Lowrance and NMEA 2000 ......

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I have already wired up the NMEA 0183 from my Lowrance 3500C to my PC .... works excellently.

The question is - Has anyone hooked any NMEA 2000 network stuff yet ? Considering that the Lowrance gear has the capability ..... Am interested to hear comments / advantages etc.
 
I have been looking for the message format for the NMEA 2000 so I can interface some fuel flow sensors to my laptop for display and analysis to no sucess and to buy from NMEA is not justifiable as I only with to do this for myself.
 
Interesting ...... reason I ask is that to me - a virtual numbskull when it comes to electronics ...... (I can wire up NMEA 0183 .... serial etc., with no problem ....) this 2000 format appeared to not have the limitations that 0183 has in terms of number of talkers / listeners etc. That it was designed to be a network system .... not just a data link.

Surely somewhere on the web must be a site giving some detail ??
 
NMEA 2000 hasn't really caught on widely yet, though it's a much better system than 0183 and operates at 250,000 bps against 4800 for the latter so very fast. It's based on the CAN bus which makes it compatible with a lot of sensors (eg engine management etc). It's a multi-drop network as opposed to point-to-point.

try this for a brief intro and this also

The full spec is 8 volumes and costs $4,000 !!
 
As my Lowrance 3500C has 2000 ..... and it needs powering - it appears to me to be a better system .... OK 0183 is "unpowered" and signal is dependent on talker ... and simple to wire up - but if 2000 can have a large number of instruments, data linked into a network - without Seatalks limits of being Raymarine proprietary - it must be a good idea ... At least it allows any company to develop for it ....
 
I think as time goes on info will come out and I thank Tome for the info which will help me in my interest and will spin off to help interface to different systems like yours.

I and also think that some members of your nav group my beable to fill in any of the gaps us amateurs need to setup cross product connections
 
they can develop for it but thres a price in delivery

I am looking to add trim tabs and the bennet ones have an optional 2000bus unit which would display the tab positions in a box on the 3500's screen ............but it's about the price of a 3500 unit! OK in fairness thats still pretty cheap for an lcd display of tab positions I suppose. No doubt the OD manufacturers will support it, certainly Merc, in due course.
 
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Surely somewhere on the web must be a site giving some detail ??

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Check for example www.teamgotsalt.com and www.maretron.com.

How much advantage NMEA 2000 will be over NMEA 0183 depends on a number of things obviously. Which engine you have and if you can connect the engine management module to NMEA 2000, what other information would you like to view and if your plotter or any other NMEA 2000 capable display is capable of displaying the parameter groups your sensors use, etc.

I'm personally waiting on the delivery of an 18.5 feet CC with 115 Evinrude E-TEC (NMEA 2000 compatible). I'm going to put in place an NMEA 2000 network, initially with the EMM, plotter, two LMF-400 gauges, speed sensor and GPS antenna connected to it. Later I will most likely add battery monitoring sensors for all four batteries, fuel level sender and a weather station.

To me building an NMEA 2000 network makes sense, and based on what I know of the system it should be a lot simpler than doing all this with NMEA 0183.

- Teppo -
 
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