Dahlilama

So I guess I was good all year and the fiancé/santa clause got me the simrad GO7 chart plotter for Christmas. I can do my own work but this one may be out of my league. I'm going to build it into my dash and I would like to use it as a replacement for my gauges as well. I want to get rid of most of my gauges and really clean up the look. The box says in order to use the gauge feature I need a NMEA 2000 system. The boat is an active thunder 25 tantrum with a carbureted blown 468 in it. How exactly does this work? Is the NMEA 2000 a kit I can buy and wire all my sensors and tach to, then wire that to my simrad? I did a search on here and people were talking about "CAN" and "J box". Can someone simplify this?

Dahlilama

Ok, I think I answered some of my own questions after enough searching. So the question is has anyone had luck with the Noland RS11? I saw another brand as well that was more expensive....Alba something. If I'm reading this right I have to calibrate my gauges after install. If I'm removing all my gauges how is this actually going to work? Also after it's calibrated lets say I have a sensor or sender failure, will it have to be calibrated again?

Wildman_grafix

I would call Nolan and ask. Been wondering how well there units work as well.

kidturbo

Yeah the RS11 is probably what your looking for. Best bang for the buck in analog to digital converters.

AllDodge

Being a 1998 do you have digital gauges as in Smartcraft or similar?

Dahlilama

Thanks for the replies guys. Alldodge-I just have regular gaffrig gauges. Typical gauges with numbers and a needle. Things like my oil pressure and coolant temp sensors/senders are 1 wire and grounded through the body of the sensor. I'm reading things like it depends if they read ohms or volts or resistance. That's when I stop understanding. Thinking I should maybe keep the majority of my gauges and put them around the simrad screen to keep it simple. Thought about putting either the screen or the gauges on the passenger side but I'm the one that has to be able to see them. Is there anything out on the market that is a digital screen that just functions as gauges? I'm thinking both screens side by side would work and then I can see the chart on a full screen and still monitor temps and pressures and rpm and most important....speed! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

AllDodge

OK, from the write ups the Noland converter will translate your analog signals to NEMA and display on the GO7 if it has the capabilities. No actual gauges are required and can be removed or left connected. Once the RS11 is calibrated it should be up and running.

Dahlilama

The GO7 says it can display gauges as long as we are nmea 2000 connected. So we are good there. Ok. Sounds great. I'm going to try this come spring (I'm in NY and the boat is wrapped and has no motor right now) I'll give an update in a few months

Mseuro

I have NMEA 2000 compliant engines (07 496HOs) but they were set up analog from factory. After a lot of parts and headaches we got everything working except for the fuel level (still working on that). It was not a simple plug and play as advertised. All I can say is good luck and get someone very knowledgeable to help.

Dahlilama

After some thought and reading it seems the general consensus is that it is a PITA to get it all calibrated and working. I'm going to keep my gauges and just move everything around a bit. Speed I'm assuming will be displayed on the screen without anything since it is a GPS. My gaffrg gps speedo doesn't work anymore so I will remove that.



Last question is how do you guys mount the transponder? Is the Only way to do it off the back of the transom? Kinda looks ugly