Can we do better?
There are many marine electronic manufacturers, they all have their own communications protocol as well as paying lip service to some generic standards such as NMEA 0183 and NMEA 2000
Members of a sailing forum originally posted about creating a replacement mast display to NMEA0183 data on a large scale display with atarget of 50mm digits at a significantly lower cost than mainstream manufacturers
There have already been several previous projects from the YAPP (yet another pet project.. All created by Angus McDoon) stable that show how the products that we need can be created at a much lower cost
The aim of the project is to create the electronics that you can use, at a much lower price point that you are currently used to paying, we have all become somewhat ingrained that a set of instruments costs us thousands when the word marine is attached…look what an iPad or car satnav can do at a substantially lower cost, the hardware and software are pretty much the same…why does marine mean at least 5 times the price?