Water Tank Level Indicator Issues? Here is a great fix.

Replacing failed fresh water tank displays are becoming an issue (availability is waning); what I did here is another option you may want to consider.
My boat took a significant lightning strike and pretty much wiped out anything electronic earlier last year. The strike also took out the fresh water tank liquid level indicator and probably the sender; replacements are difficult to find. What I did is extend my NMEA 2000 network to the salon power panel and to the water tank then added a Maretron TLM100 ultrasonic transmitter to the tank and Maretron DSM410 display on the power panel. The only hole I cut was in the water tank; For the display, I fabricated a mounting bracket that anchored to the water level switch hole (removed the switch), the NMEA 2000 cable to the display also went through that switch hole. The panel can be returned to OEM without a scratch; but, who would want to. The great thing is the display can be toggled to many user configurable screens and view anything on the network. A couple of pics below showing the installation on the water tank, display pages of tank percentage level as well as total and remaining water in gallons, depth and temperature of water below boat, generator voltage, frequency, temperature, and oil pressure, and the SR systems monitor data I added to the network a couple of years ago. To install everything probably took three hours and another hour to program it.

ttmott said:

Replacing failed fresh water tank displays are becoming an issue (availability is waning); what I did here is another option you may want to consider.
My boat took a significant lightning strike and pretty much wiped out anything electronic earlier last year. The strike also took out the fresh water tank liquid level indicator and probably the sender; replacements are difficult to find. What I did is extend my NMEA 2000 network to the salon power panel and to the water tank then added a Maretron TLM100 ultrasonic transmitter to the tank and Maretron DSM410 display on the power panel. The only hole I cut was in the water tank; For the display, I fabricated a mounting bracket that anchored to the water level switch hole (removed the switch), the NMEA 2000 cable to the display also went through that switch hole. The panel can be returned to OEM without a scratch; but, who would want to. The great thing is the display can be toggled to many user configurable screens and view anything on the network. A couple of pics below showing the installation on the water tank, display pages of tank percentage level as well as total and remaining water in gallons, depth and temperature of water below boat, generator voltage, frequency, temperature, and oil pressure, and the SR systems monitor data I added to the network a couple of years ago. To install everything probably took three hours and another hour to program it.
View attachment 78431 View attachment 78432View attachment 78428 View attachment 78429 View attachment 78430
View attachment 78443

Click to expand...

I'm really curious on how you added the systems monitor data to your display. Is there an old thread discussing that? I'm considering adding the Fox marine engine monitors and a NMEA 2000 network, but I would love to update the old systems monitor.

There is an old thread on how I did it. I'm getting a lot of great questions on the entire setup so below are the other systems drawings for the entire network including the SR Systems Monitor. A couple of photos of under the helm and where the SR monitor module was.

ttmott said:

There is an old thread on how I did it. I'm getting a lot of great questions on the entire setup so below are the other systems drawings for the entire network including the SR Systems Monitor. A couple of photos of under the helm and where the SR monitor module was. View attachment 78524 View attachment 78525View attachment 78527 View attachment 78526 View attachment 78528
View attachment 78529 View attachment 78530

Click to expand...

Great stuff!! I'd love to see a photo of how you made the physical connections between the SR monitor and the RIM.

Olysan said:

Great stuff!! I'd love to see a photo of how you made the physical connections between the SR monitor and the RIM.

Click to expand...

The SR monitor system is gone; got rid of it all. Where the RIM100 is mounted is where the old SR Monitor module was (second photo above). The wiring from the devices that went to the SR monitor module (shown in the schematic) now connect into the RIM100. Some of the other SR monitor wiring was not needed for the Maretron setup as shown and pulled out of the harnesses.
Tom