# Redundant gauges



## T-Bro (8 mo ago)

In the process of building a Dragonfly Classic skiff and wonder what to do about electronics? Thinking about the Garmin 943xvs with Navionics vision plus to help figure out the 6 foot tides near Charleston. Builder is making me a cool sportfish console with a toe kick for additional height and the Garmin is flush mounted in a pod. Sounds like I can run the Yamaha 90 SHO though the Garmin with special wiring, but think I want to have engine monitoring independent of the mfd. Would you go with the older separate tach and Speedo gauges, or go with the Yamaha rectangular gauge that combines all the engine data I could ever want? Decided to pass on stereo so the helm will only have Lenco tab control switch and powerpole toggle. Dragonfly does a cool palm beach control with the throttle side mounted on console, so not crowded by binnacle.

other option was to put analog gauges inside console for fuel and trim in case mfd went on fritz. Had the older digital Yamaha gauges on my Parker for 17 years with no problems, so would be comfortable going that route as well.

thanks,

todd


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

NMEA


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## MariettaMike (Jun 14, 2012)

2nd NMEA 2000 for Yamaha, Tohatsu, Suzuki,

Mercury SmartCraft for Mercury because it requires an expensive black box to get NMEA 2k


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## T-Bro (8 mo ago)

Thanks for endorsement of NMEA to link all the electronics, but am more curious about whether folks would suggest adding the separate round command link tach and Speedo gauges or going with the CY6 rectangular display that combines all the functions?

I get the sense I will be using the satellite overlay on the GPS to stay out of the oyster beds and don’t want to have to toggle between that screen and engine data. Using NMEA, can I set up the GPSMAP to monitor engine function if needed, but use the command link gauges as the primary screen?

thanks,

todd


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

T-Bro said:


> Thanks for endorsement of NMEA to link all the electronics, but am more curious about whether folks would suggest adding the separate round command link tach and Speedo gauges or going with the CY6 rectangular display that combines all the functions?
> 
> I get the sense I will be using the satellite overlay on the GPS to stay out of the oyster beds and don’t want to have to toggle between that screen and engine data. Using NMEA, can I set up the GPSMAP to monitor engine function if needed, but use the command link gauges as the primary screen?
> 
> ...


You can still use your GPS map screen and just have your selected engine parameters on the right side of the screen at the same time. Engine temperature, RPM and water pressure are the standard and the other spaces can be filled with whatever you consider necessary.


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## m.latorre555 (May 25, 2011)

I’m in Charleston. Not sure how much satellite overlays are going to help you avoid oyster beds with our dirty water and the 5-7ft tidal swings. It will depend a lot on at what point in the tide the satellite image was taken. Your best way to learn is to keep the GPS cover on, go out around dead low tide and ride slowly and observe.


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## Jason M (Aug 13, 2017)

Smackdaddy53 said:


> You can still use your GPS map screen and just have your selected engine parameters on the right side of the screen at the same time. Engine temperature, RPM and water pressure are the standard and the other spaces can be filled with whatever you consider necessary.
> 
> View attachment 227301
> View attachment 227302


NMEA is the way to go. Is all what gauges you really need beyond what you get on the MFD. A compass would be my guess.


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## Gervais (Nov 28, 2016)

m.latorre555 said:


> I’m in Charleston. Not sure how much satellite overlays are going to help you avoid oyster beds with our dirty water and the 5-7ft tidal swings. It will depend a lot on at what point in the tide the satellite image was taken. Your best way to learn is to keep the GPS cover on, go out around dead low tide and ride slowly and observe.


i definitely agree with this off topic but I have used a trick with google earth for avoiding oyster beds when scouting new creeks. You can use the historical photos on google earth to find a low tide/ clear water photo, draw a polly line in the channel of the creek, export as a KML file and use a website to convert the file to whatever your chart plotter takes (simrad is GPX). You can create a track with the line, label and color like FMT for shallow water routes. Obviously I still take it slow and time the tides but it really helps when your line goes to the far side of the creek because there’s a huge oyster bed in the middle or those wide open areas covered with oyster mounds.


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## T-Bro (8 mo ago)

I was thinking of using the Navionics satellite imagery to put in waypoints for the skinnier passages near the community boat ramp. I agree that it will be trial and error, but looking at low tide will help find the oyster beds to avoid.


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## BrownDog (Jun 22, 2019)

m.latorre555 said:


> Your best way to learn is to keep the GPS cover on, go out around dead low tide and ride slowly and observe.


This


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