The best monitors for your boat in 2012
February 27, 2012
Keeping Tabs on your ship’s systems has never been so simple.
Keeping Tabs on your ship’s systems has never been so simple.
Know how the components of your helm—and the rest of the boat—communicate.
Think about each component of your boat’s electronics to create a powerful system that’s greater than the sum of its parts.
Engine Interface Add-On: Let’s say you’ve got an elderly boat and you love her….
Simrad lets you tinker with 99 percent of the unit’s functionality without touching knobs or buttons…
Simple fingertip control and user-friendly operating systems combine to make powerful, intuitive electronics a reality.
Rejuvenation SensationDoes Pulse Tech’s desulfator work?We test it on an aging battery to find out.These close-ups of lead-acid battery plates were supplied by Pulse Tech. In image A sulfation buildup appears as yellowish dots. Image B shows a cleaner battery plate after Pulse Tech treatment.Last
Screen Test
New displays look great in both sun and shade. Here’s why.
We all spend hours looking at LCDs at home and at work as well as on our boats. But how many of us know how they work or—more importantly—how to choose a good one? Equipment manufacturers bombard us with snippets of information, but what does it all mean? Is a QVGA better or worse than WXGA? Just
Ever get the offshore heebie-jeebieies? I used to, back when I was running oceangoing tugs. The malady typically started with an imaginary change in engine pitch while we were underway after dark. Then a series of equally imaginary doomsday scenarios would ensue, usually featuring collisions (resulting from burnt-out running lights), oil spills (caused by pump problems), and sinkings (due to
When Lowrance announced its all-new HDS Series in October, there seemed to be several valid rationales for the letters, which stand for “High Definition System.” All the plotter/fishfinder models have high detail but formerly black-box Broadband Sounder digital technology built in. They also have more detailed Lowrance lake and ocean cartography built-in or
YanmarYanmar Smart CheckUnfortunately you’ll need Yanmar electronic engines like the BY, LY3, and SY Series (so far) plus at least one Raymarine E-120 to even consider plunking down $795 for the Smart Check software package that will debut this fall. But once you realize all that it will do,
Ben EllisonFloScan FloNetHats off to FloScan for developing FloNet, one of the most NMEA 2000-friendly products I’ve tested. Rather than trying to grab some of the precious space at your helm with a
Offshore SystemsOffshore Systems Pump Control and Tank DisplayAs discussed in “Know the Flow”, flow-based fuel management renders a tank gauge mainly useful for double-checking consumption and avoiding a tank
Ben EllisonThese gauges are using twin FloScan interfaces and GPS to calculate nm/gal and more.Oil! I won’t belabor the pain felt at fuel docks this season, but I sure am glad to report that electronics and engine manufacturers are working hard so that we can get the most boating from every
Do you like the time on your wrist expressed with traditional hands or in digital form? Or has your cellphone display supplanted wrist watches altogether? In a world of ever-increasing man-machine interfaces (MMI), we get some choices and thus develop our own preferred MMI styles. Yes, even a portable timepiece is a machine, likely the first you ever interfaced with, and if thinking of one as
Keeping Tabs on your ship’s systems has never been so simple.
Know how the components of your helm—and the rest of the boat—communicate.
Think about each component of your boat’s electronics to create a powerful system that’s greater than the sum of its parts.
Engine Interface Add-On: Let’s say you’ve got an elderly boat and you love her….
Simrad lets you tinker with 99 percent of the unit’s functionality without touching knobs or buttons…
Simple fingertip control and user-friendly operating systems combine to make powerful, intuitive electronics a reality.
Rejuvenation SensationDoes Pulse Tech’s desulfator work?We test it on an aging battery to find out.These close-ups of lead-acid battery plates were supplied by Pulse Tech. In image A sulfation buildup appears as yellowish dots. Image B shows a cleaner battery plate after Pulse Tech treatment.Last
Screen Test
New displays look great in both sun and shade. Here’s why.
We all spend hours looking at LCDs at home and at work as well as on our boats. But how many of us know how they work or—more importantly—how to choose a good one? Equipment manufacturers bombard us with snippets of information, but what does it all mean? Is a QVGA better or worse than WXGA? Just
Ever get the offshore heebie-jeebieies? I used to, back when I was running oceangoing tugs. The malady typically started with an imaginary change in engine pitch while we were underway after dark. Then a series of equally imaginary doomsday scenarios would ensue, usually featuring collisions (resulting from burnt-out running lights), oil spills (caused by pump problems), and sinkings (due to
When Lowrance announced its all-new HDS Series in October, there seemed to be several valid rationales for the letters, which stand for “High Definition System.” All the plotter/fishfinder models have high detail but formerly black-box Broadband Sounder digital technology built in. They also have more detailed Lowrance lake and ocean cartography built-in or
YanmarYanmar Smart CheckUnfortunately you’ll need Yanmar electronic engines like the BY, LY3, and SY Series (so far) plus at least one Raymarine E-120 to even consider plunking down $795 for the Smart Check software package that will debut this fall. But once you realize all that it will do,
Ben EllisonFloScan FloNetHats off to FloScan for developing FloNet, one of the most NMEA 2000-friendly products I’ve tested. Rather than trying to grab some of the precious space at your helm with a
Offshore SystemsOffshore Systems Pump Control and Tank DisplayAs discussed in “Know the Flow”, flow-based fuel management renders a tank gauge mainly useful for double-checking consumption and avoiding a tank
Ben EllisonThese gauges are using twin FloScan interfaces and GPS to calculate nm/gal and more.Oil! I won’t belabor the pain felt at fuel docks this season, but I sure am glad to report that electronics and engine manufacturers are working hard so that we can get the most boating from every
Do you like the time on your wrist expressed with traditional hands or in digital form? Or has your cellphone display supplanted wrist watches altogether? In a world of ever-increasing man-machine interfaces (MMI), we get some choices and thus develop our own preferred MMI styles. Yes, even a portable timepiece is a machine, likely the first you ever interfaced with, and if thinking of one as
