a75 not detecting NMEA2000

[mark426]

Hi,

Have an a75 unit that came with a boat I bought. Software was updated last week, and I'm running Navionics charts without issue. It was just a standalone chartplotter.

I wanted to add engine interface, so interfaced to the gateway, got the patch cable and the NMEA backbone all hooked up and powered up.

I went to the engine setup wizard on the unit, nothing found. Went to the settings to check for devices/external data, nothing found. I made sure it was the data master. Checked to see if there were any other settings available - didn't see anything else.

So, I pulled it next to my other boat, connected everything to my other boats network and e97, and instantly had all the data from the engine. Only thing I changed was unplugging the spur and running a longer backbone cable - I used the power source for the e97 on the Yellowfin and the network was powered by the RHIB.

So, what's wrong with my a75? Am I missing some kind of communication/network setting? Or is it a hardware issue?

Thanks!

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Mark,

Please specify the year/make/model of engines and the make/model of engine gateway being used. Please additionally specify how the SeaTalkng backbone is being powered.

[mark426]

Thanks for the welcome. Been using Raymarine products for a while, and this is the first time I've had to come by.

The engine is a 2006 Yamaha F115 fuel injected four stroke. It's interfaced through the command link (not command link plus). No, its not using an ECI-100, and I know that's Raymarine's recommended solution. Like I said above, I know this setup works on my e97, so I'm confident that my network is good from the seatalk spur back, and I would expect the a75 to be able to pick up the same data.

If need be, I can connect the a75 it in place of my e97 and see if it picks up the Raymarine equipment from the other boat, but that doesn't help me accomplish what I'm trying to do on the RIB.

The NMEA backbone is powered by one of the 12v spur cables, coming from a breaker panel powered by a newly redone bus bar. The boat has two brand new Optima D34M batteries that are maintained with an ACR. The only devices on the backbone at this point are the engine and the MFD, of course with the terminators on both ends.

Appreciate your help.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Mark,

As you have suggested, Raymarine does not support interfacing engine systems to the marine electronics backbone without an engine gateway. I strongly suspect that should you connect the a75 it in place of your e97, you will find that the a75 will perform in the same manner. The Engine Setup feature of the a/c/e/eS/gS-Series MFDs is exclusively designed to function with Raymarine's ECI-100 Engine Gateway and as such, should not be expected to function within your system.

Raymarine's a/c/e/eS/gS-Series MFDs follow the NMEA 2000 convention that that should a single instance of a device be present within a system, that its instance number will be 0. For items such as engines and tanks where more than one may be installed, Raymarine's a/c/e/eS/gS-Series MFDs follow the NMEA 2000 convention that instance 0 will be assigned to the instance farthest to port, with instance numbers increasing from port to starboard. As such, should a vessel feature three engines, the port engine would need to be assigned instance 0, the center engine would need to be assigned instance 1, and the starboard engine would need to be assigned instance 2. One of the features engines interfaced via an ECI-100, is that the a/c/e/eS/gS-Series MFDs would then support engine identification to address engines having instance numbers deviating from this convention. In the absence of an ECI-100, it would be necessary to re-assign instance numbers to the engines using instructions from the engine manufacturer.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Please see the private message sent to you.