Monitor and Operate Safety Devices on Marine Main Air Compressors Using Microcontrollers

Abstract

Main Air Compressors on merchant vessel are essential and critical machinery which produce compressed air for starting the Main Engine and Auxiliary Engines. Apart from that, it also used as control air and service air onboard. Since Main Air Compressors is a vital machinery for a safe operation of a merchant vessel, they should be continuously monitored throughout it operation to prevent and any unforeseen damage and loss of compressed air. The purpose of this paper is to explain a proposed system to monitor the marine air compressors in a low cost system and application of the microcontrollers unit (MCU). This design is stimulated by Protues software. The program are compiled in PIC C Compilers, and programmed into microcontroller using a programmer for PIC 16-Bit microcontroller. This paper will show the enhancement of Marine Air Compressors monitoring system that will alert the duty watch keeper in charge of an engineering watch through audible and visual alarm. The priority of this system is to reduce and ease the task of the duty watchkeeper in monitoring Marine Main Air Compressors and ensure the safe operation of equipment