"Larry" wrote in message
...
Isn't it ironic we're still fighting RS-422 nonsense on one talker
serial buses in 2010 when the rest of the electronic world has forgotten
all this nonsense and moved on.

It's way past time when the boats should be totally wireless....not
proprietary wireless to keep your competitors' electronics off your
private little data system, but STANDARD wireless with every piece
aboard capable of communicating with every other piece aboard over as
many direct links as necessary at STANDARD 802.11b/g/n speeds.

Larry,

Your idea is great and I'm darn sure that 1000's of other people, in or
outside the industry, have thought of this. Have you ever wondered why
everything isn't wireless yet?

There are quite a few practical issues to be solved: first of all, having
wireless sensors scattered throughout your boat is a nice idea, but they
need power. Wired power! Then there is a cost factor. A wireless interface
costs at least 10 times more than a wired interface. Then there are
infrastructural problems: when you wire things, this is YOUR domain. Noone
can intrude, collide with your data or whatever. In a wireless system,
everyone can collide and intrude. You have to take measures against that.
These measures cost time and processing power; read: MONEY. Oh and then
there are metal boats. Faraday cages.

The problem could be solved from the start: when building a boat, install
power AND data wiring from the start. That will give you almost unlimited
and cheap ways to expand your system. Install a twisted pair bus. Cheap and
reliable. RS-485 or CAN buffers cost next to nothing. And when instrument
power and data are closely tied together, there isn't even a need for
galvanic isolation which makes CAN/NMEA2000 so expensive.

Meindert