Dock Wise Marinco’s new GalvanAlert ($150) only communicates via four multi-color LEDs, but they’re right where you want them, in view as you plug a 30-amp cable into a shore outlet. Its internal sensors will purportedly tell you instantly if power is present, if its polarity is correct, and-most important-if stray current threatens serious galvanic corrosion. Marinco, (707) 226-9600; www.marinco.com
July 2009 Electronics
Call and Response One of the predominant megayacht glassbridge monitoring systems, SiMON (price on request) can now be extended to the iPhone or iPod Touch of the owner or captain, either locally-via the vessel’s own WiFi system-or to any place there’s a cell connection. The mySiMon application can display most any type of boat system data graphically, offers both visual and audible alarms, and can even operate lights, pumps, and more by remote control. Palladium Technologies, (954) 653-0630; www.palladiumtechs.com
July 2009 Electronics
Sea-ing Things The monochrome LCD on Blue Sea’s new VSM 422 ($500) may look old school, but this 4.5-inch-wide box can monitor shorepower, two batteries, two tanks, and a bilge pump (or a third tank or battery) simultaneously. The results appear on three customizable screen pages, and can trigger audio alarms based on sophisticated parameters such as bilge-pump cycles per day. Model 422 is the first of a Blue Sea VSM family that will eventually include a NMEA 2000 interface to extend the system monitoring around the boat and beyond. Blue Sea Systems, (800) 222-7617; www.bluesea.com
July 2009 Electronics
RIM Shot Maretron’s Run Indicator Module is a plain black box with decidedly sporty possibilities. The RIM100 ($299) can monitor the current flow in up to six DC or AC circuits, and report the results as standard NMEA 2000 network messages. So far there are few N2K devices programmed to use that information for, say, displaying the status of your nav lights (or counting bilge-pump cycles), but one is Maretron’s own rapidly evolving N2KView on-and-off-boat monitoring system. Maretron, (800) 982-9920; www.maretron.com
