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Adding Nanni Engine Data to NMEA2000

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Getting Engine Data onto your Instruments

Introduction

The Nanni engines on our catamaran use the Nanni SI.4 digital control panel.  It is connected to the engine with several cable bundles. One of them is a J1939 bus, which is used to constantly send engine data when the engine is running.

This includes the following data:

  • engine RPM
  • engine hours
  • engine water temperature
  • engine oil pressure
  • tank level (only if a tank sender is connected to two wires on the back of the engine panel
  • trouble events (over-heating, etc.)

Why Do this?

There are two main reasons I can see to do this.  One is just as simple as getting the above information added to and therefore available from NMEA.  This allows to be inside at our Nav Station and see all of this information about the engines without having to go outside, which can be great in inclement weather.

The more compelling reason, in my opinion comes into play when you have a PredictWind DataHub and their professional level subscription, which allows for the creation of AI calculated polars for your boat and your sailing style.  Without a gateway like this, the data captured from the DataHub does include whether or not an engine is running, and therefore is not very accurate. 
As an example, it may show you can sail at 25 degrees to the wind at 50% of wind speed (because it's seen you do it with the motor on).

CAN, N2K and J1939

CAN, short for Controller Area Network, describes the physical connection properties (the wires/signals, signaling levels, need for termination, etc.) It is extensively used around the world in just about every moving vehicle. Think of it as the "telephone"

NMEA2000 (or N2K for short) is a communication protocol used in the marine industry that is transmitted over a CAN (controller area network) Bus.  Think of this as one "language" spoken on the CAN "telephone".

J1939 is also a communication protocol, but for the marine and heavy machinery industry that is a transmitted over a CAN bus.  J1939 is another "language" spoken over the CAN "telephone".

As you can probably surmise, if we need the engine ("speaking" in J1939) to be able to communicate with the N2K devices on the boat (speaking in N2K), we need a translator, or bridge.

J1939 to N2K Bridges

There are several products out there to achieve this feature, but for the simple list of data items that come from the Nanni engines, just about any will achieve this.  Given that, my selection criteria came down to price, support and ease of installation/programming.

I'm going to skip over the selection run down and cut straight to the one I've chosen.

It is inexpensive, easy to mount and easy to program (using a smartphone that has NFC or tap-to-pay type technology)

The Veratron LinkUp Gateway - J1939



This product fits the bill perfectly.  The only downside to it is that it only supports connection to one engine, but it is only $180 and costs less than half of those that can support two engines.

Interestingly, J1939 allows for the engines to be on the same bus, as the standard allows each engine to negotiate for an "engine instance ID", but for the Nanni use-case, they basically hard-coded the engine instance ID to "1" as it really is only designed to communicate to it's connected panel, and it just keeps things simpler and more likely to always work. I tried to do this with one device and one combined bus, but the engine information was only coming in for one engine instance, and the data would bounce back and forth between both running engines; not good!

Where to buy

These are fortunately sold at many online retailers.  Here are the two I would suggest, both currently selling for $180:
TheGPSStore - Small marine store in NC with fair prices, fast shipping  and GREAT customer support
Defender - Major online and brick and mortar marine chandlery

Interconnection into the boat

One of my favorite expressions from my engineering days is, "Standards are great; everybody has one". The J1939 situation on our Vision 444 is no different.  The gateway and engine terminator uses the 3 pin industry standard but the engine control panel uses a 6 pin Nanni "standard".

Because I'm an engineer, my instructions tell you how to make an adapter cable. You could also cut into the factory cables (gasp!) and crimp this together, but for about $50 total and an hour of your time you can do this very professionally.  I believe most time-savers only save time in that instant, not over the long run, so if you want to go the crimp route, you need to sort that out on your own!

Parts list

Here is the parts list of what you need to order.  I highly suggest ordering all of this from Digikey.  They are a logistics machine and are the defacto supplier for just about every electronics fabrication house. They ship things out incredible fast and I have never seen them make an order fulfillment error.

