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Hi Has any member fitted or had fitted an NMEA 2000 plotter or PC interface to your Volvo to give engine data? I would like to here what info you got? I’m about to fit one on a D2-55 which has EVC or Mini EVC.
No one can tell me what info you can get, I know it will be down to what type of engine and age etc.!
I have thought about this for the new boat as I have a NMEA 2000 network and have a laptop monitoring data at the chart table, as well as a MFD which can provide engine data at the helm.
The engine is a D2-40 but I don’t know whether it has EVC. What is actually required to get data from the engine onto the NMEA2000 bus?
Playtime,
I now did this job but it has some drawbacks, First I wanted this as I have the Farr Bav 40 the 2011 model, and as you have a engine blower going at the helm position (new EU ruling or something)this muffles the nice sound of the sploosh of the cooling water coming out of the back, you find yourself keep going over to see is the water is still coming out. (I had an impeller go in a nasty place in the past so it is on your mind) The coolant level that is.
So when I connected it up to the NMEA 2000 (it was easy as in this model the Raymarine NG cabling TEE is in the engine bay) I then went up to the plotter on the helm, ( Raymarine C90W) and brought up the Engine screen low and behold I had the coolant the Tack,and Engine hours! wow and then everyone next to me when wow! we all wow wow together!!
A few days later an alarm came up in the LCD of the Start panel an exclamation mark, the book says a short in the wiring somewhere on the engine!! To cut to the chase I had to have a new MIDI or the Brain of the engine (the bit that the start panel and NMEA2000 goes into. Volvo are in the process of refunding me this cost of £450. I think they changed the software in the MIDI. I now have it ready to go BUT!! I am plucking up courage to do it again as I don’t want it to fail. You don’t lose anything with this fault the engine still runs but you cant get rid of the warning without a change of the MIDI.
Now some people would say fit a gauge but on the Farr Design WHERE! then your into Pods and all that stuff.
The other thing I found was I got hold of the Raymarine RNS 6.2 chartploting software for free from a friend, this also gave the engine data to the PC by just running a standard Cat5 cable from the back of the C90 to your PC. If you have a plotter at the helm do you want to stand up there morning noon and night setting up way points? Raymarine want you to buy another box (no Space for me) so just plug in the laptop set up the way points, press transfer and all is done from the chart table as well as getting the engine output so it does have some good points.
Thanks for the update.
Access to the (Simrad) NMEA 2000 network is not a problem on my boat as there is a T connector at the chart table. However, I do not know where to connect to on the engine. Mine is a D2-40. Is yours the same? If so, where did you connect the NMEA cable?
Second question, do you believe the MIDI board(?) blew as a result of connecting to NMEA 2000. I would not want to risk a £450 replacement if there is any question. Were Volvo happy to replace it on warranty?
Hi Playtime,
First, I have a D2-55 the MIDI is the same for the D2 range. So we are the same when you buy the NMEA2000 from your Volvo dealer ( there are many others) you should get a Y cable with it. All you do ( and you get a simple drawing) is the cable that leaves your MIDI on the way to the tachometer will have a connector in line in the bay or on route to the helm. When you think about it they have this so they can extend the loom to any length. With the Y cable you have connectors that can’t be crossed as they would not mate with a nice click.
When you have put the Y in you then have re-made your in line connection to the tachometer but now have a tail to which the NMEA2000 unit connects to I will try to up load a picture on the next post.
From the other side of the NMEA2000 you run to your backbone of your NAV stuff.
All you do now is start up and go to your plotter or PC and see what you get. What I will do is when I return to my boat which is out of the water in Bari Italy I will connect it up as before. There is a PDF out on a known fault on the wiring connection of the starter motor which did/or could have caused the fault on the MIDI as I had 3 months at the time left on the 2 year warranty they have to pay as it was all Volvo kit. I don’t want to sound like a smart ars but with any new kit only through bitter experience I take photos at every stage and suppliers hate this as ” here it is before and here it is now” tell me why this has happend then?
I do think that this was a one off. So I will update you if you like as it is nice to share these things how I get on. As I’m a retired electrical engineer when I see a connector I then wonder what it can be used for and start wanting to find out it is a awful habit but then you end up with all sorts of things.
Here is the Picture of the NMEA2000 in place with the read out to the Raymarine C90W or C range. Now you dont need another Guage!
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