www.iFourWinns.com

I'm thinking of picking up this garmin and this Standard Horizon radio. I think that the guages on the SL242 are NEMA2000 compatible, will I have to drill a hole for the transducer, or can I network the existing guages to the garmin.

For anyone using the 546s, what is the difference between that and the 541s? Is it worth it to get the 720 which has the bigger screen?

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2011 SL242 5.7 VP GXi - 320 HP Dual Prop

Use this link, 541 vs 546 https://buy.garmin.com/shop/compare.do? ... uct=101696

I do not know for sure, but I would be surpried if the guages were NEMA2K. Just for the extra money that it would cost vs standard gauges. Now the engine could be, I have not looked into that. If it is, you could display almost anything, RPMs, oil temp, engine temp,.........

I have a Garmin 740, I display GPR & KPG/MPG with it. I did have to add the fuel flow sensor to the engine.

Bigger = better

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1981 Columbia 8.7
2015 Yamaha FZR - 87mph - sold
2006 Yamaha GP1300R - sold
2003 Chaparral 215 SSI - sold
2009 Stingray 195CS - sold
2000 Four Winns H180 - sold
1976 O'day Daysailer II - sold
Rick's Four Winns H180 Mods/Upgrade Thread

So I ended up picking up the 536 without the transducer, I will mount it in the lower space on the left side of the dasboard, using the garmin flush mount kit. (See the borrowed pic from luvmysl242)



There are 4 screws holding the little cubby, and then my heart will be in my mouth as I pull the jigsaw out. It will talk to my standard horizon radio. There is even an NMEA volvo penta module which will give you engine information via the NMEA 2000 network. I figure I can get the depth, air and water temperatures from there.

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2011 SL242 5.7 VP GXi - 320 HP Dual Prop

The 536 is limited on what it can display over a NMEA2K network. It will give you AIS, DSC & fuel info. If you are looking for more engine & boat info, you will need at least a Garmin 720. You don't need the Volvo interface
for air , depth & water info. Here is a link to NMEA2K sensors. http://www.blueheronmarine.com/NMEA-2000-Sensors/

I use my fishfinder to display depth to my GPS. It could send water temp to it to, but for me, its not needed. I do display, MPG/KPG on my GPS. My NMEA2K gauge, displays GPH, speed from the GPS & GPS Position.

Whats great about this, it is plug & play. With 0183 network, you were connecting wires from one unit, to another.

http://www8.garmin.com/buzz/gpsmap700/

Before you start cutting, how do you intend to use it? When running? Do you sit or stand when running the boat? I ask because if you stand up when running the boat you're probably not going to be able to see the screen very well. For two reasons, one being it's down low and not pointing toward your face. The other being polarization. The screens are polarized, combine this with polarized sunglasses and the viewing angle gets cut down pretty severely. You can't go without polarization on either, so you have to choose your placement carefully.

You have the flat spot on the top, why not there? Perhaps with a tilted collar around it to make it point more toward your eyes?

As for engine data, it's my advice to not waste your time trying to get it onto the chartplotter. There's not enough screen real estate to make it worthwhile. I have an E-80 and even with that much more screen there's still not enough to display both charts and engine data. That and it's FAR better to have gauges. Gauges give you a nominal position for what they monitor. This way your eyes can scan needle gauges and see that the indicator is pointing in it's usual area. This is much easier to monitor when underway. No reading numbers and having to think about it. The needles are either in their usual place or something's wrong.

What's useful? Depth, speed and time of day. Water temp is nice and lat/long is helpful if you're in an emergency situation (and speaking to coast guard or others that understand it, as in, not local cops called on a cell phone).

For gauges it's crucial to have oil and water temp, rpm, oil pressure and fuel. They're values are something you have to have in front of your line-of-sight at ALL times when the boat is running. So having them squirrelled away on a chartplotter page keeps them from being where you can see them. And switching pages takes you away from running the boat.

It seems like a really cool idea to have everything integrated. But fact of the matter is most of it ends up being much too distracting to be worthwhile. I'm a huge gadget fan but have learned it's just not worth the effort and expense. This I learned after putting a lot of time and money into getting it all integrated. None of which gets used.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Thanks for your honest opinion. I wondered whether I would be able to use the info, or if I was just doing it because it was cool. I'm a gadget freak too, so I think that you may have saved me the expense. I will connect the radio to the GPS, since in an emergency, it can relay the location automatically.

I actually sit most of the time on the boat, so the location works for me. I'll fire up the GPS and see how it looks with my polarized sunglasses too. I didn't think of that, thanks again.

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2011 SL242 5.7 VP GXi - 320 HP Dual Prop

Long story, short answer.