Note: If any of these show as "out of stock" you can choose the alternate that is suggested as Amphenol makes an identical/interchangeable product.
  • 3 Pin Deutsh DT06-3S Connector - Male
  • 3 pin Deutsh DT06-3P Connector - Female
  • 6 pin Deutsh DT06-6S Connector - Male
  • Crimp Pins for Deutch Male Connectors (qty number is higher for some extras)
  • Crimp Pins for Deutch Female Connectors (qty number is higher for some extras)
  • 2 Pin Tab Connector for Power - Male
  • 4 conductor wire - tinned, 20 AWG
  • QTY 4 small screws for mounting the gateways - 3/4" / 20mm length should be right.
  • QTY 2 NMEA 2K Tees (there maybe an existing, unused "drop" available behind your helm).

Equipment List

In order to build this, you will need the following:
  • Patience! - Take your time, do it once and have a reliable solution.
  • Wire strippers capable of stripping 20AWG wire.
  • Crimper - A couple of options here
    • The official crimper for these pins is exceedingly expensive and meant for large production.
    • You can use needle nose pliers and do a decent job if careful - I highly suggest soldering the inner crimp to the copper if going this route, just to make sure.
    • Generic, open terminal crimping tool, such as: https://a.co/d/0fLt4kFh
      It doesn't need to be this exact model, but it needs to be able to make a crimp like this:

  • Screwdriver to access back of helm instrument panel.
  • Drill and small drill bit to make pilot hole to mount the gateways.
  • Smartphone with NFC communication and the Veratron Linkup Configurator App

Building the Adapters

You are going to build two copies of the adapter.  I would build each at the same time.

Here is a diagram of what you will be building:



Assembly Steps

  1. Cut your wire into the lengths needed and prepare.
    1. Make two 150mm / 6" lengths and two 100mm / 4" lengths from the 4 conductor cable.
    2. Carefully remove the last 25mm/1" of outer jacket from all ends, being careful not to damage the internal wire insulation.
    3. Strip away 3mm / 1/8" of insulation from each conductor.
    4. On the two 100mm / 4" lengths, pull the red wire to remove it from the cable.
  2. Crimp on the terminal to the single-ended ends.
    1. On one end of the 150mm / 6" lengths, crimp female sockets onto the four wires (red, green, black and white)
    2. One one end of the 100mm / 4" lengths, crimp male pins onto the three wires (green, black and white).
  3. Crimp on the terminals to the remaining ends.
    1. This step is slightly harder.  You need to pair up the free white wires from the 100mm / 4" and 150mm / 6" pieces and crimp them together into one female socket terminal.
    2. Repeat this for the two green wires.
    3. Repeat this for the two black wires.
    4. The lone red wire will be left for now.
  4. Assemble the terminals into the 3 pin female connectors (Deutsh DT06-3P).
    1. This is done with the terminals that have two wires going into each (Green, White and Black).
    2. Insert the three female socket terminals into the three pin connector housing as shown below:  

    3. Press the contacts straight in from the backside through the rubber grommet until a click is felt.
    4. Give a light tug on the wires to make sure the terminals are captured.
    5. From the opposite end of the connector, install the locking wedge by lining it up and pressing it into place.
    6. Repeat for the other cable.
  5. Assemble the terminals from the short wire into the 3 pin male connectors.
    1. Insert the three male pin terminals into the three pin connector housing as shown below:

      The connector latch is facing down to the right.
    2. When you are sure then are fully inserted, insert the locking wedge to lock the connector in place.  
    3. Repeat for the other cable.
  6. Assemble the terminals into the 6 pin connector.
    1. Insert the 4 female socket terminals into the 6 pin connector housing as shown below:

      With the connector latch facing up:
      - Upper Left - Red
      - Upper Eight - White
      - Lower Left - Black
      - Lower Right - Green
    2. When you are sure then are fully inserted, insert the locking wedge to lock the connector in place.  
    3. Repeat for the other cable.
  7. The cables are ready except for the red wire, which may need to be handled uniquely depending on your particular boat build.
  8. Remove the helm chartplotter to get access to the connections.  You may also need to do the same with the engine controls, but if you are going to fully unclip the connectors from the engine panels, only remove one at a time to make sure you don't swap panels or connectors.
    1. Removal of  the B&G chartplotter is as simple as sliding the thin plastic screw cover on the top to the right and the one of the bottom to the left.  This exposes the mounting screws.
    2. Remove all of the screws and then disconnect the cables.  Carefully place the chartplotter somewhere safe. No need to worry about the cable connections, they can only be plugged into one spot each.
  9. Find your NMEA multi-drop that should be located on the bulkhead and look something like this:

