One filler topic that’s been coming up in the magazines in the last couple years is NMEA 2000, the replacement for the old familiar NMEA serial standard for connecting marine electronics. Yes, the old standard has been around since the 80s, and it shows, but instead of working together, most of the marine electronics companies have been intent on creating their own proprietary systems, hoping to lock you into buying a whole boatload of their gear. Raymarine’s Seatalk and HSB networks would be good examples. One company got tired of waiting around for NMEA 2000 to take off, and has produced a line of gear including instruments, sensors, cabling and connectors, and even a diagnostic tool for verifying installations. And the equipment is impressive. I was especially taken with their $900 multi-data display, a large, high resolution LCD instrument capable of showing several panels of numeric and graphic data simultaneously. It can even be set to automatically cycle through a set of data pages. While Maretron is currently short a wind transducer, this one display could replace a whole bank of instruments. The solid-state, rate gyro heading sensor is also interesting, as is the waterproof and robust cabling system. I wish this company well for spear-heading this open standard effort, and producing what look to be some very nice products.
Link: www.maretron.com
