New from ISC

[Dr. Lecter]

I don't get the interest in the ISC handset anyway. If it's not a SW, it doesn't belong on my CCR...even if I buy a Meg.

 

[dreamdive]

The SW is hard wired (plugs in) and works as your deco computer but is not acting as your controller. So you have your SW technology.
The ISC controller will have deco software in it. The new one also has a compass, no longer requires lithium batteries (it's rechargable), is super easy to read for those of us who require readers.

I hope that ISC and SW will work out their differences to have the NERD available. I don't see the ISC controller going away.

 

[tbone1004]

if the petrel plugs in for deco computer, they should be able to have the Nerd plugged in as well.

 

[Wookie]

The video says it accepts the NERD, only they call it the SW HUD...

My only question is, if they offer the Meg with CANBUS technology, why would anyone buy a Pathfinder? I am supposed to train in March, and I was really torn between the Meg and the Pathfinder. I'm not so torn anymore.

 

[tbone1004]

same reason people buy the small revo's and inspirations. Travel or shorter/shallower dives. Granted the pathfinder still holds 5lbs, but it's a bit smaller overall profile.

 

[Wookie]

same reason people buy the small revo's and inspirations. Travel or shorter/shallower dives. Granted the pathfinder still holds 5lbs, but it's a bit smaller overall profile.

Yeah. I'm 6'2" 300 lbs. The Pathfinder looks like a toy on me. That's why I was torn. I asked Leon at DEMA when he would have a CANBUS Meg. He was non-committal. I should have asked Shelly.

 

[tbone1004]

the fun part of all of this is now he can no longer claim the 100% Made in USA factor since the Shearwaters are made in Canada....

 

[TSandM]

What does CANBUS stand for?

 

[Wookie]

What does CANBUS stand for?

Controller Area Network Bus. Marine electronics went to this about 15 years ago with the NMEA 2000 protocol. What it means is plug and play, basically. You could plug in 100 oxygen cells into the network and have 100 handsets to read the cells, if the network supported that. As the video showed, you change a cell by unplugging it and plugging in another one. I didn't see room for a 4th cell, but if there was, you could plug in a CO2 sensor (if it were programmed to speak the language) or a 4th O2 cell, not that you'd need one. If someone invented a temp stick or a CO monitor or a Blood O2 sensor or a pulse sensor or any number of the instruments you use in the ER, and the handset was able to read it, you could plug it in and it would be plug and play.

On a boat, the sensors (like the engine sensors, for instance) are made so you can read them on your radar as long as the Radar is NMEA 2000 compliant. A modern vessel would have 2 or 3 main screens in the wheelhouse. One screen might display engine RPM, temp, oil pressure, transmission pressure, transmission temp, exhaust temps, exhaust back pressure, shaft RPM, generator frequency, all of the generator engine readings, all of the generator electrical readings, fuel tank levels water tank levels, wind speed, relative and true wind direction, etc. ad infinitum. Someone will make all of these sensors, and someone else will make the proper display to read them, and it all transmits on one cable.

In the ER, you have a machine (at least on TV) that reads a patients vitals, BP, pulse, blood O2, respirations. If a sensor (BP cuff) goes down, you unplug it, throw it away, get a new one, plug it in, and voila! you're reading BP again. That uses CANBus technology to work.

In contrast, the Spree, being a genteel old lady, uses analog signals in the wheelhouse. That means, I send a 12 volt signal down to the engineroom, it goes to a sensor (for instance, temperature) on the main engine, the temp sensor uses a bridge circuit (three known resistors, and one temperature variable resistor) to change the 12 volt signal into a 4-20 milliamp return which is readable by the guage in the wheelhouse. Now, on the Spree, the engine is 80 wire feet away from the gauge, so anything can affect the signal. If the 12 volt power supply fluctuates, if the wire has a corroding contact (they are in the bilge. I fight corrosion daily and almost hourly), if any part of the wire changes (could be something as simple as pinching a wire) then the signal will be suspect. Worse than that, at low RPMs when the engine isn't working very hard, the signal is down near 20 milliamps, near the limit of readability. I prefer to operate here, as it uses less fuel, so the signal coming to the wheelhouse is not very accurate. I counter this by having video cameras on the local mechanical gauges in the engineroom that I can read in the wheelhouse, and I also have alarms that operate on a completely separate circuit.

The old Apeks handsets on the Meg are analog. They don't have 80 feet of wire, but if a Meg fails, that's why. Usually corrosion in the cable gland where the wire comes out of the head.

I will upgrade Spree to NMEA 2000 probably next winter. It'll be a few (many few, like $25k or so) to install the CANBus circuit and change out all of the sensors on the mains, generators, tank sensors, air conditioners, etc. etc.

 

[Aquavelvet]

CAN stands for Controller Area Network. The CAN bus is designed to allow microcontrollers and devices in a vehicle to communicate with each other.


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