Folks,
This is a long read, but it's detailed as to why I need(ed) what I needed. Read at your leisure. Take coffee breaks.
Hey Potomacbassin,
You're finally hitting close to home here. Bennington has responded as well as the western rep for Bennington. While both are trying to help, they're still not presenting the actual wiring diagram of our boat. Permit me to provide a tid-bit of information on how another part of my mechanical life works. We have a motorhome. It's a diesel unit and is built on a Freightliner chassis. When you (us) become the owner of such a chassis, and prove to Freightliner that it is in fact registered in our name (via normal vehicle registration for our state), Freightliner then offers a form of a membership to *DTNA* or, Daimler Truck North America which owns Freightliner. Once you're all established and setup with Freightliner, like this and any other forum, you setup a user name and password.
When I log into/on that DTNA network, I am now provided with every single bit of information pertaining to the building of OUR CHASSIS, not a generic chassis, not anyone elses, no other chassis, JUST OURS. That site, will allow me to find every nut and bolt, every suspension part, everything that pertains to the brakes (air brakes) and, it gives me EVERY INCH OF WIRING that was done in multiple schematics. It is sooooooo nice to be able to go into that site at anytime, day or night and locate ANY part and part number of something that needs replacing or at least INFORMATION about it.
Now, I know that Freightliner is jusssssst a bit larger in production than Bennington and can afford to do what it takes to setup a network for not only us RV owners but also the thousands and thousands of Freightliner techs out there in the truck service world to utilize. When I need a part or simply need information on a specific part or area or group of components, I jump on that site and within minutes I have any and all information I need to proceed to either purchase a part or move forward with a repair.
I say all this because to me, while it might take a bit of logistics to set the whole program up, Bennington could do the same thing. When the boat is built, a log of all components, wiring, fuel tanks, parts, gauges, engine and related engine controls and more, all could be put into a single file that would or could be accessed by ONLY the registered owner of that particular boat. I have no idea how hard it would be to setup a program like that or Freightliners. Just dreaming I guess.
Anyway, your setup, is very, very interesting. Yes, I already knew the white and blue wires from the 6-pin connector on the back of that 6Y80-11 Speedometer are to be routed to ANY NMEA 0183 device. Any device meaning a Garmin Echomap 50S or other versions, as well as whatever that little box you have too. I'm supposing that that little box is simply a GPS antenna/sending unit, correct? I guess that's a pretty good idea if the boat is not to be issued a dedicated Garmin Chartplotter/GPS/fish finder like ours was. As long as you have something (in GPS form and NMEA 0183 compliant) that can drive that speedometer, you're in great shape.
My main goal of all this, and the inquiry to acqisition of a wiring diagram that is specific to our boat was to find out the EXACT wiring of those blue and white wires to the output wires on our replacement GPS unit for the boat. You see, our factory installed Garmin Echomap 50s quit tracking and providing of shoreline and mapping after almost 10 years of great service. Garmin stated they could do nothing to help because it was an outdated unit. Great! Now what?
All other functions of that Garmin Echomap 50s functioned just fine. It just didn't know where it was or was going or where it has been. For us boaters, we kind-a like that function so we can track back to a given spot on lake or the river or what and where ever. Soooo, I looked for the closest sized and equal function unit that Garmin now builds to replace that 50s unit. Not knowing that my speedometer is GPS driven, I picked the closest in size to buy. I ended up purchasing the Garmin Echomap UHD2 53CV. This is a 10 year newer unit than the 50s and has a ton of enhanced features and a way better screen. But, it's not the same exact size so, fittment to the hole in the dash where the 50s was, was a bit of a challenge.
I made it work. Now here's the deal. The number of output wires from the harness on that 50s was/is waaaaaaay more than the new UHD2 53cv unit I have now. But, out of around 10 or so wires from that harness, only 4 are used. A red for positive power, a black for ground, and a blue and brown. The 50s blue output wire was wired to the white wire on the back of the 6Y80-11 speedometer. The brown was left alone and not used. The light blue wire with the white wire from the back of the speedo was (and still is) connected to ground.
The new Echomap UHD2 53cv, ONLY has four wires from its harness. A red, a black and a brown and blue. The red and black are obvious. I hooked the blue wire to EXACTLY where the blue wire from the old 50s was hooked to, the white wire from the speedo. I thought, great, that was easy.
We took the boat out and what's this????? NO SPEEDOMETER!!!!!!!!!!! I had no idea where to even start to look to find the issue. All I knew was I'd changed GPS units and wired in the new one EXACTLY like the old one was and now I have no speedometer. When I got Garmin on the phone, we talked for quite a while and I told him that I'd done quite a bit of research as to wiring our boat and the Garmin but was stumped in my predicament. I told him that the factory wiring instructions for the new UHD2 53cv state to disregard the blue and brown wires when wiring up the new unit. But, I'd found other instructions that stated that, those brown and blue wires are to be wired to a NMEA 08183 compliant device.
And that, when I finally found a wiring diagram that was close my Bennington 2550RCL pertaining to the speedo/tach etc. it shows the white and blue wires to be wired into a NMEA 0183 compliant device. Hmmmm. That is when I learned that my speedo is GPS driven. But, I was still not getting any speedo even though the new unit was wired exactly like the old 50s was.
He finally found out why I had my issue. He stated that for some odd reason, Garmin disconnected the brown and blue wires INSIDE the UHD2 units!!!!!!!! He had absolutely no explanation as to why they did that. And THAT'S why I had no speedometer, simply because the output of that blue wire was/is NOT THERE, IT'S A DEAD WIRE!!!!!!!!!
I needed a specific wiring diagram from Bennington to actually see which wires on the Garmin were wired to which wires on the back of the 6Y80-11 Yamaha speedometer. I know the speedo worked with the 50S but did/does not work with the UHD2 53cv which has the same exact colored wires. I have provided myself with a solution to this dilemma. Since all but the chart plotting and tracking functions still work on the 50s, I thought I'd experiment with something. I parallel wired the old 50s unit to the hookups of the new unit. Only, since the brown and blue wires from the new unit are dead, those are out of the equation. I wired the blue wire from the 50s, back to the white wire from the back of the speedometer where it had been hooked up previously. The light blue wire that parallels the white wire from the speedo, is still connected to ground.
I then hooked up the boat to the truck (since all this work was done in the garage) and me and the wife headed out on the street towing the boat. I had turned on all the power and ignition which would energize the speedo. YAHOOOOOOOO! As I was driving the truck, the wife was riding in the boat and using our phones, we communicated the findings of whether or not the speedo was working again. Apparently it took a minute or two to log in and or register with the speedo but that hidden (under the helm) 50s unit was picking up GPS signals and now sending them to the speedometer was we were towing the boat down the street, yaaaaaaaay! I verified what she was reporting as the speed, by telling her my speedo in the truck was the exact same!
So, essentially, since that experiment was a success, I now have TWO GPS units in the boat. One is the new one mounted very close to where the old one was. And the second one is going to be mounted securely under the helm, with its only function to be to supply the speedometer a signal. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! Sorry for the War and Pease novel but, these are the details of why and where I've been the last few days and why I was so persistent in trying to obtain wiring from Bennington that is specific to our boat. Not all Benny's get a GPS so, generic wiring was not going to work.
Scott
