$495; www.maretron.com
It was good to hear [fellow blogger] Kees Verruijt’s comment about how sharp the Maretron DSM150 screen looks because it packs the same 320 x 240 pixels onto its 3.5-inch screen as Maretron’s DSM250 does on its 5.7-inch screen. But what seems really significant is that the 150 is half the price of the 250 while using about 25 percent of the power and taking up much less helm or panel space. So the 150 is similar in size, power needs, and price to the Raymarine i70 or B&G’s Triton all-in-ones (or the Simrad i40 Color or Garmin’s venerable GMI-10), but “all-in-one” is a vague term. All these displays will show conventional N2K data like depth, wind, heading, etc. But Maretron “all-in-one” is nearly another world altogether.
Over the years Maretron has developed an amazing array of NMEA 2000 sensors and other utility hardware, many of which aren’t available elsewhere and all of which can be displayed, alarmed, configured, and managed with a DSM150.
I count myself lucky that an engine-room check revealed a main-engine coolant leak while I was moving down the ICW in late September and thus I was fairly well prepared when the engine’s heat alarm let me know that the leak had gotten drastically worse. But it’s easy to picture a different scenario that might have drastically messed up my cruise plan and my bank account! That’s why I’d like to install a Maretron TMP100 Temperature Monitor that could not only keep a redundant finger on the engine block but also measure exhaust and three other temperatures that might save me heartache from future mechanical failures. Or even make life aboard easier, as in “Has the engine heated the domestic water yet?”
This article originally appeared in the March 2013 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
