Nordic cellular IoT-powered remote boat monitoring system operates for years on AA batteries

U.S. connected electronics engineering company, Skyhawk, has launched a cellular IoT-based monitoring system that provides boat owners with peace of mind that their boats are safe, secure, seaworthy, and ready to go. The ‘Skyhawk Oversea’ solution is designed for both powerboat and sailboat owners and is comprised of sub-GHz RF sensors and a battery-powered cellular IoT gateway—the ‘Oversea Hub’—which employs Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF9160 SiP.

The cellular connectivity ensures boat owners can constantly keep track of the location and status of their boat via the ‘Oversea’ smartphone app. The solution recently won the 2024 Innovation Award for Consumer Electronics and Mobile Apps at the Miami International Boat Show.

Precise location data

The user can select from a suite of sensors reporting a wide range of data for remote boat monitoring including battery voltage, bilge pump activity, shore power connection, entry, passive infrared motion, sound, temperature & humidity, high water, and directional sensors. This data is transmitted to the water- and dust-proof Oversea Hub which in turn relays the sensor data to the Cloud using the versatile LTE-M/NB-IoT modem integrated into the Nordic SiP. Additionally, the nRF9160 SiP employs a combination of cellular network location data and GNSS trilateration to record the precise location of each gateway and boat.

The nRF9160 SiP’s cellular RF power efficiency is better by a factor of roughly five to 10 times compared to competitive solutions.

Rich Shevelow, CEO and CTO at Skyhawk, a unit of the PICA Group

“Skyhawk Oversea is the first boat monitoring system that you can use on your boat all year round, whether your boat is in the water, on a trailer, or in storage,” says Rich Shevelow, CEO and CTO at Skyhawk, a unit of the PICA Group. “Providing years of operation with its internal batteries, Oversea delivers 24/7 location on demand and security, safety and readiness monitoring without interruption.”

Class leading power consumption

The Oversea Hub is powered using three AA batteries, avoiding the need for a local power supply, drain on a boat’s battery, or cumbersome wired installations. The batteries provide up 10 years battery life between replacement in tracker only mode, and approximately 2 years between replacement when used both in tracker mode and collecting data from locally deployed sensors. The class leading power consumption of the nRF9160 SiP helps maximize battery life, thanks to the support for both PSM and eDRX power-saving modes, enabling the SiP to sleep for longer periods to conserve energy. For both LTE-M and NB-IoT the PSM floor current is as low as 2.7 µA, and with an eDRX interval of 655 s the average current is 6 µA for LTE-M and 9 µA for NB-IoT.

“Based on previous experience, the nRF9160 SiP’s cellular RF power efficiency is better by a factor of roughly five to 10 times compared to competitive solutions,” continues Shevelow. “During development, Nordic’s technical support has been very good, and the Power Profiler Kit and Online Power Profiler are unique and valuable development tools.”