2004 sundancer 240 smartcraft question

[Vetterman]

Just bought a 240 sundancer 2004 that has the 5.7l efi 300hp motor that has smartcraft.

I want to change the helm out and replace the standard gauges with a Raymarne A6 from their new A series touch screen Gps chartplotter and Fishfinder combo. THe 7" screen model takes it to the very edge of the wood grain inserts in the center pod of my helm display area, so the 5" will fit nice.

BecauseI would be eliminating the standard gauges I want the new device to display my speed tach,fuel, various temps. The features list for this unit says this....Raynet Ethernet, Seatalk, Nema 2000, Wifi Bluetooth.

I would assume Merc would have a module to get Smartcraft into to the device and I am looking for 2 answers...

1) What version of smartcaft will this motor have - does it matter for what data it will send and what version will the raymarine a6 unit need - will they even talk to each other

2) what special hardware will I need

Dave

 

[Vetterman]

So far what I have learned is that I need a gateway module to convert the smartcraft protocol language into the language that the Raymarine needs and it's also possible the Mercmonitor gauge is also a gateway - if not then its a separate module - not sure if it attached at the engine thus an output to the raymarine head unit and output to the mermonitor gauge or if the engine is direct output to the mercmonitor then output to the raymarine.

The other issue I will not know until I get the gateway and test this, is how much data it will send but so far my mechanic says when he plugs his computer into the engine he sees all the temps, engine revs, etc so hopefully the virtual gauges the A6 unit can display will all show. Also, you can program alarms so if you are watching your chartplotter and hear an alarm you can switch screens and see what is happening.