Vessel Monitoring Systems

[Junctionboy]

Does anyone use one of these?
If so, does it lengthen the interval between your trips to the engine room?
What all do you have it set up to monitor and what do you use for the display? What brand or brands do you trust most?
Did you install it yourself?
Do you trust it?
How long did it take you to trust it?

 

[twistedtree]

Does anyone use one of these?

If so, does it lengthen the interval between your trips to the engine room?

What all do you have it set up to monitor and what do you use for the display? What brand or brands do you trust most?

Did you install it yourself?

Do you trust it?

How long did it take you to trust it?

I’ve been using Maretron for a good 10 years now. They probably have the most comprehensive capabilities, but the startup cost can be pretty high. Once you are up and running, adding stuff is easy and relatively inexpensive.

I don’t see it so much as a substitute for in-person inspections, but more as augmenting with a continuous inspection. Lots of issues I’d like to detect sooner than an inspection could reveal. And alarming can quickly draw your attention to something in its early stages of skipping the rails.

It’s also a convenient way to group and organize info about your boat that is used just in normal operation. For example, I have set up different screens for when underway, at a dock, and at anchor. Underway, engine data is on the display where it’s absent from other screens. At Anchor, the anchor watch graphic is prominent, as is the weather. At dock, shore power status figures in.

 

[Junctionboy]

Wife

I dont or wont mind the ER trips— but wife is worried about them when its her watch. so, in preparation for her “turn” I am, thinking this would be a great solution— along with an I-pad at the bed or wherever I am sleeping at the time. This will prob morph into her doing the Engine room checks herself on her watch — but I am trying to get her comfortable with the idea and this is a good solution.
When you say expensive — is that like 25k expensive or 5-10k expensive?

 

[twistedtree]

I dont or wont mind the ER trips— but wife is worried about them when its her watch. so, in preparation for her “turn” I am, thinking this would be a great solution— along with an I-pad at the bed or wherever I am sleeping at the time. This will prob morph into her doing the Engine room checks herself on her watch — but I am trying to get her comfortable with the idea and this is a good solution.
When you say expensive — is that like 25k expensive or 5-10k expensive?

You can probably get started for around $2k, and cover a lot of ground for $5k to $10K. This assumes you are installing and configuring things yourself. Where the $$ can fly out the door very fast is if you hire someone to do all the config and setup. It can be a lot of hours.