Best chart plotter for engine gauges

rmfriday

Hello,
I have a 05 342 with a VP engine package, currently my Faria gauges are doing what they all seam to do. i installed a NMEA 2000 backbone and purchased Fox Marine gateways for each engine. I can now see all engine data on a Ipad via Bluetooth.
My problem is i need 2 Ipads as the Fox Marine solution only allows one engine to be viewed at a time. I obviously cant see any maps or MPG or any of the other nice features of a modern chart plotter on my current Ipad set-up.
My question is what is a good option for a digital display that will allow me to see everything that NMEA offers as well as GPS speed and some of the other things a plotter is good for?
I am mostly looking to be able to configure a dual engine gauge display, see MPH, fuel economy, and be able to quickly toggle back to a map that will allow me to add "pins" or locations as i mostly boat on a local river in Pittsburgh and would like to make the locations of the channel markers in hopes of avoiding a unwanted collision.
Any suggestions? 
So far i am leaning towards a Garmin.
Thanks, 

davidbrooks

I am going that route and have it all wired to a Garmin 942. I am redoing the dash and will have just two Garmins. One for the engines and one as a chartplotter. I have discovered i am really not comfortable unless i have both on simultaneously.

redlightning

rmfriday said:

Hello,
I have a 05 342 with a VP engine package, currently my Faria gauges are doing what they all seam to do. i installed a NMEA 2000 backbone and purchased Fox Marine gateways for each engine. I can now see all engine data on a Ipad via Bluetooth.
My problem is i need 2 Ipads as the Fox Marine solution only allows one engine to be viewed at a time. I obviously cant see any maps or MPG or any of the other nice features of a modern chart plotter on my current Ipad set-up.
My question is what is a good option for a digital display that will allow me to see everything that NMEA offers as well as GPS speed and some of the other things a plotter is good for?
I am mostly looking to be able to configure a dual engine gauge display, see MPH, fuel economy, and be able to quickly toggle back to a map that will allow me to add "pins" or locations as i mostly boat on a local river in Pittsburgh and would like to make the locations of the channel markers in hopes of avoiding a unwanted collision.
Any suggestions? 
So far i am leaning towards a Garmin.
Thanks, 

When you mention a nema 2000 backbone,  is it just the wiring, gateways and displays.
is this conversion more extensive.
TIA

[Deleted User]

I'm not familiar with Fox Marine, but I've looked seriously at the Yacht Devices product. Anyone using this? https://www.yachtd.com/products/engine_gateway.html

Andy

YYZRC

I had a Fox Marine gateway on my Volvo and it was great. Can’t speak to chart plotter integration though. 

Aqua_Aura

I have also looked seriously at YD. Very simple to plugin and use their app or off of an nmea 2000 and use a chart plotter. Still haven't done it yet. 

rmfriday

I actually ordered all the required pieces from YD, they where very helpful. There items ship from Russia and my items still say “preparing to ship from Russia” with the tracking they gave me since July 2nd. The items actually cleared customs but never made it out of Russia. YD issues me a refund and I ordered the Fox Marine gateways. YD’s app for viewing the gauges and graphics looks really good and Fox’s is not as good but they got me the interfaces in 3 days.
 Thanks for the input on the Garmin.

Aqua_Aura

Did you order the YD stuff from the US distributor?

rmfriday

The US and Europe distributors did not have all the items I needed to make they system function so everything was sent from Russia which is that I believe to be the headquarters for YD. 
all and all I am happy with the Fox Marine gateways bit I did try to order the YD gateways first.

rmfriday

Well i ordered a Garmin 942xs, we will see how it does..

davidbrooks

At this point I think I know that chartplotter inside and out. don't be afraid to hit me up if you have any questions when you get it

Aqua_Aura

So why the Garmin over simrad or raymarine? Just curious I don't have much of a preference other than I like the raymarine axiom full touch screen. 

davidbrooks

Well i had nothing but problems with the Simrad Go unit i bought as a fishfinder.  I went through 3 of them in 3 yrs with the same issue.  They would simply freeze up at the boot screen.  Tech support was a call sent to the Phillipines and i never got any admission that it might be on them.  So it went in the trash.  I bought the Garmin as i wanted a touch screen, clean look without buttons or dials and needed the size they had.  I needed to fit two of them side by side and everything else wasn't quite right.  I did like the new RayMarine and if i had all the money in the world i would of experimented with them also.  I deal with mapping and GPS in my day job and have always just gravitated toward Garmin.  I will say that it has truly been rock solid. You will want to get a 4 GB Micro SD card though for the updates.  It can connect to your phone via the ActiveCaptain App but i prefer to do updates with a memory card.  When flashing the OS i wouldn't want to have the download stopped due to a call or some phone issue.

Aqua_Aura

That makes sense. I did notice this seems to resemble the axiom atleast the look. When I first saw you were doing Garmin I was thinking it was the one that had big buttons  on the front. 

raybo3

@Aqua_Aura IMHO and I know I am a little old fashion I do not want a touch screen. Why? OK I will tell you. In rough water/storm a touch screen would be too hard to use while under way. Knobs would be much easier and safer.... Just say'n

Aqua_Aura

I figured someone may chime in with a response like that 😆. 

davidbrooks

@raybo3 yep.  Sometimes i miss the mark on the touchscreen...even when still but i still prefer it.  In rough seas i am not out on the water.

raybo3

@davidbrooks I don't leave my yacht club in rough water but sometimes $hit happens and a storm might pop up or whatever.......

davidbrooks

This winter I'm going to try and pull the console off the boat and fiberglass in the whole give it a little bit of a better finish. This will give you a decent look of what it will look like though.

Pat310

@davidbrooks that looks like a great project that a lot of us with older cruisers would be interested in. Take lots of pics and keep us posted!!!!

rmfriday

This is how mine turned out....
I plan on redoing it over the winter

rmfriday

@Davidbrooks the double screen set up looks awesome! I like the clean no analog gauge look, I need to get a few more sensors then I can dump the rest of my gauges!  

davidbrooks

@rmfriday i did the same. Finally got to the point where everything was working and i aas ready to ditch the analog guages.  Now i am all digital. Anyone want to buy a set of Faria guages?

Aqua_Aura

How easy was it to add the fuel level and the depth transducer. Can you splice the stock depth transducer into the nmea 2000?

davidbrooks

Depth i didnt try. I am using a Garmin transom mounted transducer for that. It also gives me a fishfinder view. Fuel i spliced in to the top of the senders on each fuel tank. Just two wires so very easy.  Engine tilt i spliced into the wire harness behind the dash. At some point i am gonna replace the depth transducer for a nmea 2k one. 

LaRea

Aqua_Aura said:

How easy was it to add the fuel level and the depth transducer. Can you splice the stock depth transducer into the nmea 2000?

On mine, the OEM depth transducer did not have NMEA output.  Like @davidbrooks I added a transom mount device.  

Aqua_Aura

Thought maybe you could splice the original and tie it in to a new sensor for the nmea network. 

davidbrooks

I havent seen a way to do it.  I will be going with this as a replacement for my current depth transducer.  https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/13583

Aqua_Aura

Have you seen that garmin has an in hull transducer? Looks like a nice set up and no drilling involved.