New Instruments

[Euphonyx]

I have just bought a GPSMAP 551 from someone here. By coincidence my Nasa Clipper wind transducer has chewed itself to a grinding halt. My depth gauge (also Nasa) stopped working at the beginning of the summer, so I need to renew my instruments. The 551 says its NMEA 2000 compatible. I do like the Raymarine i70 which is also Nmea 2000 compatible. If I get one all I need is an Nmea 2000 speed/depth transducer and an Nmea 2000 windvane/anamometer and a few simple connectors and I'm off. Is that naive?

 

[superheat6k]

No, it really is that simple. Garmin do a NMEA2000 starter kit fir around £60. This is essential to provide the 'Backbone', power connection, and end terminations. You will then need a Tee connector and dropper lead for each accessory as your system expands.

Visit the Garmin website for a full explanation of how the NMEA 2000 system goes together.

Be aware that there are different levels of compliance to NMEA2000. The Garmin stuff is fully compliant.

I installed this on my boat and it was too easy.

 

[David2452]

As above, but, there are no "levels" of compliance, stuff is either N2K certified or is not certified, certified stuff works every time when connected to other certified stuff, non certified stuff despite the manufacturers claim may not work fully, especially as the network expands. A list of certified equipment and cabling is available here. http://www.nmea.org/content/nmea_standards/certified_produ.asp

 

[Euphonyx]

As above, but, there are no "levels" of compliance, stuff is either N2K certified or is not certified, certified stuff works every time when connected to other certified stuff, non certified stuff despite the manufacturers claim may not work fully, especially as the network expands. A list of certified equipment and cabling is available here. http://www.nmea.org/content/nmea_standards/certified_produ.asp

Thats great. Thanks. I'll have a good look at that later.

 

[Norman_E]

NMEA 2000 really is quite simple, though it gets a bit more complicated if you have to integrate any NMEA 0183 stuff. I fitted new instruments to my boat, and added both B&G Tritons (which are brilliant) and Garmin GMi10 instruments, plus a new though hull depth, log and temperature transducer but kept my old wind transducer and one old wind instrument with the data from that fed to the NMEA 2000 kit via an Actisense gateway. I have written it up with photographs and an article may appear in PBO in the fairly near future.

As the OP has to replace both hull and masthead transducers I suggest buying a starter kit, because the cables and fittings for NMEA 2000 are quite expensive. Starter sets containing one instrument, both transducers, and all the basic cables and fittings save quite a bit of cash compared with buying all the bits separately. There may be good prices to be had on a Garmin GMi10 starter set given that the new GMi20 is about to appear. The advantage of the Garmin masthead unit is that the cable comes with a user fit plug, so is easier to thread though the mast. In addition it has a barometric pressure sensor (which the B&G unit lacks) allowing the instrument to display a barograph screen.

As regards NMEA 2000 compliance the B&G Tritons are fine and work perfectly in any NMEA 2000 system, but cannot be claimed as full compliant because they can be daisy chained in a multiple instrument configuration.

 

[Norman_E]

As above, but, there are no "levels" of compliance, stuff is either N2K certified or is not certified, certified stuff works every time when connected to other certified stuff, non certified stuff despite the manufacturers claim may not work fully, especially as the network expands. A list of certified equipment and cabling is available here. http://www.nmea.org/content/nmea_standards/certified_produ.asp

The NMEA list of certified products is a very short one. If everyone stuck to just that list it would be impossible to build a yacht instrument system as it does not include any of the common NMEA 2000 multifunction instruments or dedicated wind instruments, or even the most common Airmar NMEA 2000 traducer! Major instrument manufacturers like Garmin, B&G, Raymarine Furuno and Simrad all produce instruments that either directly connect to NMEA 2000 and work together or are connected by their own proprietary connector. For example Simrad uses its own Simnet connectors but make a Simnet to NMEA 2000 micro C connector. Raymarine also supply a connector for their system.

 

[David2452]

The NMEA list of certified products is a very short one.

I wouldn't call 550 a very short list, its not about physical conectivity or even that some stuff works that is not certified, it's about certainty.

 

[Euphonyx]

I wouldn't call 550 a very short list, its not about physical conectivity or even that some stuff works that is not certified, it's about certainty.

I had a quick look and cant find 550. I found a small list of 30 or 40 marked NEW NMEA 2000 certified products 2013. Maybe that's what is causing confusion. I'll have a proper look later.

Solid advice Norman. Thanks. Was worried (still am) about threading the wind wire through the mast. Seems the Garmin hull transducer is a little wider than the old one so that's good news. Better than the other way around anyway! I'll have a look for prices on the starter pack. Thanks

 

[Norman_E]

That's what I found, the short list! If there are 550 items I still doubt that the B&G Tritons are on it because they have daisy chain capability, and what about all the Raymarine and Simrad instruments? Early Garmin GMi10 instruments had separate power cables, so they were not strictly compliant, but still worked fine with other NMEA 2000 stuff.

 

[David2452]

The short list is only new stuff certified in 2013, maybe my link will not allow non NMEA members to see the whole list (some areas are for certified NMEA tech's only), though I see no reason to think that is the case as that part of the site should be a public area. No daisy chained instruments or MFDs are certifiable, as I said earlier some may well work in some circumstances, some may not, and worse still may fail to work correctly when further additions are made. As I said erlier, it is about certainties and continuity.

 

[ghostlymoron]

One thing that's always puzzled me is what's the advantage of integrated instrument systems (ie all talk to each other)? Is it just so you can display information on a plotter?

 

[Norman_E]

On a yacht the whole point is that you can use a multi function display, which will show at any given time your choice of wind data, depth, log or GPS, or whatever else you want to see. Some plotters will display your boat speed and or water depth, whilst you use the multi function display to show wind speed and direction. With a properly integrated system you actually need fewer instruments since one display like the B&G Triton can show all of the information on the system, and can even be set to scroll through a series of screens which you define. I have no problems at all with my system which combines kit made by B&G, Garmin, Airmar, Actisense and Advansea.