Article by Capt. Steve Katz
I am honored to have the opportunity to continue this electronics column that was previously written by Pat Schrawder. It takes an experienced industry person to be able to easily and clearly discuss today's modern marine electronics like Pat did for many years. Pat and her family are a mainstay in the Ocean City marine electronics industry. I can remember as a teenager going into the original L&L building and "playing" with all the equipment in the showroom and not getting into trouble!
While those who know me personally, know I can go on-and-on about electronics, maintenance and boating, I plan to highlight diverse electronics topics this season, hopefully covering something for everyone.
To start this season, I will review some maintenance items to perform and check before the fishing season gets too far underway.
Batteries
While this does not seem to be exciting at first glance, today's marine electronics are as voltage sensitive as ever. Single and multiple computer processors enclosed inside large displays require clean and proper voltage at all times. If the supplied voltage drops too low, the unit may go into an alarm mode or may just abruptly shut down. When the voltage is low at the electronic device, it may be low at other critical on-board systems such as bilge pumps and VHF radios, which may not shut down but will not perform as expected or needed.
A fully charged, 12 volt lead-acid marine battery, under no load and resting, will produce 12.65 volts. A voltage lower than 12.65 indicates the battery is not fully charged. For example, a reading of 12.24 volts indicates the battery is 50% charged. If the battery is not producing the proper voltage after re-charging, or has frozen over the winter, it needs to be replaced. While fully charged batteries will freeze at -92F, a 40% charged battery will freeze at just +16F. If you have batteries combined in a battery bank, the entire bank should be replaced at the same time, not just one battery within the bank.
Most medium-size and larger boats have an on-board charging system including shore power, engine alternators, generators etc. These systems can mask a battery problem by supplying additional voltage and amperage to the ship’s electrical system to make up for an underperforming battery (or battery bank). A quick check of your system can be as easy as turning off all on-board charging sources and monitoring the DC systems for a while, operating loads, making sure the batteries have the necessary capacity to provide the proper voltage to your devices.
If you even think you might need new batteries, get them now and enjoy the rest of the season knowing you started off with new batteries.
While I could go on about battery switches, wiring, charging relays, chargers and more, feel free to contact me if you would like additional information.
New Products
Now, back to marine electronics. While the winter was colder than normal, the marine electronics industry seemed to be as hot as ever with a boatload of new items and the new product announcements haven't stopped yet! The most recent, notable announcement at the end of March was the launch of Lowrance’s Elite-5 and Elite-7 CHIRP fishfinders.
In November, Garmin announced almost 50 new products such as the GPSMAP 800/1000 displays, GMR 18/24 xHD radars and SideVü/DownVü, just to name a few.
Navico (Simrad, Lowrance and B&G) announced new products such as the NSO evo2, NSS evo2, a 24" display and the very interesting ForwardScan. In 2013 Navico launched one new product every 20 days! A well known, once Ocean City captain, Scott Walker was on-hand at this winters Navico press event, demonstrating many of the new Simrad products to the industry audience.
ICOM has their soon to be available M506 VHF in five different variations, including built-in AIS and NMEA2000.
Raymarine announced the ECI-100, a Universal Engine and Control Interface, connecting the engine systems to Raymarine multifunction displays. They also updated their LightHouse II software that runs many of their multifunction devices. Finally, they released the new 7" Dragonfly CHIRP downvision system.
Furuno began shipping their CHIRP sounder module (DFF1-UHD) last fall and is rumored to be working on a WiFi Radome.
KVH will soon be shipping their new TV-Series Satellite TV system, with many new features, including the ability to receive DISH HD programming.
Most of the marine electronics manufacturers have some type of App (application) that can be used on a handheld device (Apple or Android) in conjunction with the traditional marine hardware. This allows for even more flexibility to meet each users needs.
In future columns we will discuss these new products and the technology behind them, along with many other topics relevant to all types of fishing boats. We will discuss how to keep your equipment running at its best and upgrade paths for the equipment you already own. I will also cover how to add on to your existing systems and how to incorporate other technology into your boat to make fishing and boating fun and safe and most of all give you the edge to catch more and bigger fish!
As a Board of Directors member for the NMEA (National Marine Electronics Association) I have opportunity to work with many of the industry leaders. These leaders have forecast 2014 as an exciting year for marine electronics, especially as we move toward more integration between various systems on your boat, like the glass bridge being advertised by the major manufacturers.
If you have a particular interest or idea you would like me to include in this weekly column, please drop me a line.
Captain Steve Katz is the owner of Steve's Marine Service and holds NMEA MEI, AMEI, NMEA2000 certificates, ABYC Master Technician certification and factory training from many manufacturers.
