One for the Electronics geeks !! tacho to plotter readout

[Refueler]

OK ... just having a brainstorm !!

I have a 3rd party tacho sensor clipped to alternator case .. it pulses to a standard meter ....

Diesel Engine Tacho Adapter RPM Signal Sensor Fit For Vehicle Truck Boat Yacht | eBay

2" 52mm Tachometer 0-4000rpm Tacho RPM Gauge For Marine Boat Car Waterproof | eBay

Works excellently ... simple to set-up .... works literally out of box for most alternators ... (brilliant replacement for when proprietary gives up the ghost !)

Question is - would there be any 'convertor adaptor' that could translate the output to nmea for display on a plotter / MFD ?

Just asking out of curiosity ..... seeing as so many other data bits get shoved onto MFD screens ...

 

[Refueler]

I see a Canbus unit ... but that's to N2K ....

and price !

RS11 - CANbus Engine Data Converter - NoLand Engineering

 

[Keith-i]

You would have to convert it into N2K as 183 doesn’t support engine data. It could be done with Arduino but it’s a steep learning curve if you’ve not done it before.

 

[Ceirwan]

There are plug and play solutions which as you said are expensive.
Actisense being one off the top of my head.

There are also DIY ways to do it much cheaper, but they are a bit too involved to explain in a forum post and would involve semi custom hardware and programming. (Something like an Arduino mentioned above

 

[lektran]

Checkout "Boating with the Baileys" on youtube for the DIY solution. It's quite technical though and ends up requiring an octocoupler feeding an ESP32 chip which sends the data to a raspberry pi running openplotter/signalk. A lot of work and probably not worth it unless you have more uses for the data than just looking at it on an MFD.

 

[B27]

I can't see the attraction of doing this.
Plotters cost a fortune per pixel, I want to keep the max area for the chart, not clutter it up with 'info' which easily goes on its own 'gauge'.

Once you've done some miles in the boat, you know what cruising RPM and 'pressing on' sound like.
When I first had my boat, I found it annoying that the rev counter was often hidden by rope.
2 years on, it's not an issue.

 

[Alex_Blackwood]

I can't see the attraction of doing this.
Plotters cost a fortune per pixel, I want to keep the max area for the chart, not clutter it up with 'info' which easily goes on its own 'gauge'.

Once you've done some miles in the boat, you know what cruising RPM and 'pressing on' sound like.
When I first had my boat, I found it annoying that the rev counter was often hidden by rope.
2 years on, it's not an issue.

+1 for that. After all the hassle of fitting "Something else to go wrong" how often would you use it, Once the engine is up and running you monitor it by ear. How often do you look at the RPM now or even in your car?

 

[Refueler]

You would have to convert it into N2K as 183 doesn’t support engine data. It could be done with Arduino but it’s a steep learning curve if you’ve not done it before.

Actually already found a unit that does convert direct to 0183 - 4 outputs in fact !! .. also has its own display ... but at over 500 notes - its not on my shopping list !!

 

[Refueler]

I can't see the attraction of doing this.
Plotters cost a fortune per pixel, I want to keep the max area for the chart, not clutter it up with 'info' which easily goes on its own 'gauge'.

Once you've done some miles in the boat, you know what cruising RPM and 'pressing on' sound like.
When I first had my boat, I found it annoying that the rev counter was often hidden by rope.
2 years on, it's not an issue.

My SR25 built in 1973 only got a Tacho last year .... but as you say - I knew what was cruising / high / low setting by 'ear' ... but was interesting to have the actual numbers on a meter ...
My Conq 38 will get same setup ... sensor and meter are on the bench ready to fit ....

The question to feed an MFD was as I said in post #1 .. just thinking ... not a real scenario ...

I agree that I like an uncluttered Plotter display ...

 

[Refueler]

+1 for that. After all the hassle of fitting "Something else to go wrong" how often would you use it, Once the engine is up and running you monitor it by ear. How often do you look at the RPM now or even in your car?

Actually since fitting to the SR25 ... I look quite often ... even though I am happy by ear.

Car ? Do you have a DPF on yours ?? That Tacho comes in handy when DPF error comes up !! My range Rover 4.4 TDV8 - I have to maintain over 2000rpm for at least 20mins on the road to reset the DPF ... means I have to use the tacho and paddle shift over-riding the auto box to keep in low gear to keep revs up.

