transmission for equipment monitoring and for
switching the device on and off. By having the
primary power delivery system shared among
various components, it’s fairly easy to see how a
designer could save on the number of wires in
the overall system. This not only simplifies the
system by reducing the number of actual wires
needed, it ultimately can be translated into a
huge reduction of weight in copper on board a
boat. Considering that the price of copper has
skyrocketed over the last few years, this whole
concept can ultimately save money just in the
material requirements used to make up a system.Closing Thoughts
Industry standards have yet to be established for
things like circuit protection and environmental
installation concerns for distributed powersystems such as these, although the ABYC is
working on them diligently. And those of us who
work within the industry are still learning about
these emerging systems along with the problems
and issues related to them. With the introduc-
tion of each system, new questions about com-
pliance with U.S. Coast Guard regulations and
existing ABYC standards get raised.
As for which system is better or worse, my
opinion is that it’s too difficult to determine at
this time. All the systems we have covered have
strengths and weaknesses. Systems vary in their
amount of bandwidth, transfer capabilities, effec-
tive operational length, and the number of
devices they can incorporate into their network.
And equipment vendors have yet to agree on how
to standardize the various networking options.
That said, the way we check for the age-
old problems has indeed advanced, and198 marine electronics installation and troubleshooting
A centralized control panel/monitor from Moritz Aerospace (www.moritzaero.com). This electronic touch-
screen panel monitors all the data and power distribution circuits connected to it.