The SSRS began the thought of using a decentralized power supply system when the electrical installations were more and more complex. Larger boats and the use of more computers and onboard technology have increased the equipment on board The problem at the SSRS is that the crew is a volunteer crew with no or very little tune over for long educations. The system we started to work with was the EmpirBus system which gave many advantages through its decentralized features. The gained functions are just one part of everything gained. The functionality was of a second nature at the beginning but after testing the system we found that the other savings on material and installation was just one part. Technology of today should be able to handle an electrical installation much more efficient than the traditional. Also, if possible to have intelligent electronics to control the system it should be possible to save a lot of material in cables, fuses and relays. Less material would also decrease overall weight of the installation and increase available space for storage. Less material could also recrease installation time which is a large part of the total production and therefore a large cost. Below is a short description of the system we used and what we gained using the system in full. The general idea behind the EmpirBus system is to reduce the amount of time for installation and material necessary for constructing various types of electrical installation using 9-32VDC. Also the time required for designing the system is reduced due to the functionality and the easiness of using the EmpirBus software. Current installation techniques are rather old and require a cable to be pulled for each consumer via some kind of fuse. Other cables are required in parallel for controlling the consumer. EmpirBus is using intelligent I/O modules interconnected with each other via a single 1-pair bus cable. This cable reduces the need for control cables to a minimum. The inputs and outputs are equipped with fuse capabilities, which furthermore reduce cabling and material since most conventional fuses in the system can be omitted. The bus is based on CAN, which is a widely accepted communication standard known for safe operation even in very harsh environments. Each I/O is assigned a specific address. The I/O is then easily monitored and controlled by one or more other objects on the bus.
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