Airmar Smartboard, anyone using them yet?

[wkearney99]

Anyone made use of the Airmar SmartBoat interfaces?

https://www.airmar.com/uploads/brochures/SmartBoat.pdf

They've got one listed (ASM-CES-T2) that'll do up to 4 voltage sources, and that'd be convenient for some battery monitoring I have in mind. The added interfaces for current loop and such would also be handy for monitoring a few other things.

But I've not seen anything online about anyone's experience with them.

 

[Helmsman]

Have been studying this a little, too. Will be interesting to hear feedback on it.

 

[jwag956]

As am I - things I like - integrated wireless and uses N2K for power - that would make it a really easy install. In my case, I have a very very small N2K bus with just a couple sensors (AIS and depth for now).

 

[mliemon2]

I was trying to figure out if I could use it with our Grand Banks Computank system to display tank levels on N2k….. You have that system as well, don’t you wkearney? Is that something you were looking at as well?

 

[wkearney99]

I was trying to figure out if I could use it with our Grand Banks Computank system to display tank levels on N2k….. You have that system as well, don’t you wkearney? Is that something you were looking at as well?

I do have one. It's been surprisingly reliable, monitoring my water and two fuel tanks.

The Computank can't be integrated with N2K, apparently they won't share any info about how it works. I'm sure someone could figure it out, but I'd imagine the time is better spent installing something ready-to-go like a Maretron setup. if/when mine craps out that'll be the route I take.

 

[wkearney99]

A conversation has been going over on this thread about NMEA-2000, and recent posts about batteries are along the lines of what I'm interested in using one of these Airmar units to handle.

There's an online demo gateway that allows experimenting with device configurations, like instances. https://smartflex.online/pgnsetup

I'd be interesting to know how the data these claim to be able to collect can be seen by other brands of displays, like Maretron.

It looks like I've got some either/or choices for voltage OR current loop monitoring with the Smartboat ASM-CES-T1 or ASM-CES-T2. I've not yet seen any info on which specific monitoring sensors are known to work with these.

It's also interesting to note that the feature table for these doesn't make it immediately obvious, but the first set of 'programmable' inputs are SHARED across the types.

As in, there's only 8 "Programmable Sensor Inputs" on a ASM-CES-T1 and those can be a mix of Thermistor, Current Loop, Resistive Senders or Binary Switch inputs. Not 8 of each.

Likewise, the ASM-CES-T2 supports only 4 programmable inputs which can be Thermistor, Resistive Senders, Binary Switch, or DC Voltage (no current loop).

The setup docs are pretty informative: https://www.airmar.com/uploads/installguide/D-20189.pdf

 

[twistedtree]

It looks like a pretty good device, and seems unlikely coming from Airmar who don't seem to have a lot of software development in house. I wonder if they are reselling someone else's product, but I can't say I recognize it.


In terms of instance handling, it looks like you can set the PGN data instance for each sensor port, so I think that will work with Maretron's display products.


I see the product is quite expensive - order $1100. That's probably a lower startup cost vs Maretron, but probably more to expand or build a larger system.


The $64,000 question will be how the product actually performs versus the brochure-ware, and what hidden issues exist. All products seem to have them.


Please keep me posted if you try one.

 

[wkearney99]

Agreed, and given the stagnant state of the airmar weather software I'm also curious about "where" this was developed.

There's trade-offs Like needing one of these with multiple sensors versus multiple other N2K units and the same amount of sensors. Power drain on the N2K bus for just this one (10 LEN) or possibly more with separate units. And then there's wiring to run for the sensors or run a lot more N2K bus and drop cables out to separate sensors. I'm thinking the sensor wiring is likely less expensive to run than more N2K bus/drop cables. Some of the units also include an ethernet port, a serial port with both N2K and 0183.

So you're potentially cutting down on quite a few separate N2K devices and their requirements.

Still, the "proof is in the pudding" as they say, and many of us have learned to be mighty skeptical of what literature claims versus was reality delivers.

 

[stevemitchell]

I have one and am mildly impressed so far. I have a ton of Maretron on board as well, and of course a lot of experience with that brand as well as many others as I've searched for the perfect thing (that doesn't exist) for years.

I'm still shocked it came from Airmar..... So far it is just as you see with the demo web interface and appears to be pretty reliable. I've had it bork up a couple of times when defining alerts, which is one of the primary reasons I bought it. I'm very interested in having a device that looks at PGN values and sends out a NMEA 2000 alarm, instead of their own proprietary alarms.

