NMEA 2000 on older boat - data availability

Hey all. Hoping we've got a tech guy (or gal) on here who might know the answer or have a suggestion. I know this is a bit long winded, but I want to give enough info that hopefully someone can give some useful input.

I just finished installing a NMEA 2000 network on my 2004 Signature 350. My boat has Volvo Penta GXI-E 8.1s and so no smart craft scenario. I wrote to VP asking about their Easy Connect interface and they told me it's incompatible with my year engines. So through research I landed on Yacht Devices website and ultimately purchased 2 engine gateways with adaptors for my motors and connected them to the network along with a local wifi gateway that they sell. This is working fantastic, so that's a happy thing.

My question now is that there is some data that I wish I could get that I guess the engine diagnostics port doesn't provide plus some other non-engine data that would be great to have. What I don't understand is what equipment do I buy in order to get the following info as a starting point:

1) Oil Pressure. Right now I get coolant temp, rpms, hours, fuel consumption & alternator voltage but oil pressure isn't included.

2) Depth. I still some have older raymarine equipment and in particular a multifunction gauge called an ST60. Maybe I can use a NMEA 0183 - NMEA 2000 converter and get the depth, speed & sea water temp that the gauge displays now?

3) Fuel level. My model boat has a single analog gas gauge with a toggle switch on the dash. Toggling the switch displays the gas level in 1 tank or the other depending on which position the switch is in. Pretty slick, but I'd love to move into current technology and get digital fuel info. It'd be really nice to get digital Gallons as well as %.

Thanks in advance for some input, suggestions, answers or comments.

Mark
 

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Iggy

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Hi,

If oils press in not showing up, than I would say that its not programed some where in your setup to read that on a digital level.

Depth is easy, provided that your fishfinder has NMEA2k output. I would not bother with 0183, because now you would need to buy a converter to go in between. I would just upgrade the fishfinder.

Fuel level, I would go back to Yacht Devices and they have a analog to digital unit for that.
 
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I have a 2008 with Yacht Device gateway I installed this year. I get oil pressure but had to put it in the config file I believe. I get it for both engines.

For Fuel Level, I decided I wouldn't bother hooking the tank sender to my Garmin. I get fuel flow for both engines, and when I fill up, I know exactly how much fuel I have on board, so I enter it into the garmin, and it'll tell me my fuel % left based on fuel burn and tank size, and so far it's been pretty damn accurate.
 
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