    You need to have two free NMEA "drops" into which the cables from the Veratron gateways can be connected. 
    Feel free to re-organize the Tee's and their connectors as needed to make things fit and are connected in a logical order.   
    You can see two blue rectangles in the image showing two "tees" added to the right side.
  10. Once you have two free drop Tee's available, connect the gateways and mount them similarly to as shown.  If I were to do it again, I will make them a little further apart, since you program them by tapping and more space makes it easier to be sure you are talking tot he right one!
    It is a great time to add labels (seen in yellow) to each so you know which is which!
  11. Now we will connect up the harnesses we've made, but first we have to find the connector on the engine cable harness that matches up to your remaining two pin housing.

    The Nanni engine cable connector is the natural colored one on the right.  This connector provides "12V Ignition", which is powered when the control panel is turned on. On Mira, this connector was connected using two regular spade terminals, pushed into this connector. 

    As a side note, this connector is bringing power to the DB by stairs to control the relay that powers the engine room fans and powers the Balmar Alternator Regulators)
  12. You are going to be making the black connectors shown in the picture above, one for each cable assembly.
    1. You will first un-plug the factory crimp terminals that are plugged into the white housing.
    2.  Then cut the terminals off.  There is likely only one black wire and one red wire. 
    3. You need to re-crimp these ends with the "fancy" spade terminals you ordered that are meant to plug into the black, two pin connector housing, however, when you crimp the red one, you need to also include the loose red wire from the cable assembly you made earlier.
    4. Insert these terminals into the housing such that the black wire goes into the "wider" slot and the red wires goes into the "narrow" slot.  You can also line this up with the natural colored connector and make sure the existing black wire goes to your new black wire.
    5. You should then end up with what looks like the image above.
  13. Find the three pin factory connector with the terminator installed.  Press the catch and remove the terminator. (This is a resistor from CAN_H to CAN_L which is needed at the end of the bus to assure signal quality.)
  14. Plug this terminator into the three pin connector you created.
  15. Take the other three pin connector you created and plug this into where the terminator came from.
  16. Lastly, plug the 4 pin connector you created into the mating connector on the Veratron gateway.
  17. Repeat steps 11-16 for the other engine.
  18. Tidy up all cables and make sure they cannot make contact with any of the steering hardware (chain, sprocket, etc), by using cable ties.  Try to leave enough slack so that the engine control panels can be removed without having to take the chartplotter out and clipping any cable ties, because that will happen eventually.
  19. Program the gateways.
    1. Make sure you have the Veratron LinkUp app loaded on your phone.
    2. Turn on the Port engine (engine 1)
    3. With the app open, tap your phone to the Port Gateway. It should tell you "configuration read".
    4. You will now make changes on your phone and then when done tap again to program the gateway.
      You need these settings:
      - Number of Engines : 1 (Only one per J1939 bus!!)
      - J1939 Source: 1
      - NMEA Source: 1
      Enable these alarms
      - Check Engine
      - Low Oil Level
      - Low Oil Press
      - High Coolant Temp
    5. Once done, hold your phone next to the Port Gateway until programming is successful.
    6. Turn off the Port Engine Panel.
    7. Turn on the Starboard Engine Panel.
    8. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the starboard gateway, except NMEA Source to "2".
    9. Turn off the Starboard Engine Panel
  20. Test!
    1. This is going to vary by your electronics, however, in B&G, you will now have two more sources (Veratron Gateways) and they can be added to your "Instruments" panel.
    2. You can also log into the PredictWind Data Hub and see new information under NMEA->Engines.
  21. When you are happy everything is working, re-install your Chartplotter and engine control panels.

Things to Note

  • Engine Hours are not broadcast when the engine is not running.
  • Tank levels are transmitted onto the NMEA bus, even though (you likely) do not have a fuel tank sensor connected to your engine panels.  This is not a big deal, except that if your Victron Cerbo is connected to NMEA, then it will show two, new tanks that always show as empty/null.  As of right now I have not figured out how to prevent this, but I have an enhancement request into Victron and if there is a fix I will update this article.
  • My installation is buttoned up and I don't remember the exact buttons and steps for programming.  If you go through this and would be so kind as to send me some phone screen captures I will update this article.

Stuck? Feedback?

If you get stuck anywhere along the process or just want to pass on some feedback, reach out via email and I will do my best to help you!

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