Going digital

[Huntsman60]

Now that much of the innards of Rosina of Netley have been ripped out, some of the wiring that is left is sixties era Faireys - something that wasn't always their strongest suite. As I have almost a blank sheet of paper now, the temptation is to rip out even more and just go NMEA 2000. The purist in me says no, that a Fairey should be all dials and analogue, but with space at a premium, this could make for a lot of sense.

What are the views on this - has anyone else gtone down this route and if so, are you pleased or do you regret 'going digital'?

Dougal

(Master Unit Garmin - am thinking rev counters/ engine data, fuel gauges, then VHF, Depth....)

[nickkieffer1]

Hi Dougal as you have a near empty shell now would be a good time to review wiring the old stuff will have
loads of "improvements" from previous years. The idea of fully modern could be a good solution integrated with a garmin
system one display showing engine data, charts, radar etc do not worry if it may not be original it is your boat and if it suits your needs thats for you to decide . If you do go digital make sure it is all kept dry as modern wiring is very thin . Nick

[Huntsman60]

Thanks Nick - digital is something that I do understand, so when I saw this I thought 'yes'. Everything is pretty central in the boat - engines, instruments - the other thing that's further is the transducer for the depth but even that is within the 18ft limit.

If I go for this I'll put up some pictures

D

[Ben]

Are the new engines electronic control? With fly by wire throttles?

[Scott Pett]

NMEA2000 (N2K) is definteley the way to go, although I am struggling somewhat to get the main backbone cable routed though the deck beams and get the drop cable tee-pieces where I migh need them. The backbone needs to reach the instruments,of course, but also nowadays there are N2K controlled audio systems from Garmin (nee Fusion) and others, and I notice the new Eberspacher heaters are CAN-Bus controlled, so it's only a matter of time before someone works up a new App into their Chartplotters to control the heating! There are converter boxes to take analogue engine sensor voltages and spit out N2K packets onto the net and then onto a Multi-Function plotter display (MFD). There are also N2K monitors for tank levels, battery chargers and even sea-cocks. So as Arthur Daley would say: "The world is your lobster".

One big problem is that most electronic engine manufacturers like to use their own mechanism for transferring engine information. Mercury and Cummins with SmartCraft requires a converter box to produce N2K. Even if like Volvo, they produce native N2K there are often "extra" Data Block type (Program Group Numbers or PGNs) which need dealing with via software, and this can lead to the most expense. The wonder of a standardized system is the sheer number of different Standards that come into play. We are starting to see Engine type specific displays on Raymarine MFD's but I have found that they don't always want to receive information from even a recent SmartCrap converter box.

My N2K backbone cable is, as has been mentioned, quite small, but the connector needs a hole about 10 to 11mm in diameter to allow the cable to be routed through. So quite a lot of initial fiddling especially getting the power feed drop cable from the 12 volt feed to the backbone.

I would keep the backbone and drop cables away from heavy current circuits such as auto-pilot and bow thruster motor power feed cables in order to reduce the chance of interference and make sure the network screen wire is well earthed to either a proper grounding plate or at least the negative side of the battery.

The other issue is for those who have legacy instruments with NMEA0813, SeaTalk, SeaTalk2 and the like is the plethora of converter boxes and connector types needed to get everything to talk to each other. If you are lucky enough to be starting from scratch, life should be much simpler and of course, the use of WiFi and Bluetooth wireless systems to get data around the boat saves a lot of copper and fiddling. Albeit at the expense of Fried Brains!

Finally, get yourself a cost effective mobile data plan for your phone - that little lot will need software updates every few months and it'll take a long time over an overloaded Marina Wifi network. Life is too short to faff about with USB sticks and microSD cards.

Good Luck...

[mps]

Oh gosh….
Call me old fashioned. The old stuff has lasted 50 years. How long are any of these new systems going to be current or relevant?
Its a marine environment. Stay analog.
(Although in the spirit of openness i’m not much using paper charts much anymore! Even my Decca Navigator isn’t seeing much use these days)

[EWV]

Those were some of the same considerations I had too when deciding what to do on Aruna.

Personally I prefer the look of traditional gauges, especially on a classic boat/car so I am going with that with a GPS/fishfinder integrated into the dash too. I think maybe we'll see all these touch screens and smart gauges on cars and boats something of a gimmick in the future?

Staying analogue does seem to keep things simpler and the cynic in me would say that manufacturers are charging a lot of money for digital items which are probably cheaper and easier to make when compared to traditional gauges.

I would worry about spending so much money and going to all the effort of installation only for the system to be redundant in a few years or not work properly and need constant tweaking.

The appeal of being able to control or check systems remotely from the boat would however be very useful.