Anode monitoring

Wiggo

Wiggo

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Was having a chat with a chap at the weekend, and the topic of remote monitoring came up.

If it were possible to monitor the galvanic currents on and around your boat (not sure how, but maybe sensing current flow in the earth bonding wires), presumably you could then estimate anode life. If you could monitor in real time, you could get an alert to say that your 'usual' rate of wear had been exceeded, maybe because a bonding wire had failed, or there was a shorepower problem or a boat with dodgy electrics was moored up alongside you.

Is there a market for such a monitoring device? If so, at what sort of price point? What other features would you want it to have?

I think it might be attractive at the right price point, and you may want to have add-on sensors for GPS, bilge alarms, burglar alarms, temp/humidity etc. You could then have a website where you could remote monitor the health of your boat.
 
thought of a number of alternatives from electrode in the anode that triggers an alarm when it eventually gets wet, to slow seeping but hi-viz dye showing in the water once a certain wear point is reached as an alternative to monitoring the environment within which the anodes live...... thought best not to post them as they were all flawed... as I suspect trying to capture the effect of so many different sources of impact on anode wear.. cannot think of many manufacturers that would put their nutz on a block when the inevitable "my sterndrive has disintegrated way before time calculated" lawsuit comes their way which'll no doubt drive the price up to mitigate that risk above pure RnD and manufacturing costs.

Would be neat if I were wrong as I was piondering the very same thing this weekend when fitting some to my boat
 
Wiggo said:
Was having a chat with a chap at the weekend, and the topic of remote monitoring came up.

If it were possible to monitor the galvanic currents on and around your boat (not sure how, but maybe sensing current flow in the earth bonding wires), presumably you could then estimate anode life. If you could monitor in real time, you could get an alert to say that your 'usual' rate of wear had been exceeded, maybe because a bonding wire had failed, or there was a shorepower problem or a boat with dodgy electrics was moored up alongside you.

Is there a market for such a monitoring device? If so, at what sort of price point? What other features would you want it to have?

I think it might be attractive at the right price point, and you may want to have add-on sensors for GPS, bilge alarms, burglar alarms, temp/humidity etc. You could then have a website where you could remote monitor the health of your boat.
Click to expand...

Doable, just by measuring the micro current along the green bonding wires to the anode. Thing is, most boats have several main anodes that share this current (I have 6), so unless you rewire the boat to make all the current pass through a single cable (at one point in its routing) which is a difficult floors-up install, you have to buy 2 or 4 or 6 current sensors, then another black box to add up the results, which changes this from a £79.99 product to quite expensive. It therefore doesn't sound a hell of a goer of a product imho.

Sensors for GPS, bilge alarms, burglar alarms, temp/humidity etc that text you or www the results are widely availalbe with no barriers to entry (hardware so cheap, and electronics are sub A Level and googleable) so not a great business proposition imho

Yup I like the limper too. Penguin or horse? :)
 
Wiggo said:
106 views and not a single response? Is this a viable/desirable product? Anyone?
Click to expand...

There is aleady a gadget on the market that is in effect a window in a thru hull fitting behind a modified anode that allow s one to see when the anode depletion has reached a certain level.
Its been featured on here and generated little or no enthusiasm.


I guess it would be possible to monitor the current flowing in an anode connecting cable.

amps x times in seconds = coulombs

1 Faraday ( 96,490 coulombs ) should equate to the loss of 32.7 grams of zinc ( RAM/2)
 
Also the market would be N. Europe only. Everywhere nearer t'Equator you just dive in and swim under the boat to check les 'nodes
 
How about zinc anode studs, so when the anode has wasted away the studs are erroded next. Then when you get that tell tail squirt of wate you know it's time to change those anodes.

A cheap and effective solution!
 
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