Confused - Garmin and SmartCraft

I just swapped my Lowrance system to a Garmin system. I've got the Mercury SmartCraft gauges. If I recall correctly, the SmartCraft gauges were networked to my Lowrance system so the GPS puck speeds would be read by the SmartCraft gauges, to bypass the paddle wheel which never works correctly.

So now that the Lowrace system has been ripped out, do you guys recommend I go through the trouble of trying to connect the Garmin system to the SmartCraft gauges. I'm not using NMEA2000, I'm just using Garmin's Ethernet, so I'm not sure what my options are. It can be important so my SmartCraft doesn't rely on the paddle wheel and it links up with GPS speed and distances so it provides accurate info, such as fuel economy, etc.

If you have the smart craft speedometer, you may be able to connect your garmin to the speedo using NMEA 0183. Depending what version smartcraft you have and which garmin it might work. On the gramin in you need to set the speed to nmea std (this means if you are using echomap units you won't be able to share waypoints, the gmsmap series should work just fine). The garmin NMEA 0183 connections are the blue and brown wires on the power connector.
See the following link for the smart craft speedo.

http://www.wilkey.org/blogs/alegrias...tall_Sheet.pdf

Thanks. So you think I can continue to use Garmin Ethernet to link my two GPSMap units and use NMEA just for the SmartCraft gauge speedo?

As far as I know, Garmin ethernet is only for connecting Garmin units to other Garmin units. Nothing else works with it.

In order to talk to any non-Garmin device, you have to use NMEA0183 or NMEA2000

Yes you should be able to use the NMEA 0183 to go to the speedo NMEA 0183 to get the speed. You may have to adjust settings in the smart craft to tell it what source to use (as stated in the link).
Although not smart craft, that is the setup I use with my NEXSYS smart gauges (which uses smart craft technology) to get my speedo to work with my gpsmap 7608.
No need to mess with the ethernet.

You should only have to connect the blue wire (out), since your garmin has no need for info from the speedo using the brown wire (in).

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Originally Posted by rpr

I just swapped my Lowrance system to a Garmin system. I've got the Mercury SmartCraft gauges. If I recall correctly, the SmartCraft gauges were networked to my Lowrance system so the GPS puck speeds would be read by the SmartCraft gauges, to bypass the paddle wheel which never works correctly.

So now that the Lowrace system has been ripped out, do you guys recommend I go through the trouble of trying to connect the Garmin system to the SmartCraft gauges. I'm not using NMEA2000, I'm just using Garmin's Ethernet, so I'm not sure what my options are. It can be important so my SmartCraft doesn't rely on the paddle wheel and it links up with GPS speed and distances so it provides accurate info, such as fuel economy, etc.

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This is from the FAQ section of the Garmin website:

Yes, the Mercury SmartCraft gauges information can be displayed on a NMEA 2000 compatible Garmin Marine Chartplotter/Sounder with the use of a NMEA 2000 adapter called MercMonitor. Since the Mercury SmartCraft gauges output the NMEA 2000 data in a different protocol language than the Garmin chartplotter/sounders can read, an adapter will need to be installed on the boat. The adapter is called SmartCraft MercMonitor with Mercury Gateway. Unfortunately Garmin does not offer this adapter. Please contact a Mercury dealer for more information on the MercMonitor adapter.

Great info, I just need to figure out if I already have those adapters. I think I needed them for my Lowrance system as well (?) so I may already have them.