Prevent an electrical fire on board

Shark’s Head, the established developer of microcontroller solutions and Australian manufacturer of marine electronics equipment, advises about ways to prevent electrical fires by using smart fuses: A smart fuse can be programmed to trip at any current up its maximum rating, not just a fixed current like conventional melting fuses that are available in discrete values of e.g. 1,2,5,10 or 20A. 

“A few years ago I had a fire on board my sailing vessel while motoring in Sydney harbour. I don’t want to relive that experience ever again, if I can help it”, remembers Heinz Zerbes, founder of SharksHead.“Our device controller module can not only turn off all power to the output side, it also measures and logs the voltage, current and power to the central web server where it can be accessed in real-time as well as months or years later. That way, the user can fine tune what current would be unusually high for a given device like a pump, a light or a fan, long before a short might cause cables to overheat. He can also turn devices on and off remotely, even when not on board, if required.”

SharksHead has been offering this popular module for a few years now. Since then, the versatility was further improved by combining it with a presence detector into a night light. Hence if a crew member gets up at night, specific lights come on to a preprogrammed level of light output, hence not glaring the person but still providing a way to get ones’ bearings.To top it off, this functionality can be used to scare an intruder away by sounding an alarm instead.