Victron VE CAN to NMEA 2000

[NO Felice]

I have connected my Victron charger/inverter, battery monitor and solar controller to a Victron Cerbo, which in turn display all of the available data on a Touch 70 display. All working together very nicely. I want to be able to monitor charging from one of the plotters on the flybridge, the Victron VE CAN to NMEA 2000 cable looks just the job. With an RRP of £90 it's obviously more than just a metre of cable and a couple of plugs (you'd think). I found one for £57 inc Vat and ordered it. When it arrived it looks just like a 1 metre Ethernet cable with a Devicenet (NMEA 2000) connector on one end ! Never the less, i connected it and it does just what i want.

I decided to take a closer look at the cable to see just what Victron were supplying for their £90 RRP. Turns out it is exactly what it looks like, a 1m Ethernet cable with a N2K connector on one end. It does have a fuse in the power supply connection at the N2K connector, as this can be used to power the N2K network. Victron warn against powering the N2K network on systems with 24v or 48v power systems, as that voltage will be used to power the network, which should only be 12v, so they say take the fuse out. I cannot think of any good reason to power the N2K network from the Victron VE CAN anyway, so of the four wires used in the connector, only the two CAN wires are actually needed. You could make one of these cables in less time than it took to read this post. The 1m cable wasn't long enough, so i had to add a 2m N2K cable, another £25, taking the total to £82.

Making the cable could not be easier, just cut one end off of a straight through Ethernet cable. The brown wire should go to pin 8 and the white/brown should go to pin 7, see below.

Connect the brown wire to terminal 5 of a male NMEA 2000 connector and the white/brown wire to pin 4

Job done. If you wanted to power the N2K network from the VE CAN, pin 6 (orange) from the RJ45 connector goes to pin 2 of the N2K connector and pin 3 (white/orange) of the RJ45 connects to pin 3 of the N2K connector.

View attachment 184437

View attachment 184438

It is the pure horror what some manufacturers rip you off for a simple interface cable that you can craft with some knowledge in 10 minutes and spend 10 euros for the material ... ...
Thank you Paul for the good drawing and instructions.

 

[NO Felice]

Type / Source / Manufacturer of NMEA 2000 plug ?

Can some of you experts please provide a source or the type / parts number of the NMEA plugs (not cables or preconfigured).
Just the clean plug (male & female) for assembling own custom cables.

 

[tjbrace]

Type / Source / Manufacturer of NMEA 2000 plug ?

Can some of you experts please provide a source or the type / parts number of the NMEA plugs (not cables or preconfigured).
Just the clean plug (male & female) for assembling own custom cables.

No expert, but Garmin sell a field installable N2k plug/socket. It comes as part of the wind kit as the mast cable length is so variable.

 

[lustyd]

No expert, but Garmin sell a field installable N2k plug/socket. It comes as part of the wind kit as the mast cable length is so variable.

Those are about £30 each though. Amazon have some for a tenner which work well. I used ferrules on the stranded cable as the connector uses screws to hold them.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Type / Source / Manufacturer of NMEA 2000 plug ?

Can some of you experts please provide a source or the type / parts number of the NMEA plugs (not cables or preconfigured).
Just the clean plug (male & female) for assembling own custom cables.

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/c/connectors/circular-connectors/industrial-circular-connectors/?selectedNavigation=brands=Brad from Molex^attributes.Number_of_Contacts=5^attributes.Termination_Method=Screw

Cactus sell them as well...

Actisense NMEA 2000 Connector - Micro field fit, straight - female (A2K-FFC-SF)
Actisense NMEA 2000 Connector - Micro field fit, straight - male (A2K-FFC-SM)
Actisense Micro NMEA 2000 Cable - Per Metre (A2K-MICRO-MTR)

Given the prices for the components you won't save anything making the cables yourself. A 1m drop cable would cost you over £65.

 

[KompetentKrew]

Given the prices for the components you won't save anything making the cables yourself. A 1m drop cable would cost you over £65.

€5.50 on AliExpress.

Not sure if Ali links work on here, so check item IDs 1005007709079012 and 1005007329287659, for example.

HatLabs in Finland also sell NMEA 2000 connectors - theirs are higher quality (same as chandlers' "field kit" ones, I think) and only €7, but I don't know how expensive they are for shipping to UK.

Farnell sell NMEA cable, labelled as "canbus" - IIRC it's about £7 per metre. The stuff I got was very thick and shielded.

 

[lustyd]

Given the prices for the components you won't save anything making the cables yourself. A 1m drop cable would cost you over £65.

The thread is about making a ve.can to n2k cable though, the whole point was saving a fortune on the cable.

