Marine Electronics

After the roller-furling jib, the most valued piece of gear aboard for many sailors is the autopilot. So fond of autopilots are skippers and first mates, many even name their units-Otto the autopilot, Joshua (after infamous sailor Joshua Slocum), Amelia (after historic female pilot Amelia Earhart), and WTF are a few that weve met during our cruises.

Whether youre contending with the violence of an abroholos or the gentle puff of a zephyr, it helps to have an idea of wind intensity. For the last several months, testers have been closely examining the tools sailors use to measure and display wind information. This article wraps up our review of mechanical vane sensors and displays, focusing specifically on choosing the best combination to meet your needs. Future reports will look at ultrasonic wind sensors, which have no moving parts, and a build-it-yourself wind sensor that uses an Arduino open-source electronics platform.

To wire, or not to wire? This is a good question, and there are certainly some pluses and minus to consider. For sailors with wiring-unfriendly masts, the wireless approach is a good one. These include wooden spars, ones with conduits that are already full with other wiring, and masts that are regularly unstepped. The downside of going wireless is that the batteries will need to be changed on occasion, and in some cases, signal interference is possible.

Testers recently took a look at two portable solar-powered chargers for small electronics-one of them is new to the market, the Secur Solar Sun Power Bank 4000, and the other, Davis Instruments SolLight SoliCharger 2000, is an updated version of a product we reviewed a few years ago.

Like an increasing number of senior sailors, I require hearing aids to effectively communicate. However, in the cockpit of a sailboat-with the wind blowing or the engine running-hearing aids are not helpful when trying to carry on a VHF radio conversation. What I need is a VHF marine radio that will accept headphones (preferably noise cancelling). Of the many VHF radios that you have evaluated, have any been wired for headphones?

Planned obsolescence is probably the most irksome way to keep manufacturing costs down and inspire us to buy stuff. Each time a new or updated line of multi-function devices appear, we ask ourselves if the new version represents real value, or are the engineers just adding another tower to their Lego castle, while the marketing folks ponder adding an umlaut or X to the product name.

For a more detailed look at the product, see our initial report in the July 2012 issue online. Heres a quick recap. The e7D is part of Raymarine eSeries HybridTouch line of multifunction displays (available in 7-, 9-, 12.1- or 15.4-inch display sizes) that combines touchscreen interface with a joystick-like unicontrol and features Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. After our first report, Raymarine identified a touchscreen issue with some e7 and e7D plotters (see PS March 2014 online). A campaign to replace problematic devices with refurbished units is ongoing.

WeatherFlow, a leader in the private-sector weather industry, recently introduced its first hardware product for the wind- and weather-addicted community: the WeatherFlow wind meter. Similar to the Vaavud from Ronstan International that we reviewed last year (see PS November 2013 online), the pocket-size WeatherFlow wind meter plugs into the audio port of a smartphone or tablet and records wind speeds using a proprietary app.

Before we plunge headfirst (again) into the world of multiplexers with this test report, heres a quick review of what exactly were talking about. If you have older instruments or a GPS networked to send information to other devices (a multi-function display, laptop, etc.), the information is likely in NMEA 0183 format and is sent in sentences in a set order. For example, the NMEA sentence $GPAAM,A,A,0.10,N,WPTNME*32 is an arrival alarm sentence sent by a GPS to various networked devices upon arrival at a waypoint.

NMEA 2000 (aka NMEA 2K or N2K) is the communication standard replacing NMEA 0183. It is a technical standard (IEC 61162-3) used for connecting marine sensors and display units within a boat. The major differences from NMEA 0183: NMEA 2K operates at 250 kilobits-per-second, about 100 times faster than the 4,800 baud of NMEA 0183.