our GPS position to choose from in case one goes out!
Regarding the N2K data backbone itself. It is just a series of cables with one male and one female connector, joined by Tees for device drops. All manufacturers' N2K devices use the same cable connection. Assuming water gets into one of the cables, I can easily swap it out with a pre-made cable and not be searching for a specific vendor's data cable in some far away tropical island.
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| One more tee and one more termination resistor connected and I have a complete simple backbone with two drops. |
Best of breed device selection. There are many reasons I like and trust Furuno's marine devices. In addition to having great research funding, they are time and industry tested by major commercial and fishing vessels. A recent new technology is their significant advancement in the DRS4D-NXT radar (seeing what is around you in the dark or fog). Most standard radar units use 4,000 Watts of power when running. Furuno's new high resolution radar uses a mere 24 Watts! This is important on a sailboat since it does not generate power while sailing. The Furuno DRS4D-NXT radar also has some great new features such as showing targets moving towards you as RED, targets moving away as GREEN and targets not moving as BLUE. Acquiring targets is extremely fast which is a good thing when avoiding the Victoria Clipper in the fog!
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| Julie's job is to wash the underside of the spreaders...she actually likes climbing the mast! |
That said... B&G makes some of the best sailing specific devices. They are the go to company for serious offshore sailboat racers. The offshore ocean racing technology makes it into their recreational line fairly quickly. This means when choosing an autopilot computer that will steer the boat, sailing in heavy winds and seas, B&G is the company to go with.
B&G SailSteer is a great one stop screen to view a lot of sailing data!
Maretron has a great N2K atmospheric sensor, WSO100. In addition to the traditional wind speed and direction, it provides temperature, pressure, humidity, wind chill, and dew point. All this data in a unit that has no moving parts. With a sensor that is typically mounted at the top of the 70' mast, having no moving parts to wear out and break is a good thing!
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| Still need to mount it up on the mast.. I do not like climbing the mast! |
Lastly, ease of installation. With a single N2K backbone going fore and aft in the boat, I can add a new device at any time by cutting the backbone, installing a male and female connector and inserting a Tee connector for the new device drop. The N2K backbone is powered by 12vDC so many of the devices do not even need their own power cables! This is a huge plus in cutting down on the number of cables to buy and run.
There are a few rules such as the backbone can not be longer than 250 meters (820 ft), each device connection drop cable can not exceed 6 meters (20 feet), and the total drop length can not add up to more than 78 meters (256 ft). This is all very doable in recreational size boats. Doing the math would not be too hard, but Maretron's free N2K Builder software makes it very easy!
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| All the green checkmarks on the left means I have a good N2K network design! |
Having standard connection plugs for all devices helps in the ease of installation. Maretron is the leader in N2K installation components as well as their N2K devices. Maretron's user installed cable ends are color coded and can be assembled in about 10 minutes... after doing a couple. So with a few tools and no proprietary manufactures fixed length cables the back bone can be set up whether you know all your devices at the time of installation or not!
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| Once I peel away the foil, the wire colors match the connector colors, making it easy to install. |
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| Some of the basic tools to build the N2K network cables. Small screwdriver needed...not the drill. |
Probably more then you ever wanted to know about marine electronics. Unfortunately being in Everett working on the boat there are not too many opportunities for the scenic posts... but they will be coming soon!
I really appreciate the kind of topics you post here. Thanks for sharing us a great information that is actually helpful. Good day!
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