MExcelsior
Member
Well folks.... I have been working on this for a while and here are my findings. First, I have made a promise to myself not to bash Kohler's Customer Service, but I will simply say that after a 1 1/2 months, somebody at the top at Kohler needs an old-fashion boot up their A#@$ and open up some lines between their distributor network and engineers.
Ok, enough of that.
#1: First I tried to hook up the Smartcraft from the Kohler to the Merc J-boxes. No luck there as Mercury currently does not service Smartcraft ver 1 at least for the generators on their new screens.
#2: Secondly, I went ahead and purchased a J2K100 from Maretron to convert the J1939 from the Kohler to Nmea 2000. This actually works and information shows up on the VesselView 7, but the Generator loses ability to start remotely and even start from the 5ECD itself.
Now the problem. The CAN communication on the Kohler cannot do both SmartCraft and J1939 at the same time. You have to select one or the other , so when I output select the CAN to J1939, I believe the unit loses it's preprogrammed start sequence. The Cn selection on the Kohler seems to be missing a J1939 with remote ability. I have Cn selections 0-5. Selection Cn 6 in the newer documentation mentions that this might be possible, but my genset doesn't have that selection.
It seems like the unit might be able to perhaps do this, but would entail a controller update to get a software version, or potentially the controller is factory set and it might be impossible to output J1939 and retain the remote start with certain gauges and kits installed for SeaRay.
So... the story continues. I know that this is really not a big deal and my life won't change a bit without seeing Genset diagnostics on my VesselView, but when I set my mind to accomplishing something, it turns into a mission.
Ok, enough of that.
#1: First I tried to hook up the Smartcraft from the Kohler to the Merc J-boxes. No luck there as Mercury currently does not service Smartcraft ver 1 at least for the generators on their new screens.
#2: Secondly, I went ahead and purchased a J2K100 from Maretron to convert the J1939 from the Kohler to Nmea 2000. This actually works and information shows up on the VesselView 7, but the Generator loses ability to start remotely and even start from the 5ECD itself.
Now the problem. The CAN communication on the Kohler cannot do both SmartCraft and J1939 at the same time. You have to select one or the other , so when I output select the CAN to J1939, I believe the unit loses it's preprogrammed start sequence. The Cn selection on the Kohler seems to be missing a J1939 with remote ability. I have Cn selections 0-5. Selection Cn 6 in the newer documentation mentions that this might be possible, but my genset doesn't have that selection.
It seems like the unit might be able to perhaps do this, but would entail a controller update to get a software version, or potentially the controller is factory set and it might be impossible to output J1939 and retain the remote start with certain gauges and kits installed for SeaRay.
So... the story continues. I know that this is really not a big deal and my life won't change a bit without seeing Genset diagnostics on my VesselView, but when I set my mind to accomplishing something, it turns into a mission.