Marine electronics

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Marine electronics refers to electronics devices designed and classed for use in the marine environment where even small drops of salt water will destroy electronics devices. Therefore the majority of these types of devices are either water resistant or waterproof.

The term marine electronics is used for areas such as

• Ship
• Yacht

Marine electronics devices are

• Chartplotter
• Marine VHF radio
• Autopilot/Self-steering gear
• Fishfinder/Sonar
• Radar
• GPS
• Electronic compass
• Satellite television
• Marine fuel management

Communication

The electronics devices communicate by using a protocol defined by NMEA. NMEA has two standards available

• NMEA 0183
• NMEA 2000
• Lightweight Ethernet (LWE)

NMEA 0183 is based on a serial communication network. NMEA 2000 is a Controller-area network based technology.

In recent years, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) has created a new standards suite for "Digital interfaces for navigational equipment within a ship". This is known as IEC 61162 and included NMEA 0183, NMEA 2000 and LWE.

Also different suppliers of marine electronics have their own communications protocol

• Simrad has SimNet
• B&G has FastNet
• Raymarine has SeaTalk
• Furuno has NavNet
• Stowe has Dataline
• Nexus has FDX
• Sea~Data has SDML (XML markup language)

Companies

The international companies selling marine electronics for ships and yachts alphabetically are

• Airmar
• Furuno
• Maretron
• Raymarine Marine Electronics
• Simrad in Kongsberg Maritime
• Simrad Yachting in Navico
• Stowe Marine
• Tinley Electronics

Companies developing marine electronics products are

• Egersund Marine Electronics
• Kongsberg Maritime
• Navico

References

• National Marine Electronics Association
• Marine Electronics Journal