A word about NASA MARINE

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ms1

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I remember seeing disparaging comments about NASA Marine and their modest priced range of instruments.
I emailed NASA at Stevenage with a question and received a response with advice in 20 minutes. As a result of that advice I decided to send them my fairly old and well used Clipper instrument for test. Removed it on Monday; posted it Monday afternoon; they called Tuesday to say a small repair was done, received it back Wednesday, re-fitted it Wednesday afternoon.

I have no connection with the company, that is other than being a satisfied customer.
 
I have a NASA clipper duet which I fitted on my little yacht and it works admirably. It is however undeniable that some of the kit is built to a price and does not quite cut it in an environment where this should not even be in question i.e. on the sea.

It is well known that the cups on their wind instrument masthead sender do not last well. This is a bit of a no brainer to me as anything that goes up a mast should be able to take whatever is up there. They must be aware of this yet I'm not sure the unit has been modified to make it more robust, which is what is needed I'd have thought.

I also have their masthead LED tricolour the Supernova, which is the cheapest LED masthead you can get, and it looks quite well made. Mine has been fine, but there is a worrying number of failures noted on YBW fora and although I have no proof other than the comment of others, it does seem sensitive to boats with sophisticated charging circuits. It seems to survive 'simple' installations like mine with just a 12v battery and a solar panel (I have no charger as no engine aside from the outboard). This is not the kind of kit that should ever fail except in exceptional circumstances.

Their service always seems excellent, but there are some who will not touch their stuff, and to some extent you can't blame them, but with the above qualifications I have to declare myself a fan of NASA if only on my own experience to date of minimal kit I have bought from them. I get this infuriating feeling it wouldn't take much to make them unbeatable, which would be really good.

Tim
 
Yep, another happy customer.

I bought a new impeller and spindle for the log earlier this year, cost me just £5 and they posted it in a couple of days.

The boat's just gone back in the water and the log worked perfectly straight away. It's restored the instrument to perfect working order, all for £5. You can't say fairer than that.

Several other instruments also NASA, (See my other post you can see them on my dashboard) all reliable and working well for several years so far. Including the windy thing - I keep reading the horror stories, but still waiting for a problem 4 years on...
 
I had the depth & speed log out in an exposed position. In 3 years absolutely no problems. I needed to phone them once one a techy issue and they were excellent. I would have no hesitation in using their kit again
 
They seem to be a smaller company and I've only had fast responses from them. However, I am sometimes surprised by their approach to things.

As an example, their BM1 battery monitor is rated to support currents up to 100A. Large engines have a start-up current of several times that. While it may survive a short period of over-current, the shunt it is likely to heat up and pop if the engine is started more than a number of times in a short period of time. Furthermore, the voltage drop over the shunt at high current will reduce the engine's ability to start reliably.

In other words, unless your boat has a small engine or separate house battery, it may not be the safest product to use. And, the company could face product liability issues.

The solution seems so be to sell an alternative shunt and to enable the unit to adjust shunt readings by a factor suitable for the selected shunt. Simple - probably an hour's work on the code.

I, for one, have been waiting for them to do this - they told me they were planning to do this, but that was months / years ago...

Of course, I may have it wrong... am I missing something here?

If not, why would they not do it?
 
Last edited:
EugeneR said:
They seem to be a smaller company and I've only had fast responses from them. However, I am sometimes surprised by their approach to things.

As an example, their BM1 battery monitor is rated to support currents up to 100A. Large engines have a start-up current of several times that. While it may survive a short period of over-current, the shunt it is likely to heat up and pop if the engine is started more than a number of times in a short period of time. Furthermore, the voltage drop over the shunt at high current will reduce the engine's ability to start reliably.

In other words, unless your boat has a small engine or separate house battery, it may not be the safest product to use. And, the company could face product liability issues.

The solution seems so be to sell an alternative shunt and to enable the unit to adjust shunt readings by a factor suitable for the selected shunt. Simple - probably an hour's work on the code.

I, for one, have been waiting for them to do this - they told me they were planning to do this, but that was months / years ago...

Of course, I may have it wrong... am I missing something here?

If not, why would they not do it?
Click to expand...

Er, think you've misunderstood the purpose and installation of the BM1.

It's meant for monitoring the leisure bank, and shouldn't see massive start up currents if wired in correctly.

The latest model will also measure the voltage of the starter battery, but not the current.
 
Trundlebug said:
Er, think you've misunderstood the purpose and installation of the BM1.

It's meant for monitoring the leisure bank, and shouldn't see massive start up currents if wired in correctly.

The latest model will also measure the voltage of the starter battery, but not the current.
Click to expand...

I didn't. I specifically caveated my statement by saying "unless your boat has ... a small engine or separate house battery".

Not all boats have a separate leisure battery - some run everything from one battery at a time e.g. either battery 1 or battery 2 is used for both engine and leisure. In that scenario, wiring it in any way that does not see the engine start-up current is likely to give incorrect results.

Admittedly, this configuration is more often present on "less expensive" boats - exactly those users, in my view, who would want to buy a BM1 rather than something more expensive e.g. BEP, Sterling, Link, etc.

The point is, if it is very quick to implement, surely incremental sales should cover the cost quickly?
 
Alfie168 said:
I have a NASA clipper duet which I fitted on my little yacht and it works admirably. It is however undeniable that some of the kit is built to a price and does not quite cut it in an environment where this should not even be in question i.e. on the sea.

It is well known that the cups on their wind instrument masthead sender do not last well. This is a bit of a no brainer to me as anything that goes up a mast should be able to take whatever is up there. They must be aware of this yet I'm not sure the unit has been modified to make it more robust, which is what is needed I'd have thought.

