Shark’s Head press release, April 2021 

Is someone moving around your boat?

A passive infrared detector module was released today by Shark’s Head, the established developer of microcontroller solutions and Australian manufacturer of marine electronics equipment.

“This new presence detector unit serves not just one, but two important features on a boat” comments Sabine Geuder, the product advisor for the EMEA region. “As a security device it can alert the owner if someone has entered the cabin, yet as a convenience device, it can trigger a night light in the salon whenever someone is moving about the boat at night”. 

The user can furthermore configure at what times the night light comes on, for how long, and at what brightness level. This is accomplished using our device controller (sold separately), which we introduced last November. 

In line with the old adage that good boat products serve more than just one purpose, this presence detector covers all bases. The same goes for the device controller mentioned above, in fact, it has 5 distinct features: 

it can turn lights or fans on and off, but also dim them as required. As an additional feature it also measures how much power the device consumes and hence allows a detailed analysis of the boat’s overall power needs. Lastly, it acts as a resettable fuse if the current exceeds a configurable level or if the bus voltage levels are outside the thresholds.

All our sensor modules work independently and report back to a central server via a wireless link. It’s possible to deploy a large number and different types of sensors around the vessel, e.g. in the engine room, owner cabin, salon, crew quarters or the galley. The fully automatic and dynamic network routing system allows deployment even where sensors cannot receive the radio signals from the central hub directly.

The central server contains two radios that can be used world-wide and license-free: one to talk to the sensors and one WIFI interface for the graphical web-based user interface. It also hosts the database which allows easy analysis of historical sensor data. This log data can go back many years, not just a few weeks or months. This allows for a long-term analysis and to predict performance degradation of components due to age.

The fast web interface eliminates the need for installing and updating a separate app. If required, updating the central server software is as simple as drag and drop the new package into the browser window. The system does not require Internet access nor a service subscription, it works in the marina as well as off-shore.

Wireless, yet reliably able to cover even bigger vessels of all types, including steel and aluminium boats like trawlers, cruisers and commercial boats, the SharksHead system is the perfect solution for any serious boater.