Garmin and Battery Management

[fieldmedik]

I'm not sure this is the right forum but I'm looking for information. We have a Garmin 7612 Chartplotter. One of the "features" listed in the manual is a "battery management" page that can show status of Wind Gen, Solar, Alternator, battery status, etc. They can be named and there are different icons. All that sounds wonderful. But (did ya hear that but coming?) the CP does not 'see' any of the devices. I called tech support and got a resounding, "we have no idea how to do that". So, does anyone have any knowledge about how to make this CP see the components?

We have a wind gen, solar, alternator, inverter/charger, 4 -12v/200AH house battery bank and a 12v/280 ah battery for the engine. We have a balmar smart regulator and the ACR combiner/isolator relay. We also have electronic fuel sensors that the CP can't see.

Does anyone know how to fix it so the chartplotter can see everything that's going on?

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by fieldmedik

I'm not sure this is the right forum but I'm looking for information. We have a Garmin 7612 Chartplotter. One of the "features" listed in the manual is a "battery management" page that can show status of Wind Gen, Solar, Alternator, battery status, etc. They can be named and there are different icons. All that sounds wonderful. But (did ya hear that but coming?) the CP does not 'see' any of the devices. I called tech support and got a resounding, "we have no idea how to do that". So, does anyone have any knowledge about how to make this CP see the components?

We have a wind gen, solar, alternator, inverter/charger, 4 -12v/200AH house battery bank and a 12v/280 ah battery for the engine. We have a balmar smart regulator and the ACR combiner/isolator relay. We also have electronic fuel sensors that the CP can't see.

Does anyone know how to fix it so the chartplotter can see everything that's going on?

No, but the manual give me some hints.
I found this on page 40 "The gauges and graphs provide various information about the engine and environment. To view the information, a compatible transducer or sensor must be connected to the network". My emphasis.
The NMEA labels are shown on page 61 & 62.

I was reading this manual http://static.garmin.com/pumac/GPSMA...0_OM_EN-US.pdf

[smac999]

You would need nmea 2000 shunts and meters on all of those devices.

[Tornadosailing]

I'll be doing a solar/lithium upgrade in the near future, and part of that will include a Victron Venus. I have a Garmin 7610 and integrating with all the battery and solar system is this easy.

https://youtu.be/RWdEQfYZKEs

[Sailmonkey]

You’re going to spend a fortune on all of the nema 2000 sensors and cabling to do this!

[Pizzazz]

I have found this integration of engine, autopilot, etc. info and switching not that useful. There is just not enough real estate on the display and the controls are pretty bad. Plus, it is super costly. If you want radar overlay, that is great. 3D maps is also useful. Weather overlay could have been great but most of the implementations I have seen are very limited, compared to a simple weather routing app in the phone.

Engine data could be useful but it is so much easier to add the original displays/controls or to add “industrial” displays that take data from industrial sensors ($15/sensor) and display them on a dedicated, water proof touch screen display. The protocol that is typically used is called 4-20 mA and is current based vs. voltage based, thus eliminating a lot of voltage drop headaches. Plus you can customize the displays in any way you want. You can add pressure, temperature, alarms, relays, it is super easy. Forget about the Garmin integration. Not worth it.

[StowawayJoe]

Originally Posted by Tornadosailing

I'll be doing a solar/lithium upgrade in the near future, and part of that will include a Victron Venus. I have a Garmin 7610 and integrating with all the battery and solar system is this easy.

https://youtu.be/RWdEQfYZKEs

That didn't work for me. The Garmin kept booting in "Recover Mode" I had to use a VE.CAN to Nmea 2000 cable from the Cerbo GX to get the data on my network