Marine electronics refers to

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

devices designed and classed for use in the marine environment on board ships and yachts where even a small amount of salt water can destroy some

devices. Therefore, the majority of these types of devices are either

water resistant Waterproofing is the process of making an object or structure waterproof or water-resistant so that it remains relatively unaffected by water or resisting the ingress of water under specified conditions. Such items may be used in wet environme ...

waterproof Waterproofing is the process of making an object or structure waterproof or water-resistant so that it remains relatively unaffected by water or resisting the ingress of water under specified conditions. Such items may be used in wet environme ...

. Marine electronics devices include

chartplotter A Chartplotter is a device used in marine navigation that integrates GPS data with an electronic navigational chart (ENC). The chartplotter displays the ENC along with the position, heading and speed of the ship, and may display additional inf ...

marine VHF radio Marine VHF radio is a worldwide system of two way radio transceivers on ships and watercraft used for bidirectional voice communication from ship-to-ship, ship-to-shore (for example with harbormasters), and in certain circumstances ship-to-a ...

autopilot An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator' ...

and

self-steering gear Self-steering gear is equipment used on sail boats to maintain a chosen course or point of sail without constant human action. History Mechanical or "wind vane" self-steering started out as a way to keep model sail boats on course. Before the a ...

fishfinder A fishfinder or sounder (Australia) is an instrument used to locate fish underwater by detecting reflected pulses of sound energy, as in sonar. A modern fishfinder displays measurements of reflected sound on a graphical display, allowing an oper ...

and

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

marine radar Marine radars are X band or S band radars on ships, used to detect other ships and land obstacles, to provide bearing and distance for collision avoidance and navigation at sea. They are electronic navigation instruments that use a rotating ...

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

fibre optic gyrocompass A fibre optic gyrocompass is a compass and instrument of navigation. It is sometimes part of a ship's set of compasses, which also include a conventional gyrocompass and a magnetic compass. The compass comprises a fibre optic gyroscope sensor, whi ...

satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...

, and

marine fuel management Marine fuel management (MFM) is a multi-level approach to measuring, monitoring, and reporting fuel usage on a boat or ship, with the goals of reducing fuel usage, increasing operational efficiency, and improving fleet management. MFM has grown ...

Communication

The electronics devices communicate by using a protocol defined by

National Marine Electronics Association The National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) is a US-based marine electronics trade organization setting standards of communication between marine electronics. Standards NMEA 0183 NMEA 2000 NMEA OneNet NMEA OneNet is a latest standard f ...

(NMEA), with two standards available,

NMEA 0183 NMEA 0183 is a combined electrical and data specification for communication between marine electronics such as echo sounder, sonars, anemometer, gyrocompass, autopilot, GPS receivers and many other types of instruments. It has been defined and is c ...

( serial communication network) and

NMEA 2000 NMEA 2000, abbreviated to NMEA2k or N2K and standardised as IEC 61162-3, is a plug-and-play communications standard used for connecting marine sensors and display units within ships and boats. Communication runs at 250 kilobits-per-second and allows ...

( controller-area network based technology). There is also Lightweight Ethernet (LWE). 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 IEC 61162 is a collection of IEC standards for "Digital interfaces for navigational equipment within a ship". The 61162 standards are developed in Working Group 6 (WG6) of Technical Committee 80 (TC80) of the IEC. Sections of IEC 61162 Standard '' ...

and included NMEA 0183, NMEA 2000 and LWE. Additionally, different suppliers of marine electronics have their own

communications protocol A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics and synchr ...

. *A+T Instruments has ESP Ethernet over Ships Power * B&G has FastNet *

Furuno (commonly known as Furuno) is a Japanese electronics company whose main products are marine electronics, including marine radar systems, fish finders, and navigational instruments. The company also manufactures global positioning systems an ...

has NavNet ("NavNet" refers to a product family, and is not a communications protocol. Furuno uses industry standard NMEA 0183, NMEA 2000, and standard Ethernet for communications protocol in their products) *Mastervolt has CZone *Nexus has FDX *

Raymarine Raymarine is a manufacturer and major supplier of electronic equipment for marine use. The company targets both recreational and light commercial markets with their products, which include: * GPS Chartplotters * VHF Radios *Digital Fishfinders ...

