NaviMon - Smart Boat Monitor
Draft: 20th Jan 2026
The NaviMon Battery Control System (BCS) is designed to work with all types of batteries in any mixture that you have. The BCS will manage all your battery types and banks of cells. With the BCS attached to your system it will monitor and control the power distribution to maximize a multitude of configurations of batteries; this allows you to get the maxium bang per buck for your investment in your power system. With the NaviMon BCS we will utilise every battery to the maxium potential so when your rotate it out you will have gain the complete life from that power source.
There are certain cirsumstances that can happen with batteries that we cannot detect. Batteries are a mainstay of boating, they charge your phone, wifi router, lighting and if you have enough power then it's powering your fridge, cooker and washing machine. The NaviMon BCS will manage the system, but it relies on the battery bank(s), as a [potential] customer of our we would like to inform you a bit about different types of batteries that can be about your boat.
If you have a boat, you are 99.99% certain that you will need a battery, or two, or three, or a lot more! For those people with boats in that 0.01%, we tip our hats to you people still maintaing a good old steam boat, but what are you running your lights any other electrics off? Even your humble smart phone still has a battery in it that might be dangerous to your boat. Food for thought :)
We are going to group the most common batteries and what you need to be aware of. All batteries can be potentially dangerous but it's not neccessarily a cause for concern as long as you are aware of the potential dangers.
The good old lead acid battery. It's solid, reliable, open to abuse and almost without danger. But be aware, these batteries can give off explosive gasses if over charged, and explodise gasses are not good!`
Having said that, lead acid are the most reliable and robust batteries available. If you have the space and weight carrying ability on your boat you can't really go wrong with this setup and it's about as safe as it gets will large storage of electric energy.
On the smaller sized batteries of years gone by are all other small batteries including small packs with NiCad recarchable and similar batteries (MiHM for example). You might find some old school 'exotic' batteries in air sensors and maybe some old camera. All of these old school batteries are total safe, the worst they normally do is leak some goo and ruin your electronics equipment. That's always a bit of a bummer.
These predated Lithium-ion and were used widely in the helicopter and areoplane hobbies. Please do not allow these batteries anywhere on your boat. They are old tech and should no longer be used anymore. They will probably burn down your boat!
These batteries were/are a revolution in battery tech compared to the old school batteries. The energy density makes these batteries very powerful and that take up the minimum amount of space. These batteries are ubiquatise, they are everywhere. They are in your smart phone, in your power tools, in your electric car and electric bike. That is just a small sample of products that contain Litium-ion batteries.
These batteries can be very dangerous. But as Tesla said; "with great power comes great responsibility"
If you have a good quality (ie, Panasonic) battery or using a good brand then there is a very hight probability that your Litium-ion cells will never give you any problems. In the [very] rare cases that these batteries cause a problem then they are very dangerious. Depending on the size of the battery, it will easily melt through every layer of a plastic (GRP) or wooden boat. If you think you are safe in a metal boat, you might not sink but I bet your have a shit load of items that will catch fire with the violent nature of these batteries!
Having said that, it's very rare to experience a violent battery fire from Lithium-ion betteries unless you hammer and nail through a battery pack (yip, done that!). Just be very mindful of these batteries; treat them this kid gloves and they will supply their magic electrons to enhance your life. If you treat these batteries porely by using a crappy charger, dropping or daminging the battery pack or other nasty abuse - they will definately let you know.
Look after these batteries and they will look after you.
Lithium-ion, as a rough guide, is ok up to about 100 Watt/Hrs. You really don't want Lithium-ion battery above that capacity on your boat if you can help it.
The next step up for a safe storage of larger qualities greather than 100W/H are LFP batteries. They do not store as much energy as Lithium-ion but they are a bit or a lot safer. Yes, they still need to be handled with care as with Lithium-ion; if you have them kid gloves they might still come in handy with LFP batteries. The main difference between these Lithium batteries is when things go wrong; LFP batteries will give off lots of very toxic gasses if they go wrong, but they will [most probably] not burn your boat down.
As of writing in 2026, these are the batteries that are a good option for cabin and auxilary power requirements within the boat hull and maybe cabin areas (with precautions).
These are not technically a battery but they are an interesting power source that can be charged quickly. Compared to litium-ion and LFP batteries, these capacitors have a very low energy density and as such they will never give off that much toxic fumes and will never catch light.
We are currently looking at this technology to put into our devices and a last resort power function when the devices source battery becomes totally depleted, or maybe the source battery has been disconnected.
We are in the future, there are new advancements in battery tech all the time. Sometimes new battery tech is released and it's amazing for small nech application, for example a new revolutionary battery that can last 10 to 20 years for specialised devices. Those types of advancement are never noticed.
There are two major technologies on the horizon for the general population, as we as boaters are. This is just our opinion at NaviMon though:
These are looking like a very interesting battery. At the time of writing this article, these batteries are only just entering the general manufacturing stage. The support market isn't there for general pro/consumer equipment to support the specific needs of these batteries; they charge differently and can be used differently on their voltage ranges.
When we at NaviMon get a bit of time we will get a couple of these batteries and integrate them into our system.
As of writing, the net is shouting about the 'Donut' Solid State battery as per the CES 2026 show. The specs are fantastic; solid state and no liquid, no fire risk, no toxic gasses, recharges in a blink of the eye and it's almost double the energy density of Lithiun-ion batteries. Hell, sign me up :)
But it's just some bullshit marketing from a two bit company. It's not true.
This is the wholey grail of battery tech. The battery to beat all other batteries. Maybe the semi-solid battery will be the next big thing, this is actively in research by all the big battery tech companies and appears to be the next big stepping stone. Battery tech is advancing, but it's never a big step.