migs
Active member
I love the idea of paddlewheel-free logs, but at the moment there appear to be only two products currently available: Nasa’s EML-2 and Airmar’s DX900+.
Nasa's new EML-2 (as reported above) looks promising, however the problem for most people is that you’d most likely have to knock another hole in the bottom of your boat in order to have separate speed and depth transducers i.e. you will still need your existing depth transducer. You will also need to fit a NMEA 0183 to NMEA 2K converter in order to connect to a modern boat system (something like Actisense’s NGW-1 at around £120). That said, Nasa may well be targeting older boats with legacy NMEA 0183 systems for this product?
What about Airmar’s DX900+? It provides speed, depth and temperature in one hole as a drop in replacement for the DST800 (as fitted to most boats - yes indeed, standard for Raymarine, Garmin, B&G, Simrad etc. systems) and can be connected directly to NME 2K - what’s not the like? Unfortunately, the price: $1,100 in the USA and £1,800 in the UK (treasure island strikes again). Stupidly expensive - fine for BOSS racing, but far too much for most us.
Incidentally, one reason the DX900+ is so expensive could be that it has loads of features (which you might not necessarily need): a transverse speed sensor to measure leeway, multi axis accelerometer for pitch and roll data, 10Hz update rate and a built in Bluetooth interface to connect to your phone / tablet - yikes. Another reason for the high price could be that it was designed by French engineers (who wanted to keep trawler nets square in the water) and might just attract stiff licencing fees?
Nasa's new EML-2 (as reported above) looks promising, however the problem for most people is that you’d most likely have to knock another hole in the bottom of your boat in order to have separate speed and depth transducers i.e. you will still need your existing depth transducer. You will also need to fit a NMEA 0183 to NMEA 2K converter in order to connect to a modern boat system (something like Actisense’s NGW-1 at around £120). That said, Nasa may well be targeting older boats with legacy NMEA 0183 systems for this product?
What about Airmar’s DX900+? It provides speed, depth and temperature in one hole as a drop in replacement for the DST800 (as fitted to most boats - yes indeed, standard for Raymarine, Garmin, B&G, Simrad etc. systems) and can be connected directly to NME 2K - what’s not the like? Unfortunately, the price: $1,100 in the USA and £1,800 in the UK (treasure island strikes again). Stupidly expensive - fine for BOSS racing, but far too much for most us.
Incidentally, one reason the DX900+ is so expensive could be that it has loads of features (which you might not necessarily need): a transverse speed sensor to measure leeway, multi axis accelerometer for pitch and roll data, 10Hz update rate and a built in Bluetooth interface to connect to your phone / tablet - yikes. Another reason for the high price could be that it was designed by French engineers (who wanted to keep trawler nets square in the water) and might just attract stiff licencing fees?