Engine Data into GPS Unit

[notstock4long]

Just thought I'd mention this for anyone who may have a similar situation to me. My new CS22 came with the Garmin 7607 GPS unit as a perk, but they don't run the engine data to it on the smaller boats. I thought that sucked at first but decided 'oh well', since the chartplotting stuff alone was pretty cool.

I got to poking around in the boat last night and decided I could do it myself. The 7600 series supports both J1939 and NMEA 2000 protocols, and mine is j1939, like all Volvo engines have been for a while now (I think). There are multiple unused connectors on the engine, likely for various upgrades for larger boats that would have more accessories, so it wasn't hard finding wires carrying the high and low CANbus signals. Although, I'm not sure if a lot of those connectors are there only because it has EVC or not.

Anyway, I ended up using the diagnostic connector on the engine to get the CAN data and power/ground that the GPS needs, since it was all right there. I saw multiple other connectors with the two CAN wires, but they didn't have a 12V source nearby. I happened to have the same terminals that the connector uses, and since they put an empty male connector onto the female connector, I just wired right into that. The GPS end of the cable is an M12 connector, which I had at work. In all of 20 minutes I had it wired up, and it worked! It looks like the GPS supports hundreds of different data items, so I'm still figuring out which ones the engine actually passes through. If I do need to connect a scanner, I'll just have to unplug the GPS link.

I can't believe Cobalt wouldn't do this at the factory. Now I can split the GPS screen with the chartplotter, and whatever additional gauges I want to see, which is especially nice since the GPS replaced what would have been a third gauge set with four additional gauges.

I'd be happy to provide more detail if anyone else is in the same boat ( ).

[Tuscany]

Damn man, you lost me at the nema protocols.
Pretty awesome that you got all of that figured out, and working!

[Bfun220]

Good work, way to go.

[Big Block Power]

Damn man, you lost me at the nema protocols.
Pretty awesome that you got all of that figured out, and working!

By chance did you get the same unit? There's so much in that wiring harness that is already there just plug it in.

[Southernboatman]

Good job!

[Tuscany]

Damn man, you lost me at the nema protocols.
Pretty awesome that you got all of that figured out, and working!

By chance did you get the same unit? There's so much in that wiring harness that is already there just plug it in.

I've got this side by side set up.
The one on the left is GPS, and the one on the right has all of the gauges.
I honestly haven't had the time to mess with them or read the manuel.
It's rained every day, and I haven't had the cover off of it.

[notstock4long]

Looks like you have two of the same unit I have. So you should be able to configure the two any way you want...all gauges on both, or any combination really.

[liquid]

That's honestly very cool. Guessing your info and knowledge will be extremely helpful to new boats and owners.

Suggest move to new thread and category. John - little help?

[notstock4long]

That's honestly very cool. Guessing your info and knowledge will be extremely helpful to new boats and owners.

Suggest move to new thread and category. John - little help?

Agreed. After posting I realized there were better homes for this thread.

[liquid]

You gotta lay out your configuration once you got it all hammered out. And as always... pics.

[Tuscany]

The owners manual for the Garmin units will have to wait for a place and time where I can spend some quality time analyzing the different features. That can only happen in a place where my concentration is keen and uninterrupted. Better known as the bathroom

Pretty much everything is on display from the factory settings. All of the engine and outdrive telemetry, lake water temp, the lake depth is charted on the GPS screen, which is very handy. Very sweet, this modern age of high tech digital electronics that covers absolutely everything that I'm not used to seeing. I was lucky if my speedo worked on my old analog Chaparral.
The only issue is that it takes a full minute to boot up. What surprised me was the ease of read. I thought it would be an issue to see everything clearly while on the water, but that is not the case.

[Alaskabound]

And I was proud when I figured out how to get my MP3 player to work. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Dub

[Bfun220]

And I was proud when I figured out how to get my MP3 player to work. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Dub

Lol.

[notstock4long]

While researching this topic, I also found that you can use a standard automotive OBD-II reader on these engines. There is a OBD-M (6 pin) to OBD-II (lots more pins) adapter pretty cheap online. Seems like that would be pretty handy to have for those with non-EVC engines, as I'm sure any marine diagnostic scanner is many times more expensive than a nice automotive one.

[notstock4long]

After doing some tinkering over the weekend (mainly getting my charger/maintainer installed and running the power to an outlet at the anchor locker), I found that they stuck the main head unit behind the passenger side dash. A fully functional unit with a display and interface (Rockford Fosgate PMX-5CAN) is just sitting back there unusable. I'm going to mount it on the passenger side dash next to the glove box, as it looks like there is just enough room. But that's not the cool part! The best part is that since it is the CAN model, I can bring the radio info into the GPS through the NMEA 2000 port, and control it on the GPS touch screen. Tuscany, do you know what unit you have for the stereo? This may be something you would want to do to, since you have twice as many GPS screens as me. The FusionLink interface on the GPS screen can be pretty unobtrusive too; you can have just a small bar for radio control while viewing your chart/gauges.

I have the PMX1 remote on the dash, but I'm thinking I would like to use the GPS for radio control (when my wife isn't in control of it), and ditch the remote in favor of mounting my EVC screen in its place, so I can actually see the damn thing. Currently it's mounted next to the throttle so that I can't see it it without bending over.

The only bummer is that you need the PMX-CAN converter module to do this, which is $200.