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1.1 Introduction
Congratulations on your purchase of the Maretron MBB100 Black Box for Vessel Monitoring and
Control. Maretron has designed and built your black box to the highest standards for years of
dependable and accurate service.
The Maretron Black Box (MBB100) is a dedicated processing unit that comes preloaded with
Maretron’s N2KView® vessel monitoring and control software (N2KView® hardware license key sold
separately). Unlike a PC that allows any software to be loaded, the MBB100 runs only N2KView®
software making it extremely stable and dedicated to monitoring and controlling your vessel.
The MBB100 is ruggedized for marine use and includes a solid state disk drive to withstand the
pounding associated with waves. And since the MBB100 dissipates less than 20 watts, there is no
need for internal cooling fans that are noisy and wear out causing electronics to overheat and fail.
The MBB100 connects to a monitor through a VGA connector and associated touch screen through a
USB or serial port connection. Alternatives to controlling the N2KView® software through a touch
screen include keyboards, mice, or track balls connected through USB. The MBB100 has an Ethernet
port for communicating with an NMEA 2000® network (see Figure 1) through Maretron’s Internet
Protocol Gateway (IPG100). Alternatively, the MBB100 can network through Ethernet to a PC running
N2KServer®. Although the MBB100 comes pre-installed with the N2KView® software, a separately
purchased N2KView hardware license key plugged into the IPG100 (or PC) is required (see IPG100
User’s Manual for more details). The Ethernet port is also used for connecting Internet Protocol (IP)
cameras for viewing within the N2KView® software.
Figure 1 – MBB100 Network Diagram