Mercmonitor

[TenMile]

Anyone use one of these new Mercmonitors?

I was looking around for options for adding an engine warning horn as my engine got installed without one, and stumbled upon a new display gauge from Merc called the Mercmonitor. The Mercmonitor apparently works both with Mercury branded and non-Merc engines (Yamaha, Suzuki etc...) via the NMEA2000 interface.

Here is the online brochure for the Mermonitor: http://www.mercurymarine.com/_media/pdfs/smartcraft/components/NMEA-Gateway-sell-sheet.pdf

Basics of this device -- it connects to the engine interface and can provide all of the engine sensor stats including temperatures, oil pressure, fuel pressure, fuel consumption, trim levels, alarms (that I don't have right now). This product also just won West Marine's Eco product of the year award -- it includes an Eco Monitor setting that will tell you the best throttle/trim settings to maximize fuel economy. Even better, it's a NMEA2000 gateway so can be used to send engine data to my chartplotter via the NMEA2000 bus.

Anyhow, I have put one on order and will be using it to replace my LMF-400 as I really want that engine data displayed. The LMF-400 is a great display and gives me my fuel consumption data, but there is no interface to the Merc engine -- until now.

There is a great write-up of the Mercmonitor here: http://www.veradoclub.com/smf/index.php?topic=2403.0

There is also an overview of the Eco Monitor mode here:
http://www.veradoclub.com/smf/index.php?topic=2426.0

TenMile
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[TenMile]

Got this device installed over the weekend and spent last night setting it up. It's a very easy install - hardest part was locating the harness on the engine -- was buried way down back out of sight.

Monitor acto-magically discovers the engine type and configures itself based upon the sensors available in the engine. There are 30-40 pages that can be presented. If the engine is 2007 or newer (mine is not), it also provides a detailed text description of engine faults (e.g. ignition coil faulty or water in fuel). For older engines like mine, it only spits out the "Check Engine" fault code.

The Gateway function then takes the Smartcraft data and sends it to NMEA 2000 or J1929 devices. My Raymarine C70 can accept either so I tried it out, and it gets all the engine data on the display including the alarm codes.

Eco screen looks pretty cool -- I don't have digital tab or trim sensors so it can't optimize those, but it does optimize RPM at the trim you are at to maximize fuel economy. Might end up installing the digital trim tab sensors eventually -- it looks pretty easy.

TenMile
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