The Nexus unit
The computer aboard. It joins your NMEA 2000 network, reads every instrument, keeps the charts and runs the boat's own Wi-Fi, so every phone and tablet aboard becomes a screen.
- Reads
- NMEA 2000 from any brand, Bluetooth battery monitors and sensors, and Garmin, Raymarine and Navico radar (in testing)
- Keeps
- NOAA and Army Corps charts, two years of readings, the ship's log
- Sends
- NMEA 0183 over the boat's Wi-Fi, AIS targets included, for chart apps that read it
- Updates
- Signed, over the air, tried on our own boats first
- Built on
- A Raspberry Pi, with a marine carrier board in design
Engine node
Every engine-monitoring product starts by selling you a $300 to $500 gateway. The engine node taps your engine's own wiring harness instead and reports by Bluetooth: RPM, coolant temperature, battery voltage and engine hours.
- Reads
- The engine's own CAN bus (SAE J1939). Volvo Penta's MDI panel speaks it, and so do many electronically controlled diesels.
- Safe by design
- Listen-only: its CAN controller runs in a mode that never transmits or acknowledges on your engine's wiring.
- Reports
- Bluetooth to Nexus. NMEA 2000 out to your plotter is planned, after it has lived on real engines.
- Fits
- The first fit is a Y-cable between a Volvo Penta engine harness and its MDI tachometer. Powered by the engine, no batteries.
- Costs
- About $20 of electronics and $30 of connectors
Bilge monitor
A float switch tells you when the water is already high. The pump tells you sooner: run more often, run longer. The bilge monitor counts every run and warns you when the pump works harder than your boat's normal.
- Warns
- When the pump runs more than usual against your boat's own 30-day pattern, and loudly when it runs a day's worth in two hours
- Safe by design
- Nothing electronic in the pump's current path. If the monitor fails, the pump never notices.
- Powered
- By the boat, with enough in reserve to say it lost power
Works with what you have
No adapter tax. No lock-in.
NMEA 2000
Instruments, engines, tanks and batteries from any brand, on a standard T-connector.
Bluetooth sensors
Battery monitors, temperature and humidity sensors over Bluetooth, with more added to the device library over time.
Radar
Garmin xHD and Fantom, Raymarine Quantum and Navico HALO, decoded from recordings so far; first live radar next.
Any USB audio speaker
Plug one into the unit and the alarms sound aboard. It must carry sound over USB, not just take power from it.
Your autopilot
Routes go to the pilot over NMEA 2000, and you engage it. First trial on a Raymarine Evolution this autumn.
Your other apps
NMEA 0183 over the boat's Wi-Fi, AIS targets included, for chart apps that read it.