Upgrade Plotter/Sonar + NMEA2000 + Smartcraft

[roberteb]

Since 5 weeks, proud owner of 2004 240DA, but like to have some upgrades. My old setup was a outdated Garmin and Navman VHF.



The Garmin was blocking my radio remote



The first idea was to remove all the SC1000 gauges and have the plotter installed in the mid section. But after the first ride in dark hours, love the gauges... Also, moving from plotter with chart + sonar to engine data, a bit cumbersome... So, I decided to have the plotter installed on the dash again. The old position was blocking the remote and space is limited. Thought left will be the best option.

First open the dash and sidepanel



The EIM and Accessory Fuse Box



Close-up SC1000 Gauges (Tacho is smartcraft v3.02)



Close-up remote radio (red arrow is pointing to old plotter position)



Close up Engine Ignition



And bottom / top door rail (Some cleaning to do!)

 

[roberteb]

The following equipment will be installed:
- Lowrance HDS7 3gen plotter
- 3D Structure scan (sensor already done by dealer)
- TM150 Chirp sonar (done by dealer)
- Garmin 300i AIS VHF with active speaker
- Mercury gateway nmea2000 - Smartcraft
- Point 1 heading sensor
- NMEA2000 recorder

First a test... I use the + of fuse box and - of the ground strip





All seems to be fine!



The Smarftcraft harness has already two build-in terminators on both ends, which is fine for single engine setup. I just connect this harness to Juntionbox.





Checking Gateway.... all fine

 

[roberteb]

I didn't want to have the plotter direct on the dash, so I ordered a rammount which has also standard template holes for my plotter. As the scan/sonar connectors are large and don't want to cut the cables, drilled large hole for connectors....





Final position plotter....

 

[roberteb]

Later more....

 

[JC3]

Rob, That looks very good! Nice job, JC

 

[Bob & Sue]

Looks like a well thought out install.

 

[roberteb]

Thanks!

The first idea was to have the black boxes (Garmin 300i AIS / Lowrance 3D Structure Scan) behind the sidepanel on the starboard side. After removing the sidepanel, you have access to the void space between the hull and midcabin 'wall'. But, sometimes like to check status of indication leds, in that case need to remove sidepanel. Even just 5 screws, still no a quick check. Same counts for the NMEA2000 recorder, need to remove memorycard to load the data on my computer... So need easy access...

The solution is to install the blackboxes in the back of the midcabin, easy to access and direct access for cables from the void space.

Below the picture of the blackboxes and (part) of NMEA2000 backbone. The round device on the backbone is the N2K recorder. The cables are still 'messy' and will do later..



Part of the backbone will be installed behind the sidepanel and my temporarily setup.

 

[roberteb]

The Garmin 300I AIS can have in addition an active speaker. Especially with some engine noise, nice to have. The handset will connected to the active speaker and the active speaker to the blackbox.
I prefer to have my handset on the right side and installed the speaker and handset connection point in the side wall.

 

[roberteb]

Running in some troubles....

Everything went very easy, till the moment I wanted to connect my SC1000 Tacho and other gauges. I had smartcarft cable 84-879979A1. So cable to junction box and Tacho, worked fine... Then I connect the systemlink for other gauges... no response.. Used different ports of junctionbox, still have issue... Tacho is working, other gauges not.

I went to the dealer and purchased 84-879979T11. According the dealer replacement to 84-879979A1. Tried this cable, no response at all, even no the tacho. The manual mentioned 'Version 4 of newer' and as by Tacho is version 3.02 maybe the issue...

Back to the dealer, first question 'Did you connect the vessel ground', as this newer model has additional cable marked with vessel ground. No, I didn't... The dealer also had an old 84-879979A1 cable, similar the one I had already... Back to the boat..

The 84-879979A1 had some still the lables on, Gauges, Junction, Systemlink... Then I discovered my mistake, despite reading some installation manuals, I installed the cable in the wrong direction.... The connector with the smartcraft + systemlink must be connect to the junctionbox!

Recap:
Cable 84-879979A1 is working and later tested 84-879979T11 is also working with the vessel ground cable connected. Only use the good direction, else only Tacho is working!



Junctionbox located under the dash (fixed with other cables)

 

[roberteb]

Final result...

Still some open items, as installing the Point1 and new VHF antenna.



The Lowrance plotter has a pre-installed Mercury Vesselview app, but get also the data on the native Lowrance app



The hole left by the old VHF will be covered by aluminum plate with vessel details (name, call-sign, MMSI, ATIS (EU inlandwater), etc)

 

[danmili]

Ok, that's a great play by play for this install. Thanks for sharing!

 

[stg099]

Thanks for documenting such a great install! Well done, the final product looks fantastic