Simnet or Nmea2000 cabling ?

[ColdEH]

Hi All

Just started to install my new Simrad NSS7 in my boat and ran into a choice....

I have a Maretron heading sensor and it uses the Nmea 2000 standard cabling system. I know I could just get the adapter from 2000 to simnet for the unit and do the same thing for anything else I may want to ad latter that isn't Simnet or should I just put the adapter on the Chartplotter and do all the networking with the Nmea 2000 cabling .

The majority of my electronics are Simrad so maybe I should just use the simnet system, But I see that it can be sometimes hard to find the connectors as Simrad is the only one that supplies the cabling. I can source Nmea standard cabling from many manufacturers .

Help ? Recommendations? Experiences?

[Pyxis156]

Typhoon,

On my previous boat I installed a mostly Simrad setup with some Maretron tank sensors, a Maretron DSM 250 display and Airmar heading and DST sensors. I decided to go with all N2K cabling for the backbone and branch lines as that is the industry standard. The only Simnet wiring I used were the N2K pigtails available from Simrad to attach the Simrad electronics to an N2K network. It worked well and I had no regrets at all, and when I did add additional components to the setup (like a Maretron N2K/USB gateway) it was plug and play since everything was essentially N2K standard.

The only real advantage I could see to the Simnet cabling was the smaller ends and overall wire diameter made them easier to run to hard spots to reach like a nav pod at the binnacle.

Hope this helps...

[Reefmagnet]

When I needed to extend my triducer I used standard NMEA 2000 cables and connectors because that was all I could get hold of locally at the time. I had to join some simnet connectors (from a sacrificed short Simnet cable) to connect back to the Simnet backbone but this doesn't cause any problems at all.

Standard NMEA 2000 cabling and fittings is a lot cheaper than Simnet, too.

[ColdEH]

Sounds like a standard network would work better, I have already mounted the chartplotter at the helm and have the Simnet cable running down and into the engine room , I will start there with the standard Nmea2000 cabling .

Which are the best to use , Martron ? They seem very rugged .

Regards