has Seatalk / SeatalkNG * Simrad has SimNet *

Stowe Stowe may refer to: Places United Kingdom *Stowe, Buckinghamshire, a civil parish and former village **Stowe House **Stowe School * Stowe, Cornwall, in Kilkhampton parish * Stowe, Herefordshire, in the List of places in Herefordshire * Stowe, Linc ...

has Dataline

Navigation

Another important part of marine electronics is the navigation equipment. Here compasses, which includes both

gyrocompass A gyrocompass is a type of non-magnetic compass which is based on a fast-spinning disc and the rotation of the Earth (or another planetary body if used elsewhere in the universe) to find geographical direction automatically. The use of a gyroc ...

es and

magnetic compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...

es, make up for equipment that is used by the entire shipping industry.

Industry

Some manufacturers specialize more in equipment for commercial vessels such as tankers and general cargo vessels. This industry is relatively small with worldwide sales of $3.2 billion in 2015. The top manufacturer was Japan-based

, followed closely by Norway-based

Navico Navico is a marine electronics company providing navigation, marine instruments and fish finding equipment to both the recreational and commercial marine sectors. The Navico Recreational Marine Division is one of the world's largest provider of ...

, a holding company for several current and former industry brands ( B&G, C-MAP,

Lowrance Electronics Lowrance is a manufacturer of consumer sonar and GPS receivers, as well as digital mapping systems. Headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with production facilities in Ensenada, Mexico, Lowrance employs approximately 1,000 people. The company is bes ...

Simrad Yachting Simrad Yachting is a manufacturer of marine electronics for the leisure and professional markets. A member of the Navico family of brands, Simrad Yachting develops, manufactures and distributes navigation systems, autopilots, marine VHF radios, c ...

), with revenue of $308 million. Rounding out the top five are

Japan Radio Company is a Japanese company specialising in the field of wireless electronics for the communications industry. History Established in 1915, the company has produced a wide variety of products including marine electronics, measuring equipment for te ...

in third,

Garmin Garmin Ltd. (shortened to Garmin, stylized as GARMIN, and formerly known as ProNav) is an American, Swiss-domiciled multinational technology company founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao in Lenexa, Kansas, United States, with headquart ...

(popular with recreational users) in fourth, and

Wärtsilä Wärtsilä Oyj Abp (), trading internationally as Wärtsilä Corporation, is a Finnish company which manufactures and services power sources and other equipment in the marine and energy markets. The core products of Wärtsilä include technolo ...

(Sam Electronics and Transas) in fifth. The next four top manufacturers are

Raymarine Marine Electronics Raymarine is a manufacturer and major supplier of electronic equipment for marine use. The company targets both recreational and light commercial markets with their products, which include: *GPS Chartplotters * VHF Radios *Digital Fishfinders / S ...

(a subsidiary of

FLIR Systems Teledyne FLIR LLC (an acronym for "forward-looking infrared"), a subsidiary of Teledyne Technologies, specializes in the design and production of thermal imaging cameras and sensors. Its main customers are governments and in 2020, approximately ...

Raytheon Anschütz Raytheon Anschütz is a company that produces marine navigation systems and related instruments. It formed as Anschütz & Company in 1905 in Kiel, Germany, in order to produce the first gyrocompass for large ships, which entered service in 1907. Th ...

Sperry Marine Sperry may refer to: Places In the United States: *Sperry, Iowa, community in Des Moines County *Sperry, Missouri * Sperry, Oklahoma, town in Tulsa County *Sperry Chalet, historic backcountry chalet, Glacier National Park, Montana *Sperry Glacier, ...

, and Tokyo Keiki. , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140215150802/http://www.kh-gps.de/nmea.faq Other companies outside of the industry's top ten that have a significant presence chartplotters include Samyung ENC, Hummingbird (

Johnson Outdoors Johnson Outdoors Inc. () produces outdoor recreational products such as watercraft, diving equipment, camping gear, and outdoor clothing. It has operations in 24 locations worldwide, employs 1,400 people and reports sales of more than $315 millio ...

), Murphy (Enovation Controls), Naviop, SI-TEX Marine Electronics, and TwoNav.

References

{{reflist

External links

National Marine Electronics Association

Marine Electronics Journal

Marine Electronics

Marine Electronics and Hardware
* Navigational equipment manufacturers