R21-EC: Display Engine Gauge Info on Garmin?

[Todd Tugnut]

Hi! Has anyone managed to wire the 30 HP Yanmar engine sending units to their Garmin Chart Plotter? How did you do it? I’m working thru this now and I need some help. I’ve using the NMEA 2000 protocol. Or trying to…

Any info much appreciated!

Todd

 

[bob daily]

Mr Todd, while a few R-21 owners have installed dedicated gauges for engine info I'm unaware of any that have it going to there GPS. I would think you would have to change out the sending units for it to work via the NMEA system. Just wondering why? I have enough trouble keeping track of GPS location, depth, Radar and such! Love your boats name (Salty Dog) down south they used to think if you put salt on your coon dog it would keep the ticks off, salt being expensive they only put it on there favorite ones! That is where the term (Let me be your salty dog) comes from. Song by Flatt & Scruggs 1948.
Enough bar room tid-bits, I see your down the creek from me, hope to see you on the water! Bob

 

[Todd Tugnut]

Thanks for the info! My boat names have been Red Dog, Lucky Dog, and now Salty Dog. I’m looking for a 31CB that I will call Sea Dog. Somehow, I’m going to get those gauges on my Garmin.

 

[Submariner]

Thanks for the info! My boat names have been Red Dog, Lucky Dog, and now Salty Dog. I’m looking for a 31CB that I will call Sea Dog. Somehow, I’m going to get those gauges on my Garmin.

I did some brief searching for you. In order for it to work you have to get the instrumentation data off the Yanmar engine. This means the engine itself must support it. It does appear that Yanmar engines do offer this, but alas, I don't own a R21, and I know little about the specific engine you have, what year it was built, the exact model, to be able to find out if it's got the electronics already on it.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. On my last boat I had a Mercruiser 5.0L MPI engine. It was 2006. Mercury had instrumentation in the engine (called Smartcraft), but I had no gauge, no way to see it, no way to interface it with my Garmin chart plotter. In 2009, Mercury came out with what they call a MercMonitor.

https://www.mercurymarine.com/en/us/gauges-and-controls/gauges-displays/mercmonitor/

The MercMonitor replaced one of the gauges on my dash (I swapped it out for the speedometer). Now I could see the engine data on a gauge. The gauge is proprietary to Mercury and required that engine have Smartcraft (Mercury's proprietary engine monitoring electronics). On the back of the MercMonitor gauge was connectivity options for NMEA 2k and NMEA 0183. The install of the Mercmonitor was super simple. Plug in the cable (quick disconnects on the engine and MercMonitor side, route the cable from the helm to the engine).

Now, this was over 10 years ago, technology has changed, but the concept hasn't changed. What I was reading in a quick search of the Yanmar, it sounds nearly identical in what you're looking for. You need to first find out does your Yanmar have the electronics on it that keeps track of engine data. Then what does Yanmar offer to get that data off the engine. In today's standards, you want NMEA 2000 (N2k) handoff (which is the newer improved version of NMEA 0183).

NEMA 2000 is basically a network that connects things together. Engine, radio, chart plotter, AIS... everything can talk to everything once connected to the N2k bus.

 

[bob daily]

Todd, Check out Mas-Tecchnologies M200 Systems, it looks like it can neatly translate analog sensor data from Yanmar engine to a nmea-2000 pin's that can be read by many displays including your chart plotter, looks like the cost starts at about $1500. You will have to do a little research on the web but looks like it is doable. Bob

 

[Todd Tugnut]

Thank you! I already bought Actisense EMU-1 hat is supposed to do the same thing. So far, no dice.