 

[rogerthebodger]

Have a look at the Arduino Forum you would most likely find some thing there for assist you if you wish to do something in the cold winter nights when you cannot sail

Projects Discussion and Showcase

 

[Refueler]

Have a look at the Arduino Forum you would most likely find some thing there for assist you if you wish to do something in the cold winter nights when you cannot sail

Projects Discussion and Showcase

Mate of mine is heavily into Arduino and Pi ..... we often talk about stuff like that as we both use 3D printers / RC / etc. and he's an IT / Electronics business.
The topic came up - its what prompted me here.

 

[rogerthebodger]

I have a little project going at the moment to take the speed Over Ground from a GPS and sent it fo an pld speed display designed to receive STW and display SOG

Looks like its just a change of the message header but I need to look at the messages in more detail

 

[st599]

There's only RPM available in NMEA 0183, N2K has more parameters.

$--RPM,ShaftorEngine,EngineNumber,ClockwiseRev/min,PropellorPitchPercentage,DataValid,Checksum

There's some rules for Engine Numbering too

 

[harvey38]

Albacombi- expensive but good

 

[PaulRainbow]

OK ... just having a brainstorm !!

I have a 3rd party tacho sensor clipped to alternator case .. it pulses to a standard meter ....

Diesel Engine Tacho Adapter RPM Signal Sensor Fit For Vehicle Truck Boat Yacht | eBay

2" 52mm Tachometer 0-4000rpm Tacho RPM Gauge For Marine Boat Car Waterproof | eBay

Works excellently ... simple to set-up .... works literally out of box for most alternators ... (brilliant replacement for when proprietary gives up the ghost !)

Question is - would there be any 'convertor adaptor' that could translate the output to nmea for display on a plotter / MFD ?

Just asking out of curiosity ..... seeing as so many other data bits get shoved onto MFD screens ...

There is a relatively inexpensive Chinese box of tricks that converts analogue data to N2K. Does two engines and several other devices. I have one here, looks OK but not had a chance to try it. I've also got the £400 ish Actisense, not had chance to fit that either.

This is the one i have,seen them on Ebay too : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100....order_list.order_list_main.41.1a611802IQQWtT

 

[Refueler]

There is a relatively inexpensive Chinese box of tricks that converts analogue data to N2K. Does two engines and several other devices. I have one here, looks OK but not had a chance to try it. I've also got the £400 ish Actisense, not had chance to fit that either.

This is the one i have,seen them on Ebay too : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100....order_list.order_list_main.41.1a611802IQQWtT

Interesting ... you surprise me actually ... I didn't think you would be up for this sort of thing ..

N2K ... you know I'm not a great fan of it ... but this unit makes me think ....

 

[rogerthebodger]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...18124326544e4ad7!12000025975985789!rec!ZA!!AB

Is this device doing the same as the one Paul posted but for a single engine as even lower cost

 

[PaulRainbow]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003480050868.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.0.0.657d45da7jmD9c&gps-id=pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40000.327270.0&scm_id=1007.40000.327270.0&scm-url=1007.40000.327270.0&pvid=c89da0da-708b-492c-959c-aa84a821cda9&_t=gps-idcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller,scm-url:1007.40000.327270.0,pvid:c89da0da-708b-492c-959c-aa84a821cda9,tpp_buckets:668#2846#8108#1977&pdp_npi=4@dis!ZAR!117.94!79.06!!!6.43!!@2101c67a17005018124326544e4ad7!12000025975985789!rec!ZA!!AB

Is this device doing the same as the one Paul posted but for a single engine as even lower cost

I think it's the same one Roger, you need to click the picture of the black box to get the real price.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Interesting ... you surprise me actually ... I didn't think you would be up for this sort of thing ..

I am a man of mystery

N2K ... you know I'm not a great fan of it ... but this unit makes me think ....

I bought the Actisense box when i first bought this boat (about 18 months ago) but it went missing, thought must have went out with some rubbish. Saw the one on AliExpress and thought i'd give it a try, then the Actisense one turned up. Just need to get around to fitting them. Having the tow isn't a bad thing for me, as i have twin engines and i'd like to connect the fuel and water tank sensors too, so one box doesn't have enough outputs.

Being able to switch to a dedicated page on the flybridge plotter would be useful, saves fitting full instrumentation up there. Ive got a pair of Garmin GMI20s at the lower helm, be useful to show some data there, such as water tank levels. Also have and a pair of 10.4" Android tablets at the lower helm and i have an Actisense N2K to USB converter, i could connect that to a Pi and send the data to the tablets by wifi. Had a similar setup on the last boat (less complicated as it was a single engine sail boat.