Crusader Engine Data on to Garmin 4000 and 5000 series Chartplotters

Well here it is my friends ...

After lots of enquiries and research, finally we created a harness for the Crusader 8.1 engine data to show up on the Garmin 4000 and 5000 series Chartplotters.

1. The mate to the Crusader 20 pin CANBUS is a Deustch HDP-26-18-20SN on the engine side distributed by Ladd Inc. in the U.S. - approx. cost US$25.

2. The Garmin fitting is a NMEA 2000 Field Compatible Connector, part number from Garmin is 010-1104-00 for male (or 010-11095-00 for female), approx. cost of US$33.

3. On the Crusader side, data is already in NMEA 2000 format:

Pin 16 is for high data
Pin 17 is for low data
Pin 13 is for ground
(according to M. Schneider @ Crusader )

4. On the Garmin side, wiring assignment for the fitting is:

Terminal #3 is black and is for ground
Terminal #4 is white and is for high data
Terminal #5 is blue and is for low data
(according to Garmin Support)

5. Any decent marine grade 3 strand wire for data, estimated length of approx. 15 feet ( depending on application and run to helm)

6. No power run in the harness, only ground and data. Engine ECM has own power, as does Garmin separately.

Thats it ... Plug and Play. Engine data on the Garmin Dashboard screen. Fuel Flow, temps, pressure, voltage, engine hours ... etc. etc. etc.

Best to all

Allen

Is this only for the 8.1? Would/could it work for 8.2 in other words how far back can you go in technology and still do this?

Hi ...I don't think there is an 8.2 Crusader engine being made ... the new GM base Vortec is 8.1. The harness / cable we built will work for any Crusader engine with that specific Deutsch 20 Pin CANBUS plug so long as the ECM is putting out data in NMEA 2000 format in those specific pins we outlined. Older versions of the Crusader or the newer smaller engines from Crusader may be different and one should check with Crusader or refer to their tech manuals to see that the high and low data is being transmitted in NMEA 2000 format. If not and the data is coming from the ECM in J1939 format instead, then a Maretron Gateway is needed to convert the data to Nmea 2000. If there is no ECM at all and the engine is very old, then none of this is possible.

Scott:

It is very similar to the Microsoft madness (regular 'upgrades'). The CANBus took over the reign ~ 2007. Anything before that will likely be a GM flavor of the OBDII protocol (SAE). Canbus enables the 'cool' displays like the Murphy Powerview stuff, in multi-engine installations.

Another part of the equation is the messages available (ECU transmits) and what messages can be received and then displayed. There are several "digital scanning gauges", targeting the auto market, that will most likely work with the MEFI-3/4 (and newer) families. Very similar functions to a scan tool used in a read only mode.

The newer stuff is 'network-like' and the older stuff is more 'serial-like' if you are more fluent with computer-speak. The NMEA 2000 is networked based, and is used primarily between 'bridge instruments'.

My 8.2s date from 1999, the ECUs are MEFI 3 versions. All of the engine data, fuel flow, temps, engine hours, etc can be read on a laptop hooked up to the ECU but pretty sure it is not in NMEA 2000 form. If I understand then by using this Maretron Gateway it is possible to get this data to read out on these model Garmins?

yes that should be correct Scott. If you make one call to Mark Schneider at Crusader he can confirm the data is their on your engine in J1939 format and the Maretron or similar device is your answer. allen

MEFI-3's don't "speak" CANBus. The Maretron Gateway is a "network translator" that goes between NMEA2000 and CANBus (SAE's J1939). Like trying to use a Spanish to english translator but the speaker is using Chinese.....not very likely.

The most likely scenario is you may find something similar to the laptop. If you do, you'll find it comes with a very high premium. Why? Obsolete product base.

I'd like to revive this post, as I am trying to do this on my pair of 2008 8.1's. My question is, do I need one harness for each engine, each feeding into a separate connection on a NEMA 2000 backbone, or will the engine cross-talk harness that already connects them to one another transmit that data if I connect a single one of these harnesses to the "master" engine?

The 2008's have a CANBus port out of the ECM's.....

The master-slave cable will allow a single CANBUS connection to both ECM's. The NEMA2K is electrically similar to the CANBus but the addressing scheme more flexible.

What you want to do should be possible but will take a bit of effort to configure the device(s) on that network to "behave" the way you want them to. I'd be inclined to get whatever tech data you can from Garmin for the chartplotter you have and give it a whirl.