GPS sensor/antenna

[Mark Bradley]

Hi All
I have a 2008 Sundancer and would like to know my Gallons per mile. Is it just a matter of hooking up a GPS sensor/antenna to the smartcraft gauges. If so can someone recommend one for me.
Any info would greatly be appreciated,

Mark

 

[OllieC]

The way I do it is through a Smartcraft NMEA 2000 gateway. This is connected to the NMEA 2000 network. The Garmin unit I have is connected toe NMEA 2000 network as well. It receives the data through the gateway of fuel consumption at different RPMs/Throttle responses which displays gallons per hour.

 

[Mark Bradley]

I’m not familiar with what your saying, layman’s terms please.
What type of antenna do I require. Does it get wired to the smart craft gauge.
I have one more question if you don’t mind. Using the Vesselview mobile app will I get gallons per mile, or do I still need a GPS antenna

I do appreciate your time on this

 

[b_arrington]

Hi All
I have a 2008 Sundancer and would like to know my Gallons per mile. Is it just a matter of hooking up a GPS sensor/antenna to the smartcraft gauges. If so can someone recommend one for me.
Any info would greatly be appreciated,

Mark

Basically, you need a bunch of stuff to get what you want: MPG.

The more common measurement is gallons per hour (GPH), and your gauges are very likely to show it. Many factors influence MPG: sea state, tides, wind. Frankly it's not THAT meaningful when on the water. Using GPH is a much more important measure to determine the performance of your engine / boat. I always used GPH with my RPMS to determine how the boat was performing, with GPS speed as a secondary factor. GPH should be fairly consistent regardless of the environmental factors, which is why it's a more useful measure. Relying on MPG could lead you to a false sense of your range.

With that said, IIRC SmartCraft will not give you MPG regardless of if you connect a GPS antenna or not. The VesselView Mobile does not appear to do it either. If you really want MPG, you will need a 3rd party GPS chart plotter to which you can interface the engine data (SmartCraft data).

This is where Ollie's info comes it. Mercury's SmartCraft system uses it's own protocols for data. To get that data to a GPS unit it needs to be converted to another open platform marine networking standard called NMEA 2000. You will need 1) a NMEA network on board 2) a chart plotter capable of taking in the Mercury fuel burn data and displaying the engine metrics (Garmin devices come to mind), and 3) a Smartcraft Gateway to convert the engine-native data to NMEA protocols and send the data to the network. Spend a bunch of money, connect everything up, and BINGO! You can see that you're getting 1.2 miles per gallon at cruise (YMMV).

 

[Mark Bradley]

Thanks, you are a mountain of knowledge!

 

[ColoSR]

If you don’t have an NMEA network, the VesselView Mobile has an instantaneous fuel burn rate as well as a totalizer that keeps track of your fuel burn between fill ups. You reset it to full when you fill the gas tank and it ticks down over the day.