NMEA Garmin Echomap 50s to Suzuki DF50

[Limecc]

This NMEA stuff leaves me very confused lol.
I have a new-to-me 2006 Suzuki DF50 and I'd like to connect it to my Garmin Echomap 50s.

The Garmin is powered by a NMEA cable so do I just need an engine cable and connect it directly to that? Does it have to be for that year? I haven't seen anything for sale and am wary of making a mistake tbh.

I did read the guide here:
https://www.suzukioutboardforum.com/...networks/page4

Does anyone have for sale what I need or can give the part numbers? Is this the right thing? :
http://www.palynch.co.uk/partnumber....d=&pnid=490032

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

350 is the firmware revision. The Suzuki cables are very year specific & can be flaky if not matched with the correct year engine. The latest cables, the 290 & 350 versions can’t be downgraded to previous versions.
More info here
Suzuki & NMEA 2000
http://www.rib.net/forum/showthread.php?t=81205

Is this confirmed practically? Somewhere else I read that contrary to what is stated it can be done.

[Orwell boy]

Sorry dont know anything re suzuki but think the main players ussally all offer similar ,so would say with my Honda 100 i just bought a cable from honda for £50 ish and literally just plugged it into a basic backbone from garmin ,and into garmin 750 and it all " just worked " ,was absolutely gobsmacked as not that savvy with these things ussually , think when i checked yamaha pricing they needed some ssort of gateway

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by Limecc

This NMEA stuff leaves me very confused lol.
I have a new-to-me 2006 Suzuki DF50 and I'd like to connect it to my Garmin Echomap 50s.

The Garmin is powered by a NMEA cable so do I just need an engine cable and connect it directly to that? Does it have to be for that year? I haven't seen anything for sale and am wary of making a mistake tbh.

I did read the guide here:
https://www.suzukioutboardforum.com/...networks/page4

Does anyone have for sale what I need or can give the part numbers? Is this the right thing? :
http://www.palynch.co.uk/partnumber....d=&pnid=490032



Is this confirmed practically? .

From personal & expensive experience, yes.

[Erin]

You will need a Loweance EP adaptor with correct plug on the end to fit the engine. This is assuming your engine has an ECU and not carburettor. The Lowrance software needs to be matched to engine year as not all firmware updates are compatible with all years. Overall it’s not straightforward but is possible.

[Limecc]

Originally Posted by Erin

You will need a Loweance EP adaptor with correct plug on the end to fit the engine. This is assuming your engine has an ECU and not carburettor. The Lowrance software needs to be matched to engine year as not all firmware updates are compatible with all years. Overall it’s not straightforward but is possible.

Thanks Erin,
I've purchased a brand new Suzuki interface cable made by Lowrance, part number 120-55 and a NMEA 2K starter kit and hope this will work. Mine's a pre-2008 engine so I don't believe I need Suzuki's K8 adaptor, I think the Lowrance cable is an EP-20 although I've not seen that on the packaging or in the manual. It just says 'Suzuki Engine Interface Cable'.

[GuyC]

Originally Posted by Limecc

The Garmin is powered by a NMEA cable so ....

I'm not convinced this will be the case.

I thought the same when I read up on the process but I phoned the Garmin help desk to ask about another topic and they advised that I should use the 'direct' power connection rather than relying on the network power.

You still have to provide power to the network.

Is the chart plotter NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2K? I know you've bought a NMEA 2K starter kit but I didn't know whether the Garmin is 2K or not.

It's not the end of the world if you are trying to mix and match as you can get converters but they are quite expensive.

Doing it for the first time is a bit mind blowing as there seems to be so many variables but once you start, it is quite straightforward and the 2K network is (hopefully) just plug and play.

If it is 0183, it's a bit more taxing but if you remember you have a talker (transmit) and that connects up to a listener (receive), it might help to clear some of the fog.

Draw it out on a big bit of paper, take a picture and post on here so we can advise / laugh.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by GuyC

I'm not convinced this will be the case.

I thought the same when I read up on the process but I phoned the Garmin help desk to ask about another topic and they advised that I should use the 'direct' power connection rather than relying on the network power.

You still have to provide power to the network.

Is the chart plotter NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2K? I know you've bought a NMEA 2K starter kit but I didn't know whether the Garmin is 2K or not.

It's not the end of the world if you are trying to mix and match as you can get converters but they are quite expensive.

Doing it for the first time is a bit mind blowing as there seems to be so many variables but once you start, it is quite straightforward and the 2K network is (hopefully) just plug and play.

If it is 0183, it's a bit more taxing but if you remember you have a talker (transmit) and that connects up to a listener (receive), it might help to clear some of the fog.

Draw it out on a big bit of paper, take a picture and post on here so we can advise / laugh.

