NMEA2000 engine monitoring additions

[CourageousME]

I couldn't really find this a perfect forum home, so hope its ok here. I dont have much in the way of engine monitoring for my Volvo Penta. It has a very simple control panel and alarm system for overheating, but thats it.

Id like to try to get engine temp and fuel level or consumption integrated in to NMEA2000 backbone so I can read it at the helm. Even RPMs would be nice. is this is difficult thing to do? after an overheating issue recently im really wishing I had better situational awareness on things. thx

[DotDun]

Two units I know of, no experience with either.

EMU-1 - Actisense

https://www.navstore.com/noland-engi...CABEgIwVfD_BwE

[CaptTom]

I have the Noland, great unit! I put coolant temp, revs and oil pressure from each of two engines onto the NMEA 2000 bus. With a single engine you could add 3 more values.

That said, to get fuel consumption you'd either need an interface to the engine computer (newer engines) or a fuel flow monitoring system (FlowScan or similar.)

[continuouswave]

Originally Posted by CourageousME

...Id like to...get engine temp and fuel level or consumption integrated in to NMEA2000 backbone so I can read it at the helm.

You can get engine temperature onto NMEA-2000 with a temperature sensor.

You can get fuel tank level onto NMEA-2000 with a tank level sensor.

You can get fuel flow rate onto NMEA-2000 with a flow sensor.

For a temperature sensor, you could use the Lowrance TEMPERATURE SENSOR (MSRP $99), see

Lowrance Temperature Sensor | Lowrance

For fuel tank level, the simplest approach is to use a standard fuel tank level float sensor with a resistive ouput, then connect a Lowrance FLUID LEVEL SENSOR (MSRP $99) to the resistive output. See

Lowrance Fluid Level Sensor | Lowrance

For fuel flow rate you can use a Lowrance FUEL FLOW SENSOR (MSRP $199). See
Lowrance Marine Fuel Flow Sensor | Lowrance

Note that the Lowrance flow sensor only works with gasoline; it does NOT work with diesel.

There are other devices that require some work on your part to integrate, calibrate, and wire up, as mentioned in prior replies. But the Lowrance sensors will be very simple to use. The only hitch may be the temperature sensor will need to be re-configured for engine temperature from water temperature, and you would need a suitable Lowrance HDS display to perform the configuration; perhaps a dealer could do it for you.

For more advice on fuel tank level senders see this article:


continuousWave: Whaler: Reference: NMEA-2000 Instrumentation: Fluid Tank Level Monitoring

For advice on modern implementations of resistive fuel tank level senders, see

http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum6/HTML/000632.html

The WEMA products seem like a good value in tank level sensors with classic resistive output. See

http://www.wemausa.com/sensors/level...l#.WaoaIiMrK2w

[Captsteve53]

Most all modern ELECTRONIC engines use CAN BUS systems, Raymarine and others supply conversion units to NMEA 2000 or whole systems such as the ECI-100:

ECI-100 Engine Interfacing


Cheers Steve

[Captsteve53]

For got to say the ECI-100 can monitor display every thing from Eng temp/oil pressure/fuel rates/oil temp/RPM /gear box temp/gear pressure etc etc

Cheers Steve