Joe, All,
To date, DakotaSoft (small company) sells mainly software, but the company is currently developing several hardware products that will be available 1st and 2nd quarter next year.
I am developing a controller module that will pass NMEA 2000, level B certification and most of the requirements for level A certification. The module can be customized by DakotaSoft for its customers needs or I am willing to sell the controller with a base software package and let my customers do the software development. It's I/O count includes - 2 CAN ports (1 J1939, 1 NMEA 2000), 1 RS232 port, 1 RS485 port, 1 USB port, 2 push/pull digital outputs (30A max for each output/40A max for the device), 6 sinking digital outputs (30A max for each output/40A max for the device), 6 resistive analog inputs, 4 interruptible digital inputs and 2 thermister inputs.
Also I am working on a line of protocol converters. These converters will be able to convert CAN (NMEA 2000) to RS232, RS485, USB and TTL. It also will at a minimum be able to pass NMEA 2000 level B certification.
I am working on a display as well. The display has a 3.5", tft, 1/4 VGA, color LCD; 2 CAN ports (1 J1939, 1 NMEA 2000); 1 USB port; 1 RS232 port; 2 digital outputs; 2 analog inputs. It can be RAM mounted or panel mounted.
That's my spiel about my new products.
You will notice that all of my products will handle SAE J1939 as well as NMEA 2000. That goes for my software stack as well. I don't know if any of you have noticed but many smaller pleasure boats have inboard engines that use J1939. This is because GM sell a lot of inboard engines that are used in ski boat, aluminum jet boats,.... and GM uses J1939 as its protocol. I'm not sure if this is true for all of its marine engines but the ones I'm familiar with, this is the case.
Ty
President
DakotaSoft, Inc.