I also have their masthead LED tricolour the Supernova, which is the cheapest LED masthead you can get, and it looks quite well made. Mine has been fine, but there is a worrying number of failures noted on YBW fora and although I have no proof other than the comment of others, it does seem sensitive to boats with sophisticated charging circuits. It seems to survive 'simple' installations like mine with just a 12v battery and a solar panel (I have no charger as no engine aside from the outboard). This is not the kind of kit that should ever fail except in exceptional circumstances.

Their service always seems excellent, but there are some who will not touch their stuff, and to some extent you can't blame them, but with the above qualifications I have to declare myself a fan of NASA if only on my own experience to date of minimal kit I have bought from them. I get this infuriating feeling it wouldn't take much to make them unbeatable, which would be really good.

Tim
Click to expand...

Well someone must like their products as a pair of Supernova lights were burgled from a shelf under the stairs in my house! One snag with the Supernovas is that there seems to be no easy way to mount one above the other. If I had designed them I would have made the tricolour toroidal, possibly both toroidal as its always handy to have the option of having a mast head aerial above. As to the circuitry for LED lights it is always best to have a transistor working as a constant current generator as just using resistors is not entirely satisfactory. I have found that LED bulbs on my car are unsatisfactory in places that are lit with the engine running. In door-open lights or dome-lights they seem to last OK as in these locations the engine is usually "off" when the bulbs are "on". Possibly on a boat a little voltage regulator could be made for supplying LED lights.
 
ms1 said:
I remember seeing disparaging comments about NASA Marine and their modest priced range of instruments.
I emailed NASA at Stevenage with a question and received a response with advice in 20 minutes. As a result of that advice I decided to send them my fairly old and well used Clipper instrument for test. Removed it on Monday; posted it Monday afternoon; they called Tuesday to say a small repair was done, received it back Wednesday, re-fitted it Wednesday afternoon.

I have no connection with the company, that is other than being a satisfied customer.
Click to expand...

Exactly the same thing happened to me with my Clipper Duet. It stopped displaying the depth (displayed OUT) and was repaired and returned to me in a couple of days.
 
davey said:
As to the circuitry for LED lights it is always best to have a transistor working as a constant current generator as just using resistors is not entirely satisfactory. I have found that LED bulbs on my car are unsatisfactory in places that are lit with the engine running. In door-open lights or dome-lights they seem to last OK as in these locations the engine is usually "off" when the bulbs are "on". Possibly on a boat a little voltage regulator could be made for supplying LED lights.
Click to expand...
Nerd Alert:o -- whilst correct in that LEDs need constant current not constant voltage; some of the best & modern LED systems use a Buck-Boost topology (or so I am told!) - this would be built into the LED engine.
 
I appreciate that NASA are at the budget end of the spectrum but in my opinion they've gone too far with it. Just a few more quid on the wind mast head unit may make it last MUCH longer, a few more quid on the LED's might make them last longer too.
I will also agree that the customer service is rather good!
I think perhaps they could make uprated parts for those people prepared to spend a little extra - A heavy duty mast head unit for example. People could still have the choice to go ultra bargain basement or to spend a few more quid for reliability.
They'd still be cheaper than the nearest serious competetion.

I own a set of wind instruments and a duet by the way.

My other grumble is that the wind instruments are dimmable on about 9 different settings so you can get them just right - the backlight on the duet is on full whack all the time or off completely. WHY would they do this? It totally wrecks my night vision. I did call them and ask if they could fit a resistor to dim it to which they said yes...... but that means taking it out of the panel and messing about with posting etc..... I'll get around to it :-)
If I were to buy again then it'd be Stowe probably - unless I was suddenly loaded in which case it'd be B&G but they're horrendously expensive!
 
Like most it seems, I am also a happy NASA customer. None of their products have let me down in many years of using their kit.
 
Had two NASA bits of kit - both on the last boat.
GPS repeater - was ok to start with, but obviously the water got to it as half the display wouldn't work after just over a year ... leave it on long enough and it worked though. I didn't pursue this one with Customer service.

AIS engine - something was wrong with the reception as it would only give us targets that were within a mile or two ... sent the unit away to them and they sent it back - I think they said they'd replaced a component or something - anyway they had replaced the entire insides as I'd marked the previous board ... as it was FOC I'm not complaining.

Overall I think it's a good little company, but could do with a slight quality improvement - not least in the presentation of the instruments which is exceedingly dated!
 
Compared to kit like Garmin, Raymarine, Simrad, etc, it may seem the "Lada" of marine instruments, but for the budget end of the market "it does what it says on the tin" even if the tin is a bit pastic looking.
 
I recall visiting their factory in Stevenage in the 1980s when I was technical writing on Fishing News, I was impressed by their attitude even then. I collected a small CRT fishfinder whilst I was there and installed it on a Hardy angling boat, it was still working OK six years later, the display was quite blocky and the casing wouldn’t have stood up to much splashing but it worked and showed contours and holes fine. I have installed a few bits of their kit since and have always considered it ”adequate”, perhaps their major disadvantage apart from the budget circuitry and hardware is one of aesthetics, because of the low volume they seem to source the casings from stuff that is readily available rather than in house design and volume commission, I may be wrong there but that’s how it seems. I think they manage well for the price and it's good to see they have survived.
 
Very pleased with NASA over the years, any queries have been answered promptly and on the odd occasion spares have not been a problem.
As regsrds their battery monitor I have had one of these on the domestic bank for a couple of years,again with no problems but all my instruements are in an enclosed wheelhouse
All in all reasonable value for money, just dont expect Rolls Royce quality at Ford prices.
 
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