Data Acquisition Unit News

Danelec Marine today announced the introduction of its third-generation marine Voyage Data Recorder (VDR). The new Danelec DM100 VDR fully complies with the new International Maritime Organization (IMO) VDR standard, which comes into effect July 1, 2014. It also incorporates Danelec’s SoftWare Advanced Protection (SWAP) technology, a new approach to shipboard servicing of marine electronics. “Danelec’s exclusive SWAP solution is nothing short of revolutionary when it comes to servicing shipboard electronics,” said Danelec CEO Hans Ottosen. Danelec has designed the compact VDR data acquisition unit for easy plug-and-play replacement, with all system programming and configurations stored on a hot-swappable memory card. The service technicians bring a new unit when boarding the ship.

JRC ‘s new Voyage Data Recorder, serving the same function as the “Black Box” in airplanes world wide, will offer possible solutions to catastrophes that occur on the water. Designed for all vessels required to comply with the new IMO International Requirements (IMO Res.A.861(20), IEC61996, IEC61162-1 (NMEA0183 Ver 2.30), IEC60945, IEEE802.3, etc.), this new product will supply vital information to authorities and ship owner’s in the event of a disaster at sea. Composed of two units; the Protective Capsule and the Recording Control Unit, the JCY-1000 VDR offers easy installation at an economic price point. The data acquisition unit is housed in the Recording Control Unit, providing data transfer to the capsule via an Ethernet cable.

SAM Electronics, an L-3 company, has introduced a new low cost IMO-compliant, type-approved S-VDR designed for retrofitting to cargo vessels of all types and sizes, the SAM 4330. Simple to install and featuring a flash disk embedded operating system for optimum reliability, the compact modular assembly is user configurable via a terminal computer. Its Protected Data Unit (PDU) has a standard recording capacity of 2 GB which can be downloaded via an Ethernet link in 15 minutes; data can also be retained for more than 10 years without power supply. Including a port for AIS data, the pre-assembled 16-channel Main Unit (MU) provides for 9 microphone and 3 VHF input interfaces together with up to 4 video source inputs for Radar and Ecdis, or CCTV.

The German certification authority Bundesamt für Seeschiffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH) has awarded type approval to Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) for its Sperry Marine VoyageMaster II Voyage Data Recorder (VDR). The BSH type approval certifies that the Sperry Marine VDR meets the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) performance standards for shipboard “black box” data recorders. International Maritime Organization (IMO) regulations require all new ships over 3,000 gross tons to be equipped with an approved VDR to assist investigators in reconstructing the events leading up to and following an incident at sea.

L-3 Henschel was awarded a $7.6M contract for Data Acquisition Unit shipsets, training and testing site sets together, with engineering services and provisioned items. This contract is in support of the CG 47 Class Cruiser Integrated Ship Controls (ISC) Program. The ISC Program integrates all ship control functions by utilizing commercially available technology. Installation involves removing old analog control consoles and replacing them with modern digital workstations. The new workstations generally take up less space, are more trouble free, and are easier to use. Work will be performed in Newburyport, Mass., and is expected to be completed by October 2006. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

Northrop Grumman Corporation unveiled a new Simplified Voyage Data Recorder (S-VDR) to meet the latest international carriage requirements for installing “black box” recording devices on existing cargo ships. The VoyageMaster II S-VDR was developed and is being marketed by Northrop Grumman’s Sperry Marine business unit. It has been designed to provide a cost-effective and space-saving solution to fulfill the carriage requirements for retrofit on existing cargo ships over 3,000 gross tons, while reducing the time required for installation, configuration and certification of the equipment. The VoyageMaster II system records and time stamps data from the radar and navigation sensors, as well as audio recordings from the bridge.