Adding fuel flow sensor to NMEA 2000

[...bill]

Boat has 2 5.7L Mercruisers with 2 separate tanks. Want to add fuel flow sensors and display the info on a Raymarine C120 (classic) display.
I know the C120 is older, but with the latest firmware it can display flow sensor PGN's via NMEA 2000.
I figured out how to connect the C120 to a NMEA 2000 backbone, as many have done this.
Options for NMEA 2000 flow sensors are:
Lowrance
Garmin
Floscan
Maretron

Lowrance is the preferred choice due to price. Problem is, all of these appear to require custom configuration with display equipment from their manufacturer. Any way around this? Has anyone done this?

Thanks,
?bill

 

[sam am I]

Lowrance is the preferred choice due to price. Problem is, all of these appear to require custom configuration with display equipment from their manufacturer. Any way around this? Has anyone done this?

Thanks,
…bill

Not necessarily true, I'm currently running a lowrance NMEA 2K pressure sensor on a Garmin Echomap FF. If it says NMEA 2K compatible, MOST more robust NMEA 2K compatible display devices should pick up the NMEA 2K sensors sentences. Nothing custom per-se with what I've done, the Garmin picked it right up......Meaning, Garmin (and others) firmware is embedded with the ability to read this particular (as well as others) manu sentence ID's.

Is there a way around this? Not the display unit but, NEMA 2K generic sensors is something of work in progress.....I have the bus sniffer running and captured the data I needed to emulate, I just have to write and compile the code............So little time, so much to do.

 

[...bill]

sam:
Thanks for the response. As I plan to have 2 flow sensors, I'm concerned the flow sensor itself will need to know if it's a port or starboard device. I have heard of others connecting a Lowrance fuel flow sensor and having it work out of the box as you described. I haven't heard of anyone using two of them and have that configuration work. I'll probably be the Guinea pig for this...

I commend your effort to emulate NMEA 2K devices. I anxiously await generic NMEA 2K devices. It seems with the current state of affairs, as long as manufacturers can use proprietary PGN's there will be a way to lock-up certain features.
Even if you sniff and reverse engineer the proprietary PGN's, you (or I) can't sell that solution. In any event, sounds like fun and would love to hear about your progress.
...bill

 

[sam am I]

I wondering if my Garmin would allow two flow sensors, don't think so......hmmm, I'll have power it up and see.

If it did then I'm thinking this would in fact be perhaps a manu specific schema/function the dispay unit would have to embedded in it by, or for use with a specific manu that would then include their own sensor suit ($$$$ of course)...........The two $ensor$ then when on the can bus would be required to have a individual identities (a SN if you will in it's broadcast sentence) that the display unit would be waiting for once initialize in a manu area, the user could assign port and star.......Most likely a proprietary protocol, yes.

Well TY, I'm really only after a hand-full of the more simple broadcast type sensor (PF is between 240 and 255) data area's where the display units (Garmin etc)) just picks off bus what I (my sensors) spit out on the bus with data packets that will contain the 2K predefined protocols at a few engine PGN's addresses along with the associated data. Just the simple stuff like, water pressure, temp, voltage, flow, etc , etc......

Always one to roll my own.....I have it all laid out on the bench, just can't seem to get to it due to a major kitchen remodel. Hoping in the next few months, I'll try to post what/when I can and perhaps use this thread

 

[dingbat]

I have a combination of Garmin and Lowrance sensors (Fuel flow, tank level, GPS and paddle wheel Speed) networked to a pair of Garmin chart plotters. All sensor are plug and play as advertised. Then again, all sensors and both units (Echomap CHIRP 94SV and GPS 4208) are NMEA 2000 compliant

Looking at the Raymarine website, it appears the unit is not NMEA 2000 compliant. You should be able to receive data from the sensors but any functionality requiring interaction with your plotter i.e. configure, calibration, setup, etc. is not supported

It is also recommended that the manufacturer of any NMEA 2000 device requiring calibration (ex. tank level sensors, fuel flow sensors) be contacted regarding how to calibrate the devices as Raymarine products do not feature support for the calibration of third party NMEA 2000 devices.

I wondering if my Garmin would allow two flow sensors, don't think so......hmmm, I'll have power it up and see.

No problem connecting multiple fuel flow sensors to a Garmin device

 

[...bill]

dingbat:
The C120 indeed supports NMEA 2000 devices for engine data beginning with firmware release v3.16. I'm able to configure the display for tachs, fuel flow, oil pressure, coolant temp, voltage, and a few other goodies. As I understand it, the Raymarine Seatalk2 uses NMEA 2000 protocol, so the trick is simply getting the proper conversion cables. Doing this is well documented by Raymarine on their tech support site so I know I can connect NMEA 2000 devices to the C120.
I'm encouraged you are able to see 2 flow sensors on your Garmin. Are your fuel flow sensors Lowrance?

I'm quite aware that I will not be able to configure Lowrance fuel flow sensors from the Raymarine C120. This is what prompted starting this thread. That is, will Lowrance NMEA 2000 flow sensors work good enough out of the box without any configuration?
Only Lowrance MFD's or Lowrance gauge displays can configure Lowrance fuel flow sensors.