Patent ID: 7525449

Claim:
A method for indicating a status of a subsystem controlled by a switch provided on a steering wheel of a marine vehicle, comprising: providing a switch for said subsystem on said steering wheel of said marine vehicle; providing a status indicator for said switch; detecting an activation of said switch; transmitting a command to said subsystem in said marine vehicle in response to said activation wherein said command transmission comprises using infrared transmission; detecting an operation status of said subsystem in response to said command; and activating said status indicator to indicate said operation status as detected; wherein said infrared transmission comprises: generating a National Marine Electronics Association (MNEA) 2000 encoding compliant command data train comprising information about said command; emitting said NMEA 2000 encoding compliant command data train using infrared; capturing said command data train; and receiving said captured NMEA 2000 encoding compliant command data train.