I think the OP is confusing powering the unit & powering the NMEA 2000 network. The unit is powered via the multi core power/NMEA0183 cable. This cable carries the 12V to power up the unit AND the NMEA0183 data.
The NMEA 2000 connection (on the unit) does not power either the unit or the NMEA2000 network, it’s just a data connection.
Info & diagrams here

https://static.garmin.com/pumac/GPS-...INST_EN-US.pdf

[GuyC]

Being slightly sad I did look at the installation instructions for the Garmin hence my question about the NMEA 0183 and NMEA 2K as it wasn't entirely clear but a second read does suggest it has a NMEA 2K socket so you should be good to go.

As PD says, the red and black wires of the devices power / data cable still need to be connected to power.

[Limecc]

Originally Posted by GuyC

You still have to provide power to the network.

Is the chart plotter NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2K? I know you've bought a NMEA 2K starter kit but I didn't know whether the Garmin is 2K or not.

Draw it out on a big bit of paper, take a picture and post on here so we can advise / laugh.

On the back of the unit there's only one red NMEA connection but it's labelled '0183'. From the settings menu it is possible to configure it to the protocol in use, in this case 2K. In the picture you can see the fused cable which supplies the power to the NMEA connector, it's the only way to power it up.

I'm happy to provide some laughs, will be some tears if it doesn't work out lol. Much appreciate knowledge sharing here, you guys have gone through the pain ahead of me.

[GuyC]

It doesn't have a N2K connection and I don't know what the "protocol in use" bit means.

I'm assuming that you would like engine data to appear on your chartplotter screen. It's not something I know anything about but I'd be dubious whether the signals out of the engine would translate to something meaningful on the Garmin without having some intervening bit of software / hardware in the system.

When I did my set up, which didn't include any engine data, I have a NMEA 0183 only radio (Icom M400BB) which I wanted on the N2K network. To convert from NMEA 0183 to N2K I used an Actisense NGW-1. I think you would have to do something similar if you want your plotter on the network but I'm not convinced plugging the engine into the network would necessarily give you what you want.

Is the engine data output NMEA 0183 as well? Assuming that your chartplotter can be configured to display engine data, you might find it is easier to do the whole network in 0183.

It's not something I have that good a grasp of but hopefully someone will be along in a minute to point you in the right direction.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by GuyC

It doesn't have a N2K connection and I don't know what the "protocol in use" bit means.

I'm assuming that you would like engine data to appear on your chartplotter screen. It's not something I know anything about but I'd be dubious whether the signals out of the engine would translate to something meaningful on the Garmin without having some intervening bit of software / hardware in the system.

When I did my set up, which didn't include any engine data, I have a NMEA 0183 only radio (Icom M400BB) which I wanted on the N2K network. To convert from NMEA 0183 to N2K I used an Actisense NGW-1. I think you would have to do something similar if you want your plotter on the network but I'm not convinced plugging the engine into the network would necessarily give you what you want.

Is the engine data output NMEA 0183 as well? Assuming that your chartplotter can be configured to display engine data, you might find it is easier to do the whole network in 0183.

It's not something I have that good a grasp of but hopefully someone will be along in a minute to point you in the right direction.

I’m confused too. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think that unit is NMEA2000 capable. The instructions imply that it is, but they refer to “compatible models”, I don’t think the OPs is.

[Erin]

I’m pretty sure nmea0183 doesn’t support engine data.

If that Garmin unit doesn’t have a dedicated N2K port on the back then it will not connect to an N2K system. N2K is never shared on any multi pin connectors with other services. Part of the approval is that it has a dedicated connection.

[Limecc]

Originally Posted by Erin

I’m pretty sure nmea0183 doesn’t support engine data.

If that Garmin unit doesn’t have a dedicated N2K port on the back then it will not connect to an N2K system. N2K is never shared on any multi pin connectors with other services. Part of the approval is that it has a dedicated connection.

It doesn't have a N2K port although the owners manual suggests it can accept engine data from that source. I purchased an Actisense NGW-1 cheaply in the Cactus black friday sale so I think I'm able to get it working.

I have a question concerning the 0183 tx/rx connections though. I must be stupid. Do I connect TX from the Garmin to the RX of the Actisense and vice versa, or do I connect both TX wires together and both RX wires?

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by Limecc

It doesn't have a N2K port although the owners manual suggests it can accept engine data from that source. I purchased an Actisense NGW-1 cheaply in the Cactus black friday sale so I think I'm able to get it working.

I have a question concerning the 0183 tx/rx connections though. I must be stupid. Do I connect TX from the Garmin to the RX of the Actisense and vice versa, or do I connect both TX wires together and both RX wires?

Normally it’s +tx to +rx, I.e talker to listener. -ves are commoned. Assuming you get it to work, does your unit have the graphics to display the info? Is there an option to display an engine data page(s)?

[GuyC]

In the photo you posted, it shows the engine cable coming out of the end of the backbone. There should be a terminator on each end. All the equipment on your network and the power should be attached to drop cables that go on to the bottom of the T's.

You'll need another T so you'll end up with three drop cables for your chartplotter, your engine and the network power.

It will be interesting to see if it works.

[GuyC]

There are a couple of RIB's on B&O with N2K already installed if that helps.

Slightly less lighthearted:

https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?fa...u5069YjSyF9Nu5