Shark’s Head press release, February 2021 

Protect your crew and yourself from toxic carbon monoxide

Shark’s Head, the established developer of microcontroller solutions and Australian manufacturer of marine electronics equipment, is proud to announce a new module that covers an additional safety feature around your boat or motorhome (aka recreational vehicle, RV): a carbon monoxide (CO) sensor.

“CO is found in fumes produced any time you burn fuel in cars or trucks, small engines, stoves, lanterns, grills, fireplaces, gas ranges, or furnaces. CO can build up indoors and poison people and animals who breathe it.” explains the centre for disease control (CDC) website. Protecting your crew couldn’t be simpler, with wireless communication and seamless integration into any new or existing Shark’s Head installation.

To complete the range of the new CO sensor, the existing explosive gas sensor should be deployed in or near the galley stove as well as in the locker where the gas bottles are stored. 

The device controller released last year can remotely turn devices like fans, radios, fridges and lights on and off. It also measures their power consumption and sends the log data to the on-board central server. It also allows reducing the power consumption of devices by dimming lights or reducing speed of fans.

All Shark’s Head modules work independently and report back to your dedicated on-board central server where thresholds for alarms can be modified to suit. It’s possible to deploy a large number of sensors around the vessel, e.g. in the engine room, owner cabin, 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 license-free world-wide: 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 years of sensor data. The fast web interface eliminates the need for installing and then updating a separate app.