I too am a gadget freak. I ordered my boat with a DTS/Smartcraft engine. It came with standard gauges fed by a Smartcraft converter. Before delivery I had the dealer install a selection of SC gauges. I installed an NMEA0183 Garmin GPS antenna to feed the speedo.

Last summer I installed a SC MercMonitor with Smarttow. This is the gauge that is also an NMEA2000 gateway and came with a Lowrance GPS antenna which I also installed.

I now have 3 different gauges that display more information than I can scroll thru while paying attention to the boat. I still have trouble remembering where the clock display is! But I still like the option of having all this info. I will be adding some more dedicated gauges soon.

Short answer, as Bill says:
For gauges it's crucial to have oil and water temp, rpm, oil pressure and fuel.

Greg

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2008 210SS 6.2L DTS Bravo 1 Now featuring MercMonitor w/SmartTow

No chit, I've got more ways to see the data than I can shake a stick at, and don't ever bother using any of them! Now, I don't regret the effort as the learning experience was fun. But knowing what I know now I wouldn't bother to do it again.

What I'd really like to have would be better media management at the helm. For pity's sake, have you SEEN the clusterf*k that is Raymarine's Sirius radio interface? Yeesh, it's a throwback to 80's era text menus! No sale for me. Same deal with pretty much all of the radio remotes. They just don't have any pizzazz to them. I can understand why as the marine market is small and not known for innovating much in the way of novel control interfaces.

Now, if I were planning a whole new helm I'd give serious consideration to a bunch of digital gauges. Ones that give me the regular data I need with the option to show other data now and then. But it's hard to beat plain old analog gauges on price/performance. They work, don't consume much power and don't cost an arm and a leg. But I've seen someone reconfig the helm on a center console to using all digital gauges, along with a chartplotter, and it was pretty impressive. Unfortunately there's no way to control or configure the gauges from a central point like the plotter. It'd be sweet to be able to use the plotter to swap out whole sets of gauge pages. Instead each gauge stands alone. They all consume the same data on the network but don't have any way to interact. Ah well.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

I will say one thing, my 740 will display almost any info you want in each conner of the screen. Yes, a 5" screen is really too small. But the 7" srceen, is not too bad!! In other words, each conner is displaying info as the GPS page is being displayed. I do have a fishfinder, so it the moment I am NOT splitting the screen. Radar is down the road for this unit.

So in each corner, that's four of them, what data points to show? Depth, speed, time and location. And where would engine data be shown?

That's my point, there's not enough room on even larger units like the E-80 to display the data in a meaningful way.

Small pet peeve, it's a chart plotter. It's not a "GPS". It's a chart plotter that uses GPS to show your current location.

When using split-screen I've found it really handy to have two sets of splits pre-configured. I keep one set with weather/chart setup vertically and then another with it horizontal. That way I can make use of either one depending on travel and weather direction. It also helps to have different zoom levels for each, as you probably need much closer scale for local water depths, but much more distant for weather.

I don't make use of radar that much. Unless you're boating a lot at night or in an area well known for fog it's an expense that might not be worthwhile. About the only time I end up using it is to show guests how it can pick a target and tell me it's current speed and predicted course. Some of the cruise ships out of Baltimore are hauling ass at better than 30 knots.

The one toy I'm slightly interested in getting is a side-scan sonar setup. But I'm not sure how well it'd work in the very shallow depths of the Chesapeake.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Given the evolution of electronic monitoring it may not be too long before we are able to configure different displays from a central station (at a reasonable price). I believe it exists in the yacht world where cost is no object and most of it is proprietary.

Have you looked at the forward looking sonar by Interphase? If my boat was bigger and I had access to install the transducers properly I would consider one. I found this article and stopped to read it while writing this.

http://www.interphase-tech.com/art/PR/P ... SAILOR.pdf

Greg

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2008 210SS 6.2L DTS Bravo 1 Now featuring MercMonitor w/SmartTow

No, I haven't looked into it at all. Forward looking isn't really necessary, or even very safe given the shallow depths. Too much time spent staring at little screens is bad for underwater running gear. I was looking at it more for the entertainment value.

Evolution and boating do not go hand-in-hand. At least not at anywhere near the speed of landlubber uses for technology. Fortunately things are a lot less proprietary and incompatible than in past years. But there's still no compatible method for even programming sensors across an NMEA2k network. Maretron does a lot of work in this area but there's nothing new out.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

In some ways you are right, BUT it can display what I pick. So I "could" have engine temp, RPMs, depth, & oil pressure. I can set it up the way I want it. Providing I have the sensors connected to the network.

I had it about 4 years ago. It is not as good as they claim!! You really need interpret, what you are seeing on the screen. Fishfinder, it is not!