Smart craft to Raymarine display

see ray

see ray

Active Member
Sep 28, 2008
512
Cleveland OH / LakeSide yacht club
Boat Info
NEW 05-360 DA ,
(SOLD) 06 40DA HARD TOP. 8.1L HO 420 hp L
Previous boat 05 340 DA 8.1L 370 hp
Engines
8.1L HO 420hp
V Drives
Has anybody ever integrated their smart craft gauges onto the Ray Marine display. I have a C 97 Ray Marine display on my 03 340 Sundancer, I have the smart craft gauges but I do not have the VesselView I want to know what your opinion is and whether I should spend the money to display that info on the big 9 inch display
 
You could do it with this.

https://embed.widencdn.net/pdf/plus...mc9/8M0071193_SC_Gateway-0113_LR.pdf?u=orhjei
710306ebe4d02ab8b07c43b8b581c918_1.jpg
 
Captn TJ said:
Do the engines have to be NEMA 2000 compatible? I ran into this with a 2005 Yamaha outboard which was not NMEA 2000 compatible.
Click to expand...

The Merc 8.1 engines are not NMEA2000 compatible (and do not need to be) they use SmartCraft which is Merc's proprietary communication bus. The gateway performs the translation from SC to N2K so that other devices like your MFDs can read the data.

-Kevin
 
I have Inboards,I’m used to looking at the little screen/windows at the bottom of the round gauges but I’m thinking to utilize the Ray Marine display Since I don’t have vessel view, and I’m just wondering how does it look/ does it work good ,if it works good are you Impressed Or should I just buy the vessel view
 
see ray said:
I have Inboards,I’m used to looking at the little screen/windows at the bottom of the round gauges but I’m thinking to utilize the Ray Marine display Since I don’t have vessel view, and I’m just wondering how does it look/ does it work good ,if it works good are you Impressed Or should I just buy the vessel view
Click to expand...

To me a separate screen is preferable. There is a significant cost difference in the gateway and a vv display. If your good with a bit less functionality and only one screen then the gateway should suffice. Your MFD should have a guage display screen unless it is really dated.
 
Yes I have gage display screens , I have an 03-340da , i’m good with what I have, but all the stuff on the Ray Marine display have not been utilized, but my other Boats had the VesselView and I did like that so I was kind of thinking out loud,
The big thing is if I’m using the chart plotter and the auto pilot and my I 70 display I would have to switch away from there just to look at the engine functions when I could just look at the little screens below the gauges,
Thanks for all your help and thoughts I’m still scrambling around whether I should make that move or even buying the VV display
 
see ray said:
I have Inboards,I’m used to looking at the little screen/windows at the bottom of the round gauges but I’m thinking to utilize the Ray Marine display Since I don’t have vessel view, and I’m just wondering how does it look/ does it work good ,if it works good are you Impressed Or should I just buy the vessel view
Click to expand...
Consider that if you want to show engine data on the MFD screen you'll have to share some part of the screen with whatever else you normally have there - chart, radar, sonar, whatever. For 12 years I had analog gauges plus the little LCD of the smartcraft gauge and it was OK. Of course now that I have a different boat I've quickly become accustomed to 2 12 inch displays plus a VesselView 5" display.

I'm not sure how your Raymarine screen works, but my Garmin system has 2 basic ways to display engine data. 1) a split screen that shows configurable digital engine gauges; and 2) a configurable data bar on one side of the screen. Since I like to run with radar on one screen and charts on the other, I have configured the latter methods to show various engine parameters. If this is possible with your Raymarine you might consider trying it first before plunking down money on the Vessel View display. It is not an inexpensive purchase.

I'll just mention that the "latest" version of Vessel View displays are NOT particularly intuitive to use. I have the Vessel View 503 on my boat and it is quite difficult to use, frankly. Even my dealer's head technician and my local Cummins dealer said they are a pain to use. FYI, they are Simrad displays that are OEMed to Mercury. If you do decide to go this route, all of them (VV 403, 502, 703, and 903) have an integrated Smartcraft to NMEA 2000 gateway so you would not need an additional adapter to get engine data to your Raymarine plotter (assuming it has NMEA 2000 networking).
 
I still have the CLARiiON xmd1 stereo , and it plays great the remote even works up on the dash I’d like to switch that to Bluetooth but I hate to have to buy a new stereo since this one works decisions decisions
 
As far as the MFD and the VV , I am up here on Lake Erie I really don’t travel far
I pretty much just use the plotter the Radar, I have auto pilot and I really haven’t use that yet I’ll probably just save my cash and put it somewhere else thanks for your help
 
see ray said:
I still have the CLARiiON xmd1 stereo , and it plays great the remote even works up on the dash I’d like to switch that to Bluetooth but I hate to have to buy a new stereo since this one works decisions decisions
Click to expand...
There are bluetooth modules than
see ray said:
I still have the CLARiiON xmd1 stereo , and it plays great the remote even works up on the dash I’d like to switch that to Bluetooth but I hate to have to buy a new stereo since this one works decisions decisions
Click to expand...

There have been a number of discussions on CSR regarding bluetooth upgrades / add ons. Here's one.

http://www.clubsearay.com/index.php?threads/thinking-of-a-2003-320-sd.95017/page-2#post-1086984
 
SmartCraft to NMEA2000 - absolutely. SmartCraft to your primary MFD - not so much. Sending your engine data to your primary chart / sonar display sets up serious competition for very limited screen real-estate. A separate engine data display, assuming you have helm space for it, would be the optimal solution.

Take a look at Maretron's DSMxxx series of display, once you have gotton your SmartCraft data onto your NMEA bus.
 
Again thanks for the info I have been eyeing up the smart Craft mobile and loaded it down to my iPad and my iPhone since I do use the iPad also with the Ray marine plotter through Bluetooth, it is a simple one plug-in and power wire Then you could stream all the info on the same gauges as the VesselView or similar with the direct information from the smart craft
Check this out I don’t know if anybody else use that but I guess it’s a lot cheaper and direct smart craft information

https://publications.brunswick.com/VesselView-Mobile-p/vv-mm.htm
 
I’ve just been through a similar thing. Here’s the short version. Smartcraft is Merc’s implementation of CANBuss, an automotive vehicle management networking system. It uses the SAE J1939 protocol to describe the basic engine data elements. The specific boat/marine engine data elements augment the standard CANBuss elements are what makes it Smartcraft.

NMEA2000 is a boat management networking system. In addition it has defined the boat specific data elements that companies like Merc and Volvo have incorporated into their CANBuss implementations like Smartcraft and EVC. Likewise Nmea2000 can accommodate the engine data elements used in the CANBuss environment.

So with a device that physically bridges the two networks, or acts as a “gateway”, the data from one network can be seen on the other. This is largely mechanical in a sense as it largely deals more with connecting wires than translating data.

Nmea2000 gateways come from a variety of places: the engine manufacturers (as they know their wiring) as well as third party companies like Maretron and Yacht Devices. There are others, I’ve only researched Maretron and YD.

The electronics suppliers recognizing the implementation of nmea2000 would allow data other than navigation stuff to be displayed. So the upshot is you no longer need physical gauges to have gauge displays.

The electronics makers have also gotten into the game by going direct to the engine companies. Garmin builds units specifically for Volvo, their “Glass Helm” that plug directly into the Volvo electronics. Unfortunately they aren’t backwardly compatible with older versions of the Volvo engine systems.

I recently added a Garmin 7608 display to handle my gauge display. I did it after discovering the engine display on my E120Ws and not wanting to lose nav display real estate.

So in general with a Nmea2000 gateway a MFD can be set up to be a gauge display.

H
 
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