Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

[achris]

I'm in the process of setting up a canbus network in my boat. I have a nice Furuno GP-1870 and would like engine data to be displayed.... I have all I need, cable, my own j-boxes, termination resistors, and the connector to plug into the engine (NOT purchased from Mercury)... I have the pin outs for the engine connector, but not the pin designations.

On the 10 pin Delphi GT150 engine canbus connector we have the following.

B - Black - engine ground
E - Dk Grn/Yell - Part of Canbus
F - Purple - Engine switched 12 volts
J - White - Part of Canbus
K - Lt Blu - Part of Canbus

What I need to know is which of the 3 wires for Canbus are Canbus +, Canbus -, and Canbus screen.

Thanks......

 

[alldodge]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

Hi Ya Chris
I'm looking into this and boy I got some real research in to figure this one out. Have not gone through all 13 pages but this happends to have a lot of info in it. Have a look see and I will keep looking

http://forums.iboats.com/mercury-mariner-outboards/how-install-smartcraft-system-269999-2.html

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

Does this help you at all, Chris? It shows the wire colors and connectors and all kinds of NEMA 2000 stuff. I not sure if the wire colors match your colors.

SIPNAV. Blog

 

[achris]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

Thanks AD and GA, I did find something in the 4.3MPI installation manual. There is a table with colours and wire designations. With the answers here and that table it does appear as though Merc have used the 'standard' colours for the engine plug, White being Can +, Blue being Can - and 'the other one' being the 'screen'. I'll try that and see where the smoke gets out... :facepalm:

I'll let you know how I go.

Chris......

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

Catch the smoke so you can put it back in. :joyous: Hope that doesn't happen. You're breaking new ground and setting standards. Good luck.

 

[achris]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

Found it definitely.. Page 33 of Section 3A of the MPI Diagnostics manual (#36). As above, Can+ is white, Can- is Lt Blue. Thanks for the help guys. I'll hook all that up and see if the Chartplotter can see an engine...

 

[achris]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

Well, that was interesting... :facepalm:

For this discussion (and in general anyway), Canbus and NMEA2000 are the same thing.

Found all the wires ect, hooked them up... Nothing. GPS still talking to the sounder (via a 0183 to 2000 converter), but no engine on the canbus monitor display on the GPS... Checked my network with the multimeter, yes termination resistors in place and being 'seen', all wires to all connectors being seen... Still nothing on the GPS monitor. Got the oscilloscope out and hook that up.... I see GPS data, sounder data, and engine data... ???? Why no see engine on GPS????

A little more research (about 4 hours) found this....

Seems Merc's canbus is canbus, but not as we know it... We need a Merc gateway, to convert Merc's canbus to 'standard' canbus.... $394 thank you, I don't think!!!

Thanks for all the help and suggestions guys.... Looks like Merc snookered us again... :facepalm:

Chris.....

 

[alldodge]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

With Merc it's always all about the money. Bummer

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

Sorry it didn't work out, Chris. :grumpy: I wonder what's inside that little sealed converter box?

 

[NYBo]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

I LOVE proprietary protocols and equipment. Not. :facepalm:

 

[sam am I]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

Merc = Microsoft.

Unix/Linux platforms and open source info just don't make the BIG money!

 

[jhebert]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

You confused the electrical standard of the network wiring with the protocol of the data being carried. That is why you see no data from the engine on your NMEA-2000 display. Even though it appears the networks are electrically compatible, the data carried on them is not.

 

[achris]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

You confused the electrical standard of the network wiring with the protocol of the data being carried. That is why you see no data from the engine on your NMEA-2000 display. Even though it appears the networks are electrically compatible, the data carried on them is not.

Yep, I did figure that out (15 years as a computer hardware engineer and self-taught programmer helped with that). What was the original source of confusion was that in the Merc manual they call it 'Canbus', not 'Merc specific Canbus'....

Chris....

 

[sam am I]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

Hmmmmm, might be interesting to see just where/how merc is smudging the open source ISO standard...,shouldn't be that difficult, might just have to do some digging in all my spare time. :faint2:

 

[dan02gt]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

A MercMonitor with Level 1 feature like the NMEA gateway is only few $ more than the gateway alone and can give you all the info you're looking on it's screen.

Here's my setup:

http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/y343/dan02gt/IMAG0280.jpg

http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/y343/dan02gt/IMAG0304.jpg

I've never bothered hooking it to a chartplotter because the MercMonitor gives me all the info I need. The analog gauges are actually Systemlink gauges the network to the MercMonitor.

 

[achris]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

I was trying to avoid putting yet another display on an already overcrowded dash. And as it's just the digital version of the analogue gauges I already have on the dash, I'm not willing to toss that sort of coin... Merc can take their 'gateway' and jam it! I am so over Merc for a lot of things, this may just be the straw. My next engine may be anything but a Merc!

Chris......

 

[jhebert]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

...Merc can take their 'gateway' and jam it! I am so over Merc for a lot of things, this may just be the straw. My next engine may be anything but a Merc!

In outboard engines, the Evinrude, Yamaha, Honda, and Suzuki outboard engines are all NMEA-2000 certified, and Mercury outboards are not.

CAN bus is a standard used particularly in automobiles and dates back to the 1980's. Because of the very high volume of use in automobiles, inexpensive microcircuits have been developed to handle the electrical interface. Due to the low cost of those microcircuits and the very wide distribution and availability, NMEA-2000 seems to have used the same electrical specifications. Mercury Smartcraft also seems to use the same electrical specifications.

NMEA-2000 is an open standard and has become the basis for most modern recreational boat electronics and instrumentation. There are many engines, instruments, gauges, and other devices made to the NMEA-2000 specification.

Mercury's Smartcraft appears to use the same CAN bus electrical interface but is a closed and proprietary protocol used only by Mercury and a few gauge manufacturers who supply Smartcraft gauges.

It seems unlikely that anyone working on their own without complete knowledge of both NMEA-2000 and Smartcraft protocols, and a great deal of skill in software and hardware creation, could create a working protocol convertor with less effort and expense needed compared to just buying the Mercury gateway for about $400.

 

[dan02gt]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

It can replace all the notoriously inaccurate analog gauges that are on your overcrowded dash with just one gauge that can give you all the info you could ever want. I've been in IT for 15 years and I get your rant. It should be as easy as plugging a chartplotter into a network running NMEA protocols. Why they don't do that I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with other things like DTS and digital piloting systems that also run across the SmartCraft network. I think you'll find some other marine motor manufacturers do the same thing. Here's the one recommended for Volvo Penta: Maretron | J2K100

 

[sam am I]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

It seems unlikely that anyone working on their own without complete knowledge of both NMEA-2000 and Smartcraft protocols, and a great deal of skill in software and hardware creation, could create a working protocol convertor with less effort and expense needed compared to just buying the Mercury gateway for about $400.

True that for the end user/s and totally all academic info provided by you above as you under estimate the truest form of raw power in the US my friend, capitalism is alive and well. Plus, nerds always work alone but, we still live with our parents in the basement, so we're not entirely alone.

 

[achris]

Re: Can bus pinouts used by Mercruiser.

True that for the end user/s and totally all academic info, but you under estimate the power of capitalism my friend. Plus, nerds always work alone but, we still live with our parents in the basement, so we're not entirely alone.

:thumb:

I have SO many plans for 'after-market' stuff for boats.... I just have to find the time to develop them.

Chris..