The new NMEA2000/Merc monitor finally breaks down the walls between Smartcraft and NMEA 2000 devices. If you have not followed the "Sony Beta" (Merc) vs "Panasonic VHS” (NMEA 2000) war waged by by Merc and the rest of the industry, do some reading, that’s another whole discussion.
The simple fact is many of us using Smartcraft enjoyed many years of digital features way before the rest of the industry produced NMEA 2000. This is a look at a prototype that Merc gave me. I received it with no installation instructions. That was their plan, to see if a non professional could hook it up. It is a prototype, but it is running the release software, so what you see is what you will get. Merc has released their marketing "sell sheet" here:
Click here to download the Merc PDF Suffice to say after Merc exited the Navman/Northstar fiasco, cooler heads prevailed and they have came out with a gateway/gauge “for the rest of us.” (i.e. The other 99% of the electronics world.) They are doing it in the form of a Merc gauge that easily replaces the speedo or tach (or even just an extra) which now adds many new functions to the boat. I might add here that some are confused as there used to be smartcraft tachs and speedos....no more - there is only one gauge with a myriad of selections so every monitor is what you want it to be: tach OR speedo (or just fuel flow meter, or tank meter, etc). It DISPLAYS only one engine itself if you go to the RPM page (for example), but TRANSMITS ALL THE MOTOR(S) DATA TO THE CHARTPLOTTER.. That's why I got one gauge and replaced my SC1000 speedo. It is truly is a perfect example of the way everything is going these days: a MULTIFUNCTION DISPLAY - or MFD...
I should add that sending Merc data to other devices such as the chartplotter is a neat feature. But in no way does anyone NEED this feature, if you already have any of the excellent Smartcraft gauges, Systemview or Vesselview. This may change in the future as more mfrs learn to work with this protocol. The only place I can see this being extremely invaluable now, is a 2nd station tower or fly bridge, you could do it all with one networked screen such as a Garmin 4208, Furuno MFD8, Ray E90W or Simrad NSE.The box I got from Merc had a few extra parts but with each monitor you’ll get the gauge, harness, NMEA drop cables, NMEA “T” and terminator plug to expand your N2K current backbone.
Honestly, it took me all of 10 min to get up and running with no tools.
1. Remove old smartcraft speedo and harness from junction box
2. Plug in new harness to J box, and in same hole tighten collar for new speedo
3. Connect the NMEA cable on the harness to your backbone, adding a T and end plug.
4. Take the fuse out of the harness holder - you do not use this power connection. Set the Garmin in NMEA 2000 setup to "output bridging on".
5. Once EVERYTHING is hooked up and all electronics and ignition is on, are running - hit the "autoconfigure" -
not before
Now on to the fun stuff. The gauge ,like the prev merc monitors, can show in 6 diff colors – it will auto switch contrast as dusk via the GPS clock. I chose red. A small clever touch is you can configure the start up screen so it has your boat name or whatever on it instead of "Mercury".
Here’s my boat name and opening icon:
And how it integrates into the dash – (big blue gauge)
The total dash with Vesselview, Garmin, Smartcraft tachs and links and Mercmonitor:
So I turned on the motors and everything worked immediately. It went thru a “autoconfigure” mode .I had to re-set the fuel capacity and instantly the analog smartcraft link gauge came alive using the default method.
And the biggest news of all, no more of that
“hook your speedo to your GPS using the blue white wires from your GPS. “ The NMEA cable to the backbone supplies data BOTH WAYS: engine data TO the GPS, and GPS data BACK to the speedo – for all your “fuel to waypoint”, digital speed and accurate mpg that the speedo had when hooked to GPS. Make sure the output bridging is on in the garmin configure menu.
Here’s the Garmin 4210 with NO tweaking or fiddling:
The fuel screen
the motors screen
overalying fuel data on chart
And here’s the best thing: the gateway inside the gauge. A single gauge supplies ALL data to the GPS for ALL engines – you just choose single/twin/trip/quad in the gateway setup. It figures out everything else.
Clarification: It is a common misconception that all engines show on this gauge like a Vesselview. Yes, it supplies ALL engines to the NMEA 2000 system but only shows on the gauge the one engine it is connected to. 
Favorites are back (and soon to come to vesselview) – so you can choose out of the 35 screens avail WHICH ones you want to see and which ones should go away (generator, waste tank, etc) and then how fast you want them to rotate in seconds.
Finally, There is a new mode called “ECO MODE”. I have not played with it yet and still am waiting for the manual, bur suffice to say you plug in the parameters you want here:
And then you run the boat and it evaluates how economical you’re running. Once I understand this more, I’ll do another write up on it.
Click here for another look at the ECO functionSo that it. Thanks Merc for the easy set up and finally making everything work together on my dash.
UPDATE 12/20: If you have Bennett tabs - ( or I think any analog tabs) that have an indicator on the dash, you can dump it and the tab setting will be sent to the monitor also, freeing up dash space...All that is involved is buying the GBT10 cable adapter from garmin - it translates bennett info to the NMEA backbone and then to the MercMonitor.
Click here for the Garmin/Bennett Adaptorand written about here:
http://www.veradoclub.com/smf/index.php?topic=2571.0UPDATE: a nice write up about it here:
From Panbo.comThe two gauges for sale on the veradoclub parts site here:
Click hereThe draft owner's manual in PDF downloaded below (if you are a member)
