Volvo Penta 8.1 GI-f, Furuno Plotter & Fuel flow meters

[winbasic]

Hi,
I used to use these forums with my last boat but have been on dry land until recently. I've just purchased a boat with 2006 Volvo Penta 8.1 Gi-f engines. It has a Furuno 1870f plotter. Given how they drank the juice during relocation, I'd like to hook this up to fuel flow meters. Previously I had a Garmin plotter and used a GFS-10 flow meter and it worked well. This time I'm assuming I have to play in the NMEA space but will the Garmin 'talk' to the Furuno even though both say they are NMEA compatible? I know I'll be up for a NMEA bus of some sort but if anyone has any other suggestions, I'd be all ears. From my searching, I'm assuming the engines won't provide fuel flow themselves as they pre-date the EVC era.

As usual, thanks in advance for any assistance!!

Kind Regards,

David.

 

[alldodge]

Don't know but dingbat might

 

[dingbat]

According to the manual, the unit supports png (NMEA 2000 messages) for fuel flow (as part of engine data) and tank level.


127489 - Engine Parameters–Dynamic

127505 - Fluid Level

I have no idea how the messages are formatted or displayed internally. Given the configuration information available in the manual, you will not have the options you had in the Garmin with a dedicated fuel flow functionality

 

[winbasic]

Thanks guys. So Dingbat (love the name btw!!) - by the sounds of this, I might be best connecting a laptop directly to the engine via Rinda and getting an idea from that as to the various flows at various RPM... NMEA is a new world to me but learning fast....

 

[wire knot]

I have some experience with this, though my rig is a 2010 5.0 GXI-p, so it may not apply. Last year I hooked up a garmin with a Maretron Gateway. It translates the engine signal (j1939), to NMEA 2000. works great. I get GPH, and Gallons used.

I also,just this week, Got the Rinda/laptop hookup, to chase a warning buzzer. A lot more info for sure but on my boat (a CC). It's not practical for everyday use.

 

[winbasic]

I thought I'd post a follow up just in case anyone else is lurking and is interested. Volvo Penta have said it can't be done and this solution saves adding a separate separate fuel flow sensor. I've googled the interwebs and visited just about every corner and have finally found what I believe is a solution. Yachtd have a YDEG-04 gateway which when combined with the EFI 10 pin cable connector, will convert the ECU traffic to NMEA 2000 which then allows it to go into a standard NMEA CAN bus system and display on your plotter. Now there is another device which is a gateway and this allows you to then connect your phone/tablet/pc to the gateway which for me is preferable as it allows me to leave the plotter as is and just check for fuel flow when I want to with a 2nd device. Currently I use the Rinda to connect to the ECU and I can get real time information but it's to my laptop and that's not the most functional solution when underway. I'm about to order the various bits and see where I end up. For now I'm just going to do one engine but I believe the gateways are programmable to allow you to separate the engines.

 

[dingbat]

Are you sure you have the right Gateway?
I'm not seeing a 10 pin connector. Only 6 pin inline adapter to NMEA 2000 connector

https://www.yachtd.com/downloads/ydeg04.pdf

 

[jg5343]

Are you sure you have the right Gateway?
I'm not seeing a 10 pin connector. Only 6 pin inline adapter to NMEA 2000 connector

https://www.yachtd.com/downloads/ydeg04.pdf

Theres an adapter for each engine model. The standard is a 6 pin, as you see in the pic, and the adapter is a 10 pin. There are several others available including an 8 pin, etc. My research led me to believe this engine was 10 pin, and the OP used a 10 pin allegedly on the same model. I could be wrong. At one point I though I needed the 8 pin.