We have supplied interface units to the diving vessel designed by Defence Consulting Europe AB. This boat is truly unique in the world. It is used to transport divers and is a kind of “cabriolet u-boat”.
Needless to point out, but you need to be dressed and equipped as a diver to be on board!
The nature of the vessel means that everything need to be not only watertight but designed also to cope with the pressure of the diving depth. This means that all added cabling, all added interface boxes and other gear should be avoided as far as possible.
Almost all communication in the system is handled by a network to reduce cabling and to make the most efficient use possible of all equipment. It is equipped with a number of CN8E units. These are used to collect data from NMEA 0183/IEC 61162-1 and NMEA 2000/IEC 61162-3 sensors (GPS, Speed Log, Sounder etc), SAE J1939 main engine data (250 kb/s CAN bus) and legacy 500 kb/s data from the battery systems used for underwater propulsion.
We have developed special versions of the CN8E software to process CAN bus engine and battery data flow to process this for the various control systems.
Further to this, the vessel also contains a number of D8N units and 5N1 units, some of these also with customer-specific firmware versions to handle specific needs,
More information on the DCE website. While you are visiting the DCE site, it is strongly recommended to have a look at the video shots!
Any users of CN8E: We are currently doing final testing of new firmware version, with options for filtering CAN data, added support for IEC 61162-450 compliance as well as a new SW test utility to aid OEM SW development. Stay tuned for news!