MercMonitor interface with LMF-200

[cchidester]

I just completed my 3rd mercmonitor installation. This time interfacing with a 115 four stroke (2B184695). On this latest install, I took advantage of having the NEMA2000 gateway capability and replaced my analog guages with the Lowrance LMF-200 multi function gauges. Also installed a water pressure sensor and the fuel cable interface.

The GPS input to the mercmonitor is via NEMA0183 input from my Elite 5 chirp and the interface is confirmed good.

All other inputs to to the mercmonitor are confirmed good. And the engine related NEMA2000 outputs from mercmonitor are displayed correctly on the LMF-200. So this all tells me the installation is good and the GPS is talking to the mercmonitor, and the mercmonitor is talking to the LMF-200s.

However, my LMF-200s are not displaying GPS parameters. My hypothesis is that there are apparently no GPS outputs from the mercmonitor on the NEMA2000 bus. The mercmonitor installation manual displays a table of NEMA parameters and most show both transmit and receive capability. However I noticed that the GPS related parameters show only receive capability.

Can an anyone confirm my hypothesis that the mercmonitor does not transmit GPS signals received from a NEMA0183 input to a NEMA2000 output? I hope I'm wrong and find out there is a simple configuration change needed.

Thanks,
Chuck Chidester

[cchidester]

Guess I should have mentioned that all of my mercmonitor purchases came from European Marine and came with a high level of support. This is not a commercial but an endorsement of great customer experiences with a family owned business committed to doing the right thing.

[EuropeanAM]

Chuck- your correct in your hypothesis.

Level-1 does not "transmit" Speed Data on NMEA-2000 (as it's actually intended as a "Receive" item in most applications that use it).

Example: MercMonitor and GPS units interfaced by NMEA-2000. MercMonitor is receiving COG data from the GPS... no need to send it "back to" the GPS.

Level-2 will actually do this... though it's probably over-kill.

Appears you already figured out that the Elite series don't play well with other NMEA-2000 devices...

Another (likely easier and more versatile) option would be to use Mercury SYSTEM LINK Gauges. They interface directly with the MercMonitor (via the System Link Plug), and WOULD receive/display Speed from either type GPS (NMEA-0183 or NMEA-2000).

[1sharphook]

Another (likely easier and more versatile) option would be to use Mercury SYSTEM LINK Gauges. They interface directly with the MercMonitor (via the System Link Plug), and WOULD receive/display Speed from either type GPS (NMEA-0183 or NMEA-2000).

And here is an installation example utilizing the System Link Gauges, calibrated fuel level, GPS speed, RPM, calibrated digital trim, water PSI, oil PSI, coolant temperature, all at a glance.

[cchidester]

Thanks Don. Excellent info and hopefully will be useful to others researching this similar topic.

Also, nice example of the mercmonitor / system link gauges. Thanks for sharing!

[sjcorpst]

Mercmonitor and System Link gages was the single best upgrade I did to my boat. And thanks to Don and Rhonda, it was a no-brainer installation.

[Bill Reynolds]

Thanks to all who contributed to this post. This is very good information.