![]() ![]() Marine galvanic isolation prevents current flowing between two electrical circuits, whilst still allowing data to be shared through optical, mechanical or electromagnetic methods. If you’re 80 miles from shore with no GPS because it suffered a complete failure, your appreciation of isolation will increase greatly. Over time, depending on the size of the potential voltage difference, any device without marine DC isolation will become damaged. When these paths to the ground are at different potentials, which is ludicrously easy with DC powered systems, issues can range from intermittent communication problems to complete device damage.Ī small ground potential difference can be glimpsed as random data corruption, whilst a larger ground potential difference can prevent data communication entirely. A ground loop exists when two or more paths to the ground connection of the ship’s DC battery supply are created. Isolation prevents the two biggest issues plaguing DC power systems and the devices on them ground loops and ground potential differences. This output isolation allows Actisense products installed in complex marine networks to not only distribute data but to also isolate other devices that have no isolation of their own, preventing damage to them. ISO-Drive was quickly added to all Actisense NMEA 0183 products to provide 1500 volts of marine galvanic isolation on each output. In 2007 Actisense used its design experience to develop the leisure marine’s first isolating transmit circuitry, calling it ISO-Drive technology. Whilst there are many electronic devices without isolation due to cost reductions or the belief that an old version of the NMEA standard allowed for that, there is general agreement that isolation in DC-powered systems is wise and arguably critical to reliability. When designing DC-powered products for marine networks, isolation must be considered. ![]()
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