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R Series Garmin Echo 100 to Garmin GPSMAP 547XS upgrade

TomS

TomS

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Sanibel FL
We don't do much navigating on our little lake, but my eyes desperately needed a bigger screen and a bit of color wouldn't hurt either. I wanted a better depth finder and the ability to mark certain spots for reference. I also plan to install a Mercury Smartcraft to NMEA 2000 gateway to pipe the Verado engine data onto the Garmin's VGA screen. Garmin just introduced the 527 and 547 charplotter/sounders which are a faster than the old ones so I decided to give the new 547XS a try. I think it was Carl who said something about "cutting into a perfectly good dash" and now I know that feeling since my boat doesn't even have 10 hours yet. I just took my time with a small hand saw and it went fine, about 30 minutes work.











They sent a P66 Tri-Ducer since the Echo 100 and cable are not compatible with this device at all. It is an 8 pin connection end to end. I studied the boat on the lift for an hour and for the life of me can't figure out how I'm going to get the cable pulled from the transducer to the console. It's totally covered underneath bow to stern other than just outside some of the crossmembers under the rubrail. Even that is blocked by a riveted "L" angle next to the console where the harness passes through. Ideally I could use the old one as a pulling cable but I fear the 2 right angles somewhere crossing underneath and the fat connector would hang it up. :unsure: I have a fish tape, so I'll take a fresh look again tomorrow for some solutions.

For now I have a transducer cable running along the floor to the back just for testing and it seems to work just fine. Now I need to get creative as it's not coming out of the water until fall.
 
Nice looking unit. Time to put on the life jacket, and float underneath with tools !!!
 
Sweet
 
Sometimes you've got to get the battery powered drill out and start drilling out the rivets in the back 1/3 of your hull. If you have to remove part of the Wave Shield, make sure to take a Sharpie pen and mark your panels so you can use the same holes again.
 
Anyone have any idea approximately where along the length they cross over from port to starboard with the transducer wiring?

Is it right where the large pass through of the wire loom sits beneath the helm?
 
Nice install Tom. On our boat, I can look inbetween the deck and the side skirt/filler. That filler is bolted on ours and can be removed. I would get a fishtape and run the cable up the port side then fish it to the starboard side and into the helm access. My cable just sits there across the middle and is zip-tied to the main harness. I would do that before I removed the underskin.
 
Thanks Carl! I have an angle that covers that opening on both port and starboard right at the helm area. Mine are riveted in but it would be easy enough to put stainless screws in afterward. I'll give it a look today.
 
Just a quick update on the transducer wiring. I tried using one of those 5' multiple section fiberglass wire pullers for making long runs in walls and I just could not get it from the hole in the back of the "W" bracket to the front. I ended up wrapping the wire in 3/8" split seam plastic conduit and running it along the perimeter behind the rub rail, screwed to the decking from below. It is very clean and totally invisible. I then added a 10' Garmin extension cable to the existing 25' cable to go across right ahead of the helm, about 3' from the bow. It made it by maybe 1-2', but worked like a charm, no removal of rivets or underskin anywhere. Mission accomplished.
 
Good job being creative !!!

Now lets see some pics testing it out !!! :)
 
OK, SemperFi, here are a few for you. There are so many screens on the MercMonitor it's hard to pick one. I like the feature where it records the top speed and associated rpm each time out. I did a brief run tonight as it captured 48.2 @5700, a bit low on the 6400 top rpm for the Verado, but not fully trimmed out and I ran out of runway.

MercMonitor



Menu



One of the many combo screens - chart/sonar/depth/sea temp with 3 inset engine readings set up for mph, boost pressure, water pressure. These are all user selectable.



Engine gauges



Sorry for blurry one



 
Man that's impressive! Well Done!
 
Freekin cool !!!!! ;)
 
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Great job. So freaking cool.

I need this....

Todd
 
mtudb24 said:
Great job. So freaking cool.

I need this....

Todd
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I can guide you as I studied this to death! The minimum you must have for your Merc is their gateway (can be without MM gauge), a NMEA 2000 starter kit (about $70), and any of the Garmin GPSMAPs with VGA and NMEA 2000 such as 536, 546, 527, 547. Unfortunately, the 531 and 541 are really too low resolution to use with the gauge display.
 
Beautiful Tom! Now don't forget to look where your going because you gauges are so nice!
 
lakeliving said:
Beautiful Tom! Now don't forget to look where your going because you gauges are so nice!
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It's funny you say that, as I'm reading the book Seaworthy by BoatUS, and you would be amazed at how many accidents occur due just to that, looking at gauges or charts and not where you r going. One was a sailboat on autopilot while captain went BELOW to check his charts ...... Hit a fishing trawler that he originally saw a couple miles away and thought he would pass ...... Sorry to hijack, but just a reminder how easy it is to lose track of time while looking at gauges and such ...... Carry on !!!
 
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Actually I did it to improve what I could see. The little LCD windows in the 2 stock Mercury gauges are impossible to read for my eyes and I found myself not paying attention while trying to read them and select the darn menus. This helps a lot!
 
Hmm, I don't think my SHO Yamaha can do this, but I sure wish it could!
 
BulldogsCadillac said:
Hmm, I don't think my SHO Yamaha can do this, but I sure wish it could!
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He he, yes it does my friend. I think you just need a harness since I think it might do NMEA 2000 natively, unlike Merc which is proprietary Smartcraft. I know the F series Yammy's do.
 
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