MAN MMDS monitors

BobFino

Active Member
SILVER Sponsor
Aug 26, 2010
189
Virginia Beach
Boat Info
Sea Ray 550 Sedan Bridge 2005.
Engines
MAN 900
Twin Disc MG-5114
On my 550 sedan bridge with MAN motors, I have the two engine monitors. One for Port and one for Starboard. They are the MMDS-CLCB 6.3 monitors. The port one is acting up and I am looking into the Maretron system and run the engine data to the chart plotter. Does anyone have some input on this or have previously done it? Thank you
 
No, sorry Bob, I don't. My "MAN man" says those displays are about $5500 each from MAN w/1 yr warranty. He gets them directly from the vendor for less than half w/2 yr warranty...

That's all I know - one of those "fingers crossed" items...
 
Last edited:
There is a small battery on the MMDS board that goes out (I've had to do both of mine), and it usually shows up as wildly incorrect engine hours...
 
No, sorry Bob. My "MAN man" says those displays are about $5500 each from MAN w/1 yr warranty. He gets them directly from the vendor for less than half w/2 yr warranty...

That's all I know - one of those "fingers crossed" items...

Yikes, I thought Volvo engine displays had crazy pricing at $2200. I guess they are a bargain.
 
Not knowing the MAN data protocol I would guess the engines provide data per SAE J1939 on a twisted pair of wires like most other industrial diesel engines. Carter may be able to confirm. If that is the case you may be able to implement a Maretron solution. This would be a J2K100 (J1939 to NMEA 2000 Converter), a NMEA 2000 network, and a Maretron DSM display. The Maretron display is required to program the J2K100 unless you have the Maretron programming software and interface. With the J1939 data converted to NMEA 2000 there are many ways to display and monitor the engine data besides a Maretron DSM.
 
MAN had a goodwill program where they would refurbish the boards for $600 or so. They have ended that program last fall. My first one was done by my “MAN man“ and the second one he talked me through how to take the board out (We were not near his shop) and send it to him to be sent off to MAN before the goodwill program ended.

I would like to believe that anyone familiar with computer boards could re-solder a new battery in. But both of mine went to MAN.

I could give you the general details of how I got my board out and back in if you would like.
 
T
MAN had a goodwill program where they would refurbish the boards for $600 or so. They have ended that program last fall. My first one was done by my “MAN man“ and the second one he talked me through how to take the board out (We were not near his shop) and send it to him to be sent off to MAN before the goodwill program ended.

I would like to believe that anyone familiar with computer boards could re-solder a new battery in. But both of mine went to MAN.

I could give you the general details of how I got my board out and back in if you would like.
That would be great, Did the hours go back to the correct hours or did something else have to be done for them to read correct. The Man dealer in Fl. said it would be $2000.00 to get each one done.
 
The hours will be "0" and the MAN dealer has to hook his computer up to reset the hours from the ECM...

I'll "have speaks" with my MAN man this week and ask him if there is a cheaper solution...
 
Bob (and any one else with the MAN MMDS-CLC 6.3 monitors)

As Carter indicated, the battery on the monitors is usually the root cause of your monitor issues. According to MAN, the battery has an expected life of 10-12 years. Mine were replaced when the boat was 9 years old. The big issue is not actually replacing the battery on the MMDS board but on programming the hours into it. Also as Carter said, you need a MAN computer to input the hours, though I think MAN did that when my boards were down in Houston. Here's a company I found that does repairs to these monitors, I would imagine they can replace the battery, not sure if they can input the hours.;
https://maxmarineelectronics.com/pr...display-screen-repair-service-save-thousands/
Good luck and let us know how you go about getting them repaired. As far as replacing the monitors with another display, I'm not sure it can't be done, but there is a TON of data input to those displays which I think would require a lot of specialty conversion, but maybe not. I'd be curious to know.
 
Let me know if you'd like "the narrative according to Carter" of how to go about removing the MMDS board yourself, I'll be glad to post it...
Fire away, Carter.
 
As background, in 2018, my stbd display hours went to about 72,000 and my "MAN man" told me exactly what it was, and said OK to use boat for a few months until my scheduled service and they would take care care of it which they did.

Last year in the summer in TN, the port engine went to 102,000 hours. When called him again, I opened the conversation by telling him how amazed I was at these engines. He knew right away something was up, and he got a good laugh when I told him my port engine was doing so well with 102,000 hours on it! He said the same thing - no problem to operate it and he will fix it on my next service in January.

In September, we were still in Chattanooga and he called to say I needed to get the board to him ASAP as MAN was ending their "goodwill" program on replacing the batteries. He gave me detailed instructions as follows.

1. Pull the large upper plug on the port side on the control box
2. Remove the top two allen screws holding the cover on, loosen the bottom left screw and remove the bottom right screw. This allows the cover to pivot to port and you do not have to disconnect the connector from the red EMER STOP button.
3. Remove the top circuit board - 4 screws if I recall. It has 4 ribbon cables attached to the bottom of it. Rotate the board downward and let it hang from the ribbon cables.
4. The MMDS board will now be in view. It is held in by 5 screws and easily removes with a little wiggle to pull it our of its two long plugin connectors in it's back.

The MMDS board is two boards stacked together, and the battery is soldered in between the boards.

Reinstall is the exact opposite of removal noting that there is a white connector that has to be slightly moved out of the way to let the upper left side of the MMDS board re-seat.

I had one ribbon cable come loose on the outer board that was easy to re-seat.

Be sure to use a phillips head that fits the screws well - they are very small machine screws.

I sent the board to them on a Sat morning (FedEx insured for $5500), they got it on Monday sent it to MAN, was back to them on Wednesday and in my hands on Thursday.

I cannot believe we don't have a source for a cheaper battery replacement service...
 
Last edited:
Ok there are two different issues possible. The display on the helm starts showing all its data in metric units. This can come from a faulty battery for the memory, just like the memory in your car radio that holds all your stations. The display default is metric so when the memory battery goes bad it runs home to Gremany. BUT in some cases a component in the display can fail and cause a large draw on the battery. Just having the battery repalced may not always fix the problem.

As to the "runaway hour meter", this is causded by a failed component on the MMDS board that runs the diagnostis system. To be fixed correctly the MMDS boards go back to the manufacturer to be repaird and have a new battery installed also. When they come back they are at zero hours and must be set with the MAN computer and software. Also be aware the gearbox parameters will also be reset to factory defaults, whidh means they will be looking for gerbox sensors. If your boat does not have these sensors you will get an alarm for bearbox temp. and pressure sensor failure.
The control units on the engine are also recording the engine hours so with the MANCATS system the true engine hours can be pulled up and then set onto the MMDS that sends the information to the helm display. Its not a simple case of "just replacing a battery" the battery is soldered to the circuit board and its not something thats standard.

Just know which issue you have so you dont remove the wrong thing and end you spending extra on something that didnt need to be removed. People thing all the time that the display is bad when some issues come from the MMDS board that is in that black box in your engine room. And just know inside that balck box there re a lot os things that could be svrewed up if handled wrong.. Always disconnect the box from power before opening it up.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,945
Messages
1,422,731
Members
60,927
Latest member
Jaguar65
Back
Top