SmartCraft on Dual Engine
 

Hello Folks;

I have a 2006 Chaparral Signature 350 with twin 496 MAGs. Not originally equipped with vessel view or any SmartCraft accessories despite the engines being capable. I added a NMEA bridge to allow my Garmin ChartPlotter (7610xsv) to display engine data and of course had to get three hubs and a Dual Engine Adapter, Network Bridge and Cables. After many weeks of tinkering I got to the point where I could get one or the other engine to report but not both. Yesterday with some help from Mercruiser we got it working.. Here are a couple of things I learned:

1) You cannot connect multiple engines to the same CAN network due to engine DC power on the CAN bus. Each engine needs its own Junction Box (Hub) to get around this.
2) The dual Engine Adapter is for management of DC Power and engine on DC Power Signaling. The cable connects the CAN from one engine only and does not connect both engines CAN data.
3) A network bridge cable (84-891957K01) is needed to connect the two separate network hubs allowing data transfer but isolating the engine DC power.
and finally :
4) Mercruiser engines if not original configured for dual engine SmartCraft have the same ECM engine "Name" or address. This was the last issue and once I had the dealer rename the engines as "STBD" and "PORT" the system works perfectly.

(Mercury / Quicksilver Junction Box-4Way)
(Mercury 84-891957K01 Boat Harness Assembly)
(DUAL ENGINE ADAPTER HARNESS - 84-892323T01)

Hope this helps!
VPelliccia

Good info, thanks for posting

Did you use the mercury gateway (84-8m0105243) to connect to your NMEA 2K network? I already had j-boxes for each motor, the j-boxes are daisy chained together, then I just had to add the gateway to connect to the NMEA backbone. A little bit of configuration in my Garmin, and all my engine data is being displayed. Not sure if this is what you are describing.

Hello Dave M;

Confirming the NMEA gateway: "Mercury OEM Engine NMEA 2000 Gateway Module Part # 84-8M0105243".
I did not try daisy chaining as I was not certain the hubs would isolate the engine DC power. Also as I had all-ready purchased the dual engine adapter this lead me to parallel the engines up to the point of using the Dual Engine power adapter.

I was very confused looking at the Dual Engine Adapter as it only had one wire going to one of the two engines as I knew CAN data requires two wires. It finally clicked that this was for power signaling and single source isolation.
That prompted the addition of the bridge which is a two wire cable allowing CAN data only. In any case, the best lessons learned are those we struggle with at first. And I'm still learning.

Take Care
Vince

I am in the process of upgrading Mercury System View to Simrad GO5 and bought the Merc Gateway + a NMEA starter kit. Now I need to understand what and how I am going to hook up to at the engines, 2007 Mercury 600SCIs. Are the "J-Boxes" already on the engines or are these the "T"s in the NMEA kit?

Hello VoodooRob;

There are two options that I know of for the NMEA Gateway.
There is a full kit with some extra hardware including "Ts" junction)s) but its priced on "A" at $583.

"Mercury Marine Boat Gateway Module Assembly Kit 8M0095543 NMEA 2000"

However the NMEA Gate way without the kit is some much less that I decided to buy the "Ts" stand alone. I provided the part number in a prior reply.

Good Luck!
Vince

Your J Boxes are behind dash right? ...mounted to wall. I believe thats where all of your connections will be (not in bilge).

Hello All In;

I connected my Garmin Chart Plotter to a Garmin Multi Function display and my new Garmin VHF using NMEA "Ts" and jumpers. I had to replace a secondary thru Hull Depth Sounder and this was in the bilge.
The result was I had NMEA all the way to the bilge so I mounted the SmartCraft Hubs above the engines in the engine compartment. Also the NMEA longer cables are less expensive than the SmartCraft longer cables.

Many ways to do this right and this was my first attempt. Hope this helps.

Take Care
Vince

My j-boxes and all NMEA2K stuff is under my dash. (2) 4 port j-boxes. I think you can also get an 8 port j-box and just plug everything into 1 j-box. My boat came from the factory like described below, I just added the gateway. I already had a nmea backbone connecting my GPS and VHF.

Box 1
input from port engine
output to smartcaft tach
output to smartcraft speedo
connection to box 2

box 2
input from star engine
output to SC tach
connection to box 1
output (gateway) to NMEA 2K backbone.

I have AGI boxes for sure, I know I have had top replace them once. There must be something else, J Box, that I need to look for because I do have System View and that would have to get info somehow? I thought my connections would have to be at the engines but this is just info from reading and I am not versed in this NMEA system at all. I will have to start digging under the dash and see what I come up with. If everything goes right with this I want to put a second G05 above the glove box. Once this 1st set-up is all done I can just T into the backbone and it works as a duplicate display, in theory at least.