I've not had it on board for very long, so ask away if you have specific questions.

 

[wkearney99]

Which model# did you get, and what sensors are you using with it?

I'm interested in monitoring some batteries "better". Ones that are on the other side of a battery isolator, charged from a mastervolt charger.

 

[stevemitchell]

Which model# did you get, and what sensors are you using with it?

I'm interested in monitoring some batteries "better". Ones that are on the other side of a battery isolator, charged from a mastervolt charger.

I ended up getting the ASM-CES-T2. So far I have one battery connected, a couple of tanks, and a bilge high/low water sensor.

 

[wkearney99]

How are you monitoring the bilge high/low, which input?

I'm assuming you're doing tank monitoring with resistive inputs?

Any plan for the four relay output controls? i

t's kind of a shame those aren't 'shared' for any of the other purposes. I don't have anything on board that's wired up in a way that would benefit from these. I mean, I suppose it'd be handy to be able to control some things like some lights. Specifically navigation, spreader and flybridge lights. Those are only controllable now from either the breaker panels (nav, spreader) or a wall switch down below. I have a number of other circuits that I tend to keep turned off until needed that are also on breakers (trim tabs, vhf, stereo) that always get forgotten when I've already gone up to the flybridge.

 

[stevemitchell]

Sorry for not responding sooner - I was dealing with an issue with the unit.

At this point, I don't know if I would recommend the product. I now have two of them, both unusable. First one worked for a while, and then it stopped sending data on NMEA 2000. Second one arrived and doesn't send any data on NMEA 2000 either. Everything else about the unit works fine. The UI is snappy, the configuration works well, and it sees things on the NMEA 2000 network just fine - it just won't ever send data out, and doesn't show up to any other devices on the network.

Airmar support has been somewhat responsive, and then dark for days. They don't seem to have any idea why it's not working so far.

How are you monitoring the bilge high/low, which input?

I'm assuming you're doing tank monitoring with resistive inputs?

Any plan for the four relay output controls?

I disconnected the bilge high/low after some false positives and am investigating how I want to do that with this product.

The tank senders are resistive WEMA units that are in my water tanks. They work just fine.

The relay controls I anticipated using for navigation lights, anchor lights, and maybe some outdoor lighting. Not 100% sure yet.

What I was really excited with is the web UI and specifically the alarm engine. Being able to program alarms for PGNs and other things that aren't even being generated by the unit, but you could dump the alarms back on the network, was going to be fun.

Hopefully Airmar will be able to figure out what is wrong soon.

 

[mcarthur]

Thanks Steve for being such an enthusiastic and communicative guinea pig!

 

[wkearney99]

Any follow up on this? Have they released any updates that have addressed the issues?

 

[stevemitchell]

Any follow up on this? Have they released any updates that have addressed the issues?

Ah sorry, I meant to post an update.

Initially I had some difficulty reaching Airmar for support (no surprise there) and eventually got some answers to my questions and issues.

It was working for a while without issues, but it did cause some weird behavior on my NMEA 2000 network that I wasn't able to trace down. I'm actually about to pull it out of the box again and move my tank senders over to it off of some Yacht Devices stuff I have been testing, and will let you know how that goes.

Ultimately, I had hoped to be able to use their logic within the product to drive various NMEA 2000 alerts, but wasn't able to get that working the way I had hoped. I also have a couple of finicky senders that I wanted to send its way to see how it handled things.

 

[wkearney99]

Ah sorry, I meant to post an update.

I'm actually about to pull it out of the box again and move my tank senders over to it off of some Yacht Devices stuff I have been testing, and will let you know how that goes.

Thanks for being the guinea pig on this. Moving off the YD stuff?

 

[stevemitchell]

Thanks for being the guinea pig on this. Moving off the YD stuff?

Not entirely. I like testing new things / different things. Nothing is ever in-place for years on my boat - I like varying things so I can see how they do when combined with other things.

I've found some of the worst bugs and interaction issues by mixing brands of things, to the point of crippling NMEA 2000 networks. The smaller ones, like Yacht Devices, tend to be the culprit, but in some cases it's been the big manufacturers as well.

I also get "distracted" by newer versions of the same things with some new functionality. I always like trying those out to see what the benefit is.