240 Sundeck Radio Upgrade Suggestions

[ColoSR]

The ant remotes sit in a stick on bracket, you can take them off and walk around the boat. Mine get carried around and put in cup holders. Personal opinion, I don’t think the bracket is robust enough to mount on the swim deck

 

[Chris Lovlecae]

Thanks, ColoSR! I'm going to measure the transom mounted one this week and see what's avaiable for a blank plate. I found some other manufacturers who make a round remote that should be a one for one replacement but they are more expensive than the Fusion pucks plus the radio head.

 

[Chris Lovlecae]

I went with the Fusion MS-RA210 and used the same mounting kit that Shogun95 used. I dug up the old installation instructions that Sony had on the internet and that allowed me to sort the wires though the colors were all generally the same between the two radios (industry standards, I'm sure). I bought a puck (MS-ARX70B) that I stuck back on the side of the lounger, near where the old remote was on the transom. It seems pretty sturdy though I agree it's a bit of a gamble. It's in an out of the way spot where it shouldn't get accidentally hit but we shall see. Where the old remote went, I plugged the hole with this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EVJ1Z8C?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

It fits perfectly and has a backing plate with two bolts that hold it in place snuggly. I did have to trim the backing plate slightly because it sat too deep due to the thickness of the hull at this spot. It's really designed to plug gauge holes in a dashboard but it worked perfectly for my needs. I'll see how well it holds up this summer. It seems sturdy enough. And it's cheap if it starts to degrade.

I did opt for something a bit different at the helm. I purchased the MS-NRX300 NMEA 2000 remote to go where the other remote was at the helm. Now, I know you're saying that the NRX is rectangular and the Sony remote is round and you are right! I couldn't find a blank off plate that would fit so I made one with a sheet of plastic I bought off of Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M6G7MT4?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

There is a little green light on the helm that shows when the automatic fire extinguisher is armed. I had to custom cut the plastic to both allow for this light to still be able to read the warning label near the light. The remote sits a little lower than I'd like (everything needs to be centered!) but I think it looks pretty good if I do say so myself! (pictures to follow)

I wanted to be able to power on and control the radio from the helm without having to open the cabinet under the sink (1st word problems...I know). I did have to install a NMEA2000 network cable but I used a fish tape to run the backbone cable from under the sink, along the starboard gunnel, and behind the helm with relative ease. I thought this part was going to suck and take a long time but it didn't. For the backbone, I bought this:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074KHXXMF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It was plug and play. It requires a 1 amp fuse and I had an open terminal on the fuse block behind the helm. The forums recommended adding a switch since the network has current draw if it's connected to the battery. I turn my batter switch off when I'm not using the boat so I skipped that part. Additionally, the NRX came with a NMEA2000 cable and terminators that probably would have allowed me to connect it directly to the radio but the literature was unclear if that connection would have been powered with the head unit off. Basically, I was worried that I'd still have to open the cabinet and power on the radio head before I could use the remote which would have defeated the purpose of the NRX. So I went with the powered NMEA2000 network. The NRX get it's power from the NMEA network so it can power on the radio head. Additionally, I can add other NMEA2000 network devices a little easier. I can buy a Smart Craft gateway, for example, and display engine information on the NRX if I so desired. My wife got me the Vessel View Mobile device which works great so I probably won't spend what seems like an outrageously enormous amount of money on the gateway ($500-$600).

The whole install was a bit tedious but not difficult so please don't shy away if you're thinking about upgrading. I really wanted Bluetooth (yes, I know there were dongles but they all got crappy reviews) so that's why I jumped. Taking off the old Sony radio and looking at all the wires can be a bit daunting but if you take it one wire at a time it goes rather quickly and easily. If I remember right, there were no extra wires and everything had it's place. The radio worked the first time and I didn't have to go back and run down anything wires that were amiss, luckily.

Lastly, there are some plastic covers in the cabinet, underneath the sink that need to be removed to run the NMEA2000 cable. They just screw out with a smaller tipped, Phillips head screw drivers. The go right back in when done. The whole install is pretty clean.

Good luck to those that want to try! The few times we've used the boat this year already, I've been glad that I can DJ from the helm using my cellphone with a reliable BT connection!
I will post the final results when I take some pictures using the boat this weekend!

 

[Chris Lovlecae]

View attachment 145220 View attachment 145221 View attachment 145222

Images of my new setup. Not sure why the top one is upside down. I tried several different ways to get the top image to show correctly but no luck! Everything works great!

Hope everyone in Sea Ray land is having a good weekend!