Digitial switching
At first i was relucant to opt for digital switching in lew ofjust a very simple and neat bespoke wiring install . with then the option of having some pretty nice custom switch panels as well.
However as more and more components and systems were added to the build "acturators, motor drives, various lighting systems etc." and with less and less room behind the dash we re opened the discussion with czone and their sister brands as to what we could do for this boat
BEP recently released a new Smart Hub battery switch system, that combinds their motorized switches and czone battery monitoring into one super neat unit
These are an amazing piece of kit that are really seeing a lot of traction in the US centre console scene with tripple engine fit ups, Ours with only twins would mean we would have a centre battery switch left empty. though BEP came through wit hthe goods and informed us they are bringing out a dual engine version. which we will likley be the first in Australasia to have installed pretty happy with that.
Back to the switching side of things.
yes we will be able to have it programed into our Garmin MFD. which yeah is all well and good but only really effective on larger vessels. though various "mode" functions are kinda handy, ... pressing one button o nthe screen for "night time mode" etc.
But the client and i agree that having physical buttons that you can easily see/activate is nicer.
THOUGH! the Czones contact 6/12 buttons IMO look pretty terrible
And there was no way i was going to let them be part of this dash design.
We also work with another digital switching company "Blink Australia:" who do produce a very neat compact switching system, and they were on my consideration list for this build. however a few things swayed me to Czone
1. Czones access to fuses in their COI and Contact panels is alot easier
2. Czone allwos for up to 16 circuits in their COI systems where as other modules are only 6 to 8 depending on amps
3. we can intergrate our czone switching with Siren marine or Cenital marine cloud based vesse monitoring and control the boatsoperation from anywhere in the world
4. Czone can intergrate easily with our mastervolt inverter, charger, lithium battery set up etc
we opted then instead to use the HMI PKU switches "same style as blink but with NMEA2K czone intergration" these switches are a lot nicer, more tactile. they allow RGB illumination and programming with thousands of symbols and words. plus various surrounds to allow us to style it to the boat
The plan will be for 2 12 ways on the dash and a single 8 way out in the cockpit.
we can program these switches to have slow starts for pumps "ramp up the current instead of full current straight away to protect their life span" multi mode per switch. so press one for live well timmed to 5 mins. press again for live well timed for 8 minuites. press again for live well on full, press again to turn off.. all with different colours to indicate what state its at.
can even have the winch switch timmed so press the down button twice to lower the anchor a certain length "anchors in the same depth/body of water often"
hold a light switch button down for dimming , press again to turn back to full brightness or off. that sort of stuff.
all in all. just fun toys for sure