How to Install an ECS by Oneself

I was standing outside Mangalore airport searching for the agent. The sky was ominously dark and seemed ready for another bout of lashing rains.

Extreme weather. It seemed as if the weather god was punishing planet earth for all her misdeeds.

I got through the agent’s number at last. Ship’s programme was cancelled. Now she was going to enter only after two days.

Nothing new. Rare is the ship which can keep her schedules.

“Is there any lady with you?”

I looked around and spotted her straightaway. An attractive lady looking extremely harried at that moment. Like me she was hunting for her receiver. Speaking on her mobile and trying to manage her damaged luggage which was threatening to come apart.

“I think I can see her”, I told the agent.

“She is the Chief Engineer’s wife and will board the same ship.”

For the next two days we were stranded in the hotel. The unexpected company helped to pass the time. As it generally happens, one tends to tell one’s secrets to a stranger in a foreign place. And so I was privy to her life story.

Hubby had spent all his time in the ship. He had broken his leg and had a steel rod inserted there. Twice he almost lost his life. But he soldiered on, otherwise, as a robust handsome man happy in his milieu.

During all these travails the wife looked after the home front. Mostly by herself as Dad was away all the time. She brought up her daughter who was now safely married and pursuing a career in medicine.

She was joining her husband to give him company in an otherwise lonely profession.

Her own career was on the back burner. She wanted to open a business in medical astrology. But was finding it a tad difficult to get it off the ground. Youth was no longer her forte. Sometime in the past she had slipped from the pilot ladder whilst disembarking the ship in a choppy sea. As a result she had a bad back.

No promotions or medals. Not that she expected any.

Indian wives! There aren’t many who can beat them.

Meanwhile everyone is asking for ECDIS/ECS. For Vetting Inspections, by OCIMF, by Port State Controllers. Even some Masters are insisting for it because of associated spin-offs.

New ships mostly come equipped with ECDIS. It’s the old ones which cause problems, where ECS has to be retro-fitted.

Is it possible for the ship staff to install an ECS all by themselves on old ships? Where you don’t want to wait till the next lay-up?

Yes!

I am aware of at least two ships in India who have installed the ECS by themselves. One ship had some teething problems the other had none. Now for the past several months their ECSs have been running without a problem.

I have prepared a sort of ‘Do It Yourself’ guide for installing a typical PC based ECS. This will have all the features of an ECDIS and certainly more than the minimum laid down in ECDIS Performance Standards.

Basically there are three things that you need to look into:

- Hardware consisting of PC and multiplexers
- ECS Software and
- Charts

Computer and OS Requirements

ECS installation manual give you the minimum specs but it is wiser to choose a little higher for better results.
A standard PC with Windows XP and 512 MB RAM should do. Ensure you have a DVD ROM because charts are now increasingly being supplied on DVDs.

It should have at least 6 USB ports for the protection devices, multiplexers and computer peripherals.

A 17” TFT monitor is sufficiently big and comfortable for viewing the charts.
Disk space is not an issue as the entire program with vector charts take less than 2GB size.

It’s better to have a dedicated computer for the ECS for error-free operations.

Internet is desirable for online correction of charts. But if you want to avoid the associated virus risk have another computer for downloading updates and transferring it to the ECS on pen drives.

Interfacing With Bridge Equipment

Most people stumble on this.

An ECS has to be connected to the GPS for it to have basic functions.
In addition it is strongly recommended to have AIS and ARPA connections but if you cannot have one or both then don’t despair. Your ECS will still give you value for money. These can be connected up later by shore technicians.

Interfacing with Echo Sounder is good especially for getting anti grounding alarms. Frankly, I belong to the old school of navigators and don’t lay too much importance to such methods of watch keeping.

Interfacing with Gyro and Log is optional. If you can do it without breaking a sweat then go ahead.

To connect up with the bridge equipment you will need marine data interfaces (MDI). An MDI helps to connect up multiple NMEA 0183 instruments to an ECS. All present generation equipment come with the industry standard NMEA 0183 outputs. It is the older instruments such as Speed Logs, ARPA and depth sounder which cause problems and may not have NMEA outputs.

Fortunately GPS & AIS which matter the most are the simplest to interface.

AIS requires 38,400 baud rate. All other equipment need 4800 baud rate. Generally MDIs have a special slot configured for AIS.

There are many MDIs available in the market. I have found Shipmodul (www.shipmodul.com) to be reliable and reasonably priced.

Cabling

Use a 6 core shielded cable gauge 7/38 for data transmission. They are readily available in the market for Rs 40 to Rs 60 per metre. Buy sufficient cable to lay them out through the paneling. They should be neatly bunched, marked and laid out. This helps in easier trouble-shooting in the future.

Choosing the Monitor site

This should be done very carefully. The chart table is not the right place unless you have dual monitors. A suitable place would be to have the monitor on one side away from the center so that it does not obstruct keeping a lookout outside the bridge windows. At the same time it is possible to check the scenario on the screen with a quick sideways glance.

When working on the ECS you should be still in control of the bridge and have not dragged yourself away from the position of looking out.

At night use the dusk viewing option so that night vision is not impaired. If you can install shades on the monitor and have an adjustable screen to swivel it to the desired viewing angle it would help tremendously.

Installing the ECS software

This is similar to installing video games. Most ECSs manual have a step by step guide to help you install the software. Remember you will need the admin rights on the computer to install the program. Many a time it happens that the old crew has not handed over the old passwords to the new crew. It creates a problem when the ECS software needs to be re-installed in the system.

Charts
You have the option to install Raster or Vector charts. In this age it doesn’t make sense to go for Raster charts. The other question is whether it is worth to pay for the expensive ENCs. There are many areas especially at minor ports and harbours where the details are only available on ENCs. Here it makes sense to buy the ENCs.

For worldwide coverage of vector charts I have no hesitation to say that C-Map is the best.

Capt. Raj S Chakravorty