Problems

The major problems arising from the high energy needs of the boats, especially when the boats are anchored in the bays, and the inability to manage the service batteries used to meet these are as follows:

CONVENTIONAL BOAT BATTERY EQUIPMENT

  • Problems that occur as a result of using more than one battery in parallel in order to meet the energy needs of the boats.
  • The resulting temperature differences spoil the batteries and the whole system collapses (weakest link principle).
  • Risk of being without a battery in the middle of the sea.
  • Problems that occur as the battery capacity grows.
  • Need for larger (expensive) rectifiers.
  • Problems that occur as the battery capacity grows.
  • Inability of sources such as solar panels, wind turbines to charge the batteries.
Battery replacement and economic waste due to untraceable battery health

On existing boats, the battery pack is completely replaced every two years for safety reasons. For example, for a 15-20 meter sailboat with four 12V 165Ah batteries, the battery consumption in 10 years in the conventional system is 24.

Solution

OctopusBrain* technology, which provides automatic and sequential charging, sequential consumption and management of each battery in the battery groups (mostly connected in parallel) used in boats, was developed entirely by our own engineers and software developers in Turkey.

In this technology architecture, there is always a full battery and we can monitor and manage the status of each battery, including their consumption.

*OctopusBrainTM is the name of an AI (artificial intelligence) based smart software algorithm and electronic hardware technology developed by MERTECH. This patent-pending technology, which was developed for the first time in the world and brought to the BMS field, is used in the entire Octoopi product family of MERTECH.

Advantages

  • You do not have to connect the batteries in parallel.
  • It automatically performs charging/discharging, monitoring and management of each battery separately.
  • Thanks to this technology, the batteries are operated independently of each other and although they are not connected in parallel – in cases where instantaneous high current is required depending on the load – they can work as a parallel connected battery group.
  • As a result of sudden discharge or failure of any battery, the risk of being de-energized in the open sea is eliminated.
  • You do not need to renew the entire battery pack due to the weakening of a battery.
  • It reduces your battery replacement costs by more than 40%.
  • Since sequential charging can be done with lower capacity rectifiers, the energy infrastructure cost on the boat is considerably reduced.
  • With all these aspects, it is a nature-friendly product.
  • The algorithm, which constantly monitors battery health, predicts battery life.
  • It prevents problems that may arise from overheating of batteries with continuous temperature controls.
  • It informs and stores the unusual current and voltage values ​​that may occur in the batteries.
  • It provides easy and interactive use through the advanced screen and smart application.
  • It has user and service friendly product design.
  • Installation is done quickly with the specially developed mounting kit.
  • It offers the possibility of mounting each battery at different points on the boat independently from each other (A good solution for boats with space shortages).
  • It provides high efficiency and safe battery charging from limited sources such as solar panels and wind turbines.
  • It has been designed in accordance with unfavorable environmental conditions such as high humidity, temperature and vibration on the open sea.
  • It supports CanBUS and NMEA2000 communication infrastructure standards.
  • Compatible with different types of batteries (AGM, gel and SFB-water).
  • Compatible with all rectifiers, solar panels, wind turbines and alternators.

Example: For a 15-20 meter sailboat with four 12V 165Ah batteries, the battery consumption in the two systems is as follows.