Engine info on my Lowrance HDS 9- Finally!

[BassnChris]

I finally got around to installing the Mercury NMEA 2000 Gateway so I could view my engine information on my Lowrance HDS 9 Touch.

I needed :

1. Mercury NMEA 2000 Gateway Part# 84-8M0065208 $372 shipped

2. Male to male connector Quicksilver OEM Part # 84-892452T01 CABLE ASY-MAL/MAL $15 shipped

3. CAN cable. Mercury Mercruiser Quicksilver OEM Part # 84-879982T20 HARNESS ASSY $78 shipped

$465 Total

had to run the CAN cable from console to the engine thru the wiring tube at the engine. To do this I disassembled the connector end (see the link below for how to disassemble the connector).....it was very easy. Running the cable thru the rigging tube was the most difficult. The cable connected at the engine. I used an old fishing rod tip to fish the wire through.....took about  10 minutes.

then mounted the gateway under the console and connected one end to the cable using the male to male connector.

also required is a NMEA 2000 network ( I already had that in place).....connected the other end Gateway to the NMEA 2000 network.

was not difficult.....and now I can see my engine temp.....the motivating reason I wanted to do this project.

 

http://forums.iboats.com/forum/engine-repair-and-maintenance/mercury-mariner-outboards/276854-how-to-disassemble-a-smartcraft-cable-connector

 

[WIGuide]

Very cool stuff, although since all you were looking for was engine temp, wouldn't it have been easier and cheaper to buy a water temp gauge?

[BassnChris]

On January 25, 2016 at 3:25 PM, WIGuide said:

Very cool stuff, although since all you were looking for was engine temp, wouldn't it have been easier and cheaper to buy a water temp gauge?

Yes. But I have a retentive streak a mile wide and I like to keep things as stock looking as possible. A new gauge would not have looked like the others. 

On the plus side I do get a good bit more information.

[Fishing Rhino]

You can never have too much information.  Sometimes, it will save you money.

 My lobster boat had an 8-71 Detroit Diesel for power.  The instrument panel had a fuel pressure gauge.  Every hundred hours we'd change oil and all the filters.  The fuel first entered a Racor fuel filter/water separator.  From there it went through a two stage fuel strainer/fuel filter to the fuel pump.  On the output side of the fuel pump was the connector to the fuel gauge.

The fuel pressure would never drop in the first hundred hours.  In fact it ended up that they only needed to be changed after three hundred hours. 

I installed a vacuum gauge between the last filter and the fuel pump.  It was amazing how much vacuum the pump would pull before the fuel pressure would drop.  The vacuum gauge was a much better indicator of the filters beginning to get clogged.  When the pressure gauge started to drop, even just a few pounds, the end was near.

When I realized that, I changed all the fuel filters as soon as the vacuum gauge began to rise.  Depending on the fuel and how much fishing we did in hard weather (it sloshed the fuel in the tanks, putting sediments into suspension) the fuel filters got changed every three to five hundred hours.  It cost about seventy five bucks per set of filters.  In the course of a season, that vacuum gauge saved me about seven hundred fifty buck, plus the time it took to change them.

[WIGuide]

16 hours ago, BassnChris said:

Yes. But I have a retentive steak a mile wide and I like to keep things as stock looking as possible. A new gauge would not have looked like the others. 

On the plus side I do get a good bit more information.

Haha I hear ya! Definitely a sweet setup! If I had a new enough motor and the funds to do it to mine I would too.

[atcoha]

now, stream it your phone, that would be cooler.