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
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. Therefore, the majority of these types of devices are either
water resistant or
waterproof.
Marine electronics devices include
chartplotter,
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-ai ...
,
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,
fishfinder 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 navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects on ...
,
marine radar,
GPS,
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, which ...
,
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 commo ...
, and
marine fuel management.
Communication
The electronics devices communicate by using a protocol defined by
National Marine Electronics Association(NMEA), with two standards available,
NMEA 0183 (
serial communication
In telecommunication and data transmission, serial communication is the process of sending data one bit at a time, sequentially, over a communication channel or computer bus. This is in contrast to parallel communication, where several bits are ...
network) and
NMEA 2000 (
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 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 synchro ...
.
*A+T Instruments has ESP Ethernet over Ships Power
*
B&G has FastNet
*
Furuno 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 / S ...
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, Linco ...
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 compasses, 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
Furuno, followed closely by Norway-based
Navico, a holding company for several current and former industry brands (
B&G,
C-MAP
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 ...
,
Lowrance Electronics,
Simrad Yachting), with revenue of $308 million.
Rounding out the top five are
Japan Radio Company 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 headquarte ...
(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 technol ...
(Sam Electronics and Transas) in fifth.
The next four top manufacturers are
Raymarine Marine Electronics (a subsidiary of
FLIR Systems),
Raytheon Anschütz,
Sperry Marine, 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), Murphy (Enovation Controls), Naviop, SI-TEX Marine Electronics, and TwoNav.
References
{{reflist
External links
National Marine Electronics AssociationMarine Electronics JournalMarine ElectronicsMarine Electronics and Hardware
*
Navigational equipment manufacturers