Monitoring - What's your setup?

[Arthurc]

Ive been working to overhaul my monitoring in N2KView and curious what others are using and what you are looking at. I created 3 pages:
-"Systems" for when the boat is moored or on the hook, I remotely check on this regularly when not aboard.
-"Engine" for when I am getting things started up and looking at point in time info underway.
-"Engine Trends" which is the key engine metrics but a view over time, I use this the most when underway but its not much to show with the engines off so no picture attached.

Would love to see what other folks are using and if you have any glaring things I'm missing...

Ignore the few wonky things (thermocouple failed in the freezer, shore power is plugged in but I didn't have time to hook up the bow input signal, etc)

Cheers
AC

 

[twistedtree]

I have pages set up based on the boat's operating mode, with each page showing what I care about in that mode.


So "Underway" I have engines, hydraulics, and generator status, fuel including burn rates, weather, heading, water tanks. I think that's the primary stuff.


At "Anchor", I have the anchor watch, weather, generator, tankage (fuel and water), battery levels.


When "Moored" I have weather, tankage, generators though seldom used, shore power status.


With each of these pretty much everything that I want at my finger tips is on one screen so there is no hunting around, no changing pages, and no rotating pages.


I also have an "Instruments" page which is mostly for diagnostics. It shows the data from all my instruments, which redundant instruments side by side. This gives me a quick check to confirm that everything is working, and a quick comparison between redundant instruments. So I can see at a glance that both GPSes are working and agree, and the same for heading sensors, depth sensors, weather, etc.


Then I have a bunch of random pages that I created to focus in on one system or another, mostly when I was setting things up initially. I seldom use them, but also don't get rid of them.

 

[Arthurc]

I really like the idea of an instruments page, I think ill add that. What are you looking at for hydraulics? I pulled most of mine out when I went to proportional thrusters but still have the stabilizers, right now I only have temp on them.

Arthur

 

[Arthurc]

BTW have you seen any issues with the DCM100 and State of Charge. Even when I reset the battery level to 100% manually with N2kAnalyzer it still transmits 92 in the PGN...

 

[twistedtree]

I really like the idea of an instruments page, I think ill add that. What are you looking at for hydraulics? I pulled most of mine out when I went to proportional thrusters but still have the stabilizers, right now I only have temp on them.

Arthur

I monitor pressure, tank level, and tank temp. ABT does too, but I want to know of deviations earlier than their alarms provide.

 

[twistedtree]

BTW have you seen any issues with the DCM100 and State of Charge. Even when I reset the battery level to 100% manually with N2kAnalyzer it still transmits 92 in the PGN...

I have never used a DCM100. I used a bunch of ACM100s on my last boat but dumped them in favor of a Modbus based equivalent. Those have been excellent, and about 1/3 the cost. I'm actually not a big fan of SOC meters because they always seem to be inaccurate. Contrary to popular lore, I actually find voltage to be a very good indicator of battery charge level, at least to any level of precision that I care about. All I really care about is whether it's done charging, or if it is in need of recharging. Everything in between can be obsessed over endlessly, but it really of no consequence. Does it really matter unless it's time to start the generator? And once you have automated that, who cares at all?

 

[Arthurc]

Super fair point, I guess I’ve liked it for the perceived burn down/capacity, especially in load situations (current battery issues aside).
Voltage goes sideways quick when someone turns on the kettle and microwaves something making alarms hard to implement well, but maybe it’s also just me tracking it over time…. Or a trend graph…

 

[Arthurc]

I monitor pressure, tank level, and tank temp. ABT does too, but I want to know of deviations earlier than their alarms provide.

I’ll add pressure to mine

 

[twistedtree]

Super fair point, I guess I’ve liked it for the perceived burn down/capacity, especially in load situations (current battery issues aside).
Voltage goes sideways quick when someone turns on the kettle and microwaves something making alarms hard to implement well, but maybe it’s also just me tracking it over time…. Or a trend graph…

What I have found is that there is a pretty consistent steady state load on the batteries, intermixed with short, larger loads like a microwave or hair dryer, or kettle. Just monitor voltage when the big loads are off, which is most of the time, and you will have a real good indicator. A lot of people talk about needing to let the batteries "rest" for a long period of time (many hours) before the voltage reading is accurate. I have not seen this at all, or at lest not to 90% of what matters. Voltage recovers almost immediately after a larger load, and after at most a minute is telling you all you need to know.

 

[Arthurc]

What I have found is that there is a pretty consistent steady state load on the batteries, intermixed with short, larger loads like a microwave or hair dryer, or kettle. Just monitor voltage when the big loads are off, which is most of the time, and you will have a real good indicator. A lot of people talk about needing to let the batteries "rest" for a long period of time (many hours) before the voltage reading is accurate. I have not seen this at all, or at lest not to 90% of what matters. Voltage recovers almost immediately after a larger load, and after at most a minute is telling you all you need to know.

I’ve had the same experience, it bounces back in very little time after the load drops. I’ll need to play with maretron alarms to see if there is an easy way to create a voltage one using an average over time, the simplicity of alarming on SOC is what got me focused on it to begin with.

 

[Hippocampus]

For batteries, tankage, and alt energy was very impressed with Philippi. Told you the present and past for each individual thing. Also monitored current in your major circuits and temp. Had engine functions which I didn’t connect. Set up wasn’t difficult and even a dunce like me could understand the instructions. Voltage depends on current load. Was helpful I could get a good sense of SOC even with things running