Regatta Processing NMEA 2000 (N2k) Male Field Installable Connector for Garmin Lowrance Simrad B&G & Navico Networks : Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors

Regatta Processing NMEA 2000 (N2k) Female Field Installable Connector for Garmin Lowrance Simrad B&G & Navico Networks : Amazon.co.uk: Sports & Outdoors

 

[AngusMcDoon]

€5.50 on AliExpress.

Not sure if Ali links work on here, so check item IDs 1005007709079012 and 1005007329287659, for example.

They appear to be terminating resistors rather than connectors. 1005006273151502 might be the connectors although the listing isn't all that clear. Good price, if they'll deliver to the UK.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Search for "nmea 2000 Field Installable Connector" for example ;

M12-Schraubanschluss Kunststoff-Feldstecker NMEA2000 5-polig gerade abgewinkelt IP67 wasserdicht 3 4 6 8-polige Sensoranschlüsse PG7 PG9 - AliExpress 13

 

[Zing]

I bought these. A decent brand:

https://uk.farnell.com/hirschmann/elka-5012-pg9/sensor-connector-m12-rcpt-5pos/dp/2901511

 

[KompetentKrew]

They appear to be terminating resistors rather than connectors. 1005006273151502 might be the connectors although the listing isn't all that clear. Good price, if they'll deliver to the UK.

I think you're right, but listing 1005008603776166 has connectors.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

I bought these. A decent brand:

https://uk.farnell.com/hirschmann/elka-5012-pg9/sensor-connector-m12-rcpt-5pos/dp/2901511

Good find. Locating the right stuff on RS and Farnell is often a mission.

 

[AngusMcDoon]

Search for "nmea 2000 Field Installable Connector" for example ;

M12-Schraubanschluss Kunststoff-Feldstecker NMEA2000 5-polig gerade abgewinkelt IP67 wasserdicht 3 4 6 8-polige Sensoranschlüsse PG7 PG9 - AliExpress 13

That's the one I was alluding to with listing number ending in 1502 but I'm not sure the difference between A code and B code both being 5 pins.

 

[NO Felice]

Thanks All - I guess we have now all the resources for people with time and passion for DIY
This is a link to the original brand of Amphenol: An overview of the NMEA hardware - cables - plugs:

https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/2634543.pdf

 

[PaulRainbow]

I bought these. A decent brand:

https://uk.farnell.com/hirschmann/elka-5012-pg9/sensor-connector-m12-rcpt-5pos/dp/2901511

Those are the ones i use for work.

 

[lustyd]

They appear identical to the Amazon ones I bought so presumably someone is reselling them for a small profit. Makes sense, it’s easier for us to buy through Amazon so I’m glad of the service.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

I have connected my Victron charger/inverter, battery monitor and solar controller to a Victron Cerbo, which in turn display all of the available data on a Touch 70 display. All working together very nicely. I want to be able to monitor charging from one of the plotters on the flybridge, the Victron VE CAN to NMEA 2000 cable looks just the job. With an RRP of £90 it's obviously more than just a metre of cable and a couple of plugs (you'd think). I found one for £57 inc Vat and ordered it. When it arrived it looks just like a 1 metre Ethernet cable with a Devicenet (NMEA 2000) connector on one end ! Never the less, i connected it and it does just what i want.

I decided to take a closer look at the cable to see just what Victron were supplying for their £90 RRP. Turns out it is exactly what it looks like, a 1m Ethernet cable with a N2K connector on one end. It does have a fuse in the power supply connection at the N2K connector, as this can be used to power the N2K network. Victron warn against powering the N2K network on systems with 24v or 48v power systems, as that voltage will be used to power the network, which should only be 12v, so they say take the fuse out. I cannot think of any good reason to power the N2K network from the Victron VE CAN anyway, so of the four wires used in the connector, only the two CAN wires are actually needed. You could make one of these cables in less time than it took to read this post. The 1m cable wasn't long enough, so i had to add a 2m N2K cable, another £25, taking the total to £82.

Making the cable could not be easier, just cut one end off of a straight through Ethernet cable. The brown wire should go to pin 8 and the white/brown should go to pin 7, see below.

Connect the brown wire to terminal 5 of a male NMEA 2000 connector and the white/brown wire to pin 4

Job done. If you wanted to power the N2K network from the VE CAN, pin 6 (orange) from the RJ45 connector goes to pin 2 of the N2K connector and pin 3 (white/orange) of the RJ45 connects to pin 3 of the N2K connector.

View attachment 184437

View attachment 184438

Thanks @PaulRainbow ..... Just made one this weekend from a "Victron Blue" ethernet patch cable and a Raymarine SeatalkNG spur cable. Worked a treat ... thanks for the pinouts.

For SeatalkNG it looks like this ... as the SeatalkNG backbone is usually powered, no power connections are required for the VE-Can connection. (equivalent to leaving the fuse out in the Victron Adapter Cable)