Digital Yacht iSEASENSE BM100 Battery Monitoring System

The BM100 is a complete system comprising SmartShunt and veKonvert NMEA 2000 interface. It is part of Digital Yacht’s iSeaSense range of NMEA 2000 boat instruments. With this solution, your multi function display becomes a sophisticated battery and energy management system.

Digital Yacht’s new BM100 battery monitoring system allows highly accurate DC voltage, current and capacity measurements enabling reliable monitoring of your boat’s battery and electrical system.

Core to the system is the SmartShunt. It measures battery voltage and current. Based on these measurements, it intelligently calculates the battery’s state of charge and the time to depletion for the remaining charge. It also keeps track of historical data, such as deepest discharge and average discharge current as well as the number of charge and discharge cycles. The smart shunt can also monitor the voltage of a 2nd battery — typically dedicated to engine starting.

The system features a NMEA 2000 interface so your navigation multi-function display or plotter can display all key parameters. Modern MFDs from leading manufacturers such as Garmin, Raymarine, Furuno and Navico allow electrical battery data to be displayed via their NMEA 2000 interface. Alarms and alerts for low capacity and voltage can also be enabled.

The BM100 also has a standalone wireless Bluetooth interface so your mobile phone or iPad can connect and display current, voltage, capacity, additional historical data, state of charge information and time to go based on remaining battery capacity.

The product is a collaboration between Victron Energy and Digital Yacht. The system utilises Victron’s proprietary VE.Direct data connectivity as a source for the NMEA 2000 data.

The BM100 is part of a wider group of products now introduced by Digital Yacht which bring NMEA 2000 connectivity to Victron systems using the VE.Direct interface.

Victron solar panel controllers (MPPTs) and battery monitors can now also interconnect to NMEA 2000 via the veKonvert interface.

We’re increasingly reliant on DC battery electrical power while afloat for lighting, refrigeration, pumps, winches etc so having accurate battery information and monitoring charge from various sources is essential. The service life of batteries depends on many factors. Battery life may be shortened by under-charging, over-charging, excessively deep discharges, excessive charge or discharge currents, and by high ambient temperature.

Monitoring the battery with the BM100 will give important feedback to the user so that remedial measures can be taken when necessary. Doing this will extend battery life. There’s also an optional battery temperature sensor available.

The BM100 can also integrate with Digital Yacht’s other NMEA 2000 and wireless instruments which offer a hybrid NMEA 2000 and wireless display options.

• veKonvert interface
• 500A Victron Shunt