ShipHeart - The principles
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1. The ShipHeart™ solution Since the early 2000s, Navigation Centres have been appearing en masse on pleasure boats. They have made it possible to gather all on-board navigation information (speed, heading, distance covered, wind speed and direction, water depth, cartography, etc.) on a single system. In addition to the convenience for the crew of having all this information available on a single device, this centralization gave them access to new information which has since become essential on board: true wind speed, VMG (Velocity Made Good), etc... By contrast, other on-board systems...

"Over The Air": by automatic download.

2. General architecture The ShipHeart™ solution includes a core module, called ShipBase, which is often its only visible part. ShipBase consists of a carbon fiber face to be mounted on a panel, usually in the immediate vicinity of the chart table. Often in place of the old electrical panel, which no longer serves any purpose... On the front of this module is ShipHeart's touch screen, where all information and commands can be accessed at any time, along with USB ports. On the back are connections for various sensors (liquid levels, battery voltage, temperature, etc.) or external...

3. Electrical architecture Whatever the size of the ShipHeart™ solution installed, the electrical architecture is always the same. 3.1 ShipBase power supply First of all, ShipBase receives a power supply 6 for its own operation. Usually, this power comes directly from the Servitude batteries, without passing through a circuit breaker 7 . This ensures that ShipHeart™ continues to operate even when you're not on board (and can therefore access and even control the status of the boat, as well as receive any alerts). 3.2 Direct connections to ShipBase ShipBase directly receives connections to...

3.3 Expansion bus Beyond ShipBase, the ShipHeart™ solution usually includes one or more extension modules. The first of these modules is connected to ShipBase via a standard 8 cable. This cable has two functions:   Enable ShipBase to communicate with the module. Automatically detect the addition, replacement or deletion of a module. Enable ShipBase to supply power to modules on the extension bus. In this way, ShipBase can cut power to all extension modules at any time, when in deep standby for example, to limit overall system consumption. And automatically re-supply them when necessary....

In general, a new module is added "at the end". The existing configuration remains unchanged, and only the detailed configuration of the new module needs to be entered into ShipBase. On the other hand, if a new module is inserted into an existing network, it is essential to ensure that the configuration of the modules "beyond" is updated. This can be done in a matter of moments, and most of the time only requires very simple adjustments, but it's important to be vigilant whenever the structure of the extension bus is modified (by interleaving instead of adding "at the end"). When a module...

Example of an extension bus with 5 modules 3.4 DC power supply As explained in chapter 3.3modules receive their power supply from ShipBase via the communication cable with RJ45 connectors. As soon as ShipBase supplies this power, it is able to communicate with each module. However, this power supply is only used for this communication and processing function. In the case of ShipPower8DC, for example, the power supply that will be used to drive its 8 circuits, i.e. up to 50A, obviously cannot be supplied by this RJ45 cable. Especially when several modules of this type are connected to the...

Example of a DC power supply with two battery banks (12V and 24V) The state of the various on-board battery banks can be estimated simply by measuring the voltage of each of them. ShipBase has 4 VOLTAGE INPUTS which can be used for this purpose 22 . But even if this method is still widely used on electrical panels, estimating the state of a battery solely from its voltage leads to rough approximations. That's why ShipBS modules were developed. Integrated into the extension bus, they continuously measure the differential current 23 of the battery bank, its voltage directly at its terminals...

In fact, as long as the DC circuits are controlled by ShipHeart™, it knows the consumption of each piece of equipment and therefore their overall consumption. From the battery's differential current, it can therefore deduce the charging current on the one hand, and the discharging current on the other. But it can also provide the crew with summary information on actual equipment consumption over a given period (typically: 1 hour, 1 day, 7 days, 30 days). Finally, having access to the consumption curve of each piece of equipment over several days enables it to make unrivalled autonomy...

The general AC power supply diagram must be designed so that the same circuit cannot be supplied by several sources simultaneously 33 . AC source selection (exclusive choice between shore power, generator, DC-AC converter, etc.) must therefore be distinguished from the boat's internal circuits, each of which is protected by a circuit breaker and, if necessary, controlled by a ShpPower4AC circuit. Dock connector Earth leakage circuit breaker Source selector Circuits protection Schematic diagram of an AC power supply Beyond its primary function of controlling and measuring a circuit, a...

4. Mechanical architecture 4.1 ShipBase installation The positioning of ShipBase offers few freedoms, since it must be easily accessible. It is generally installed at the chart table, or where the old electrical panel used to be, in the case of a 34 refit. Please note that while the standard dimensions are suitable for many boats, it is possible to order a ShipBase with a custom carbon face. In this case, the minimum dimensions are around 300mm wide by 190mm high. Maximum dimensions are virtually unlimited, as the carbon plates used are extremely rigid, albeit very thin. ShipBase is...