NMEA engine interface - Page 2

geoffs · 20 October 2008, 18:42

Hi All,

I have done some checking with Navico and they say that the bezels are not part of the Lowrance range, here or in the US.

Looking at the jpg that accompanied a previous reply, the I-Command instruments are OEM'd by Lowrance and they have coloured bezels. These bezels are available through their supply chain via Evinrude etc.

Andy Buoy · 23 October 2008, 21:39

I have bought network connection from from offshore systems
I still have not got it working but will let you know when i get there.
what type of plotter are you trying to connect to?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceB

The instructions supplied for these are completely pants
I have the covers off my 2006 DF90 and I am stumped about how it connects.
Looking on the net there seems to lots of contadictory information about what will and will not work with what.
I have analogue gauges and want to keep them, don't want to use the trim function but do want the other info on the network to show up on my plotter.
How the h**l do I get it hooked up at the outboard end and where and with what!

Ferdi · 24 October 2008, 09:14

have a look at this post from me - http://www.rib.net/forum/showpost.ph...6&postcount=20 - here you can see my NMEA2000 connection from Evinrude E-TEC 150HO to Lowrance 7200C.

The page with the round instruments is a custom gauge page in Lowrance where you can choose each data displayed as digital, slide chart or round "normal" gauge.

in the page of the map all data are displayed as digital, just to do not loose too much space and still see most of the map.

BruceB · 24 October 2008, 20:51

That post was some time ago, network has been up and running for several months.
I am at the moment hooking in an additional four Lowranse gauges to the network, got them yesterday and just need some dry weather to connect the backlighting and other bits and bobs inside the console.

IBWET · 25 October 2008, 09:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceB

That post was some time ago, network has been up and running for several months.
I am at the moment hooking in an additional four Lowranse gauges to the network, got them yesterday and just need some dry weather to connect the backlighting and other bits and bobs inside the console.

Hi Bruce,

I'm going to do the same as you with a different plotter (Raymarine A65) I've learned a fair bit re the connection on the engine etc from this thread ,all relatively easy to follow. Presently it's analogue gauges so excluding them for the moment, was connecting the two main units easy, It's a wee bit diff getting to the back of the A65 so thats the next thing to check, but the RM lit says alll compatible. Any issues you came across?...

BruceB · 25 October 2008, 09:49

Apart from the instructions being poor it all works well.
You need one power supply only to the network, mine is switched and fused through the switch panel at the moment but because I am putting the engien diagnostics through the gauges I am moving the network to a fused supply only via the busbar in the console. This is switched anyway and is to avoid being able to run the engine with the engine check disabled as the gauges are fed from the network.
Engne interface plugs into the ECU and you plug the trim sender into either the engine loom for analogue or the interface for electronic gauges.
The only thing I find is that the network needs to be up already or starting the engine doesn't bring it up on the network, this problem will be resolved by the changes above.
The diagram shows mine as complete, seems to all works well.

IBWET · 25 October 2008, 10:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by BruceB

Apart from the instructions being poor it all works well.
You need one power supply only to the network, mine is switched and fused through the switch panel at the moment but because I am putting the engien diagnostics through the gauges I am moving the network to a fused supply only via the busbar in the console. This is switched anyway and is to avoid being able to run the engine with the engine check disabled as the gauges are fed from the network.
Engne interface plugs into the ECU and you plug the trim sender into either the engine loom for analogue or the interface for electronic gauges.
The only thing I find is that the network needs to be up already or starting the engine doesn't bring it up on the network, this problem will be resolved by the changes above.
The diagram shows mine as complete, seems to all works well.

Cheers Bruce,

That makes sense to maintain the sequence; power check start.

I'll have a crack at it.

watch out out for fireballs down here if I get it wrong...

BruceB · 29 October 2008, 22:48

I ended up buying a Lowrance 5300C colour plotter today to swop out the BW 4800 I was using in gauge mode.
Since the info that was on the 4800 is now shown on the new gauges I decided to use this space for a colour plotter so that one can show zoomed in and one zoomed out charts.
Plus the single LGC3000 aerial on the network is now backed up by the internal aerial on the 5300C and I have full redundancy for the GPS system with two displays and two GPS units.
I really will need to stop adding kit or the boat is going to struggle to get on the plane!

Did you get sorted out with yours?

BruceB · 09 November 2008, 22:41

I now have all the gauges in and the plotter changed over.
Still programming but came across a few niggles.
1. Backlight is wired into my instrument lights but does nothing? The gauges light up for display but I assume the backlight wires are for the buttons? Nothing happening on any of the four gauges?
2. One gauge goes dark before any of the other three when using the network dimming. Looked at contrast and brightness and all are the same but this one is unreadable at the lowest setting. s,not a major problem as it can be manually brightened but annoying as the network dimming controls can be used for all instruments.
3. On the 5300C plotter running a Nauticpath card I can figure out how to set the land to be coloured as per the LCX-27 running a Navionics card. The instructions say the land can be set "gray" but doesn't explain how and I can't find anything going through the unit menus. Or is setting sea "white" the way it is done? Basically sea and land are both white, I like land to be coloured to make it more obvious to the missus to avoid

4. Tried downloading the latest 2.4.0 software for the 5300C and keep getting an error, anybody now why? keeps saying null when downloading and have tried everyway I can think.
Once these niggles are sorted out I will be happy enough, lots of toys to play with and they look and seem to work well. I just wish Lowrance would improve the manuals!

BruceB · 10 November 2008, 16:53

Got the latest update sorted, turns out it was my PC that didn't like the download.
Tried the navionics card I have in the new one and land is shown brown, put the Nauticpath back in and its white again. Still can't find the instruction that lets me colour the land!