I posted this in Electronics and had one reply, so I figured I'd post it here. If anyone has added NMEA 200 or changed out gauges in an older Grady, it would be helpful to know which path you took with the change and how it worked out.
I have a 2005 Grady White 225 Tournament. It has a Yamaha f250 4 stroke with the newer CPU with the 6P2-20 number on it and the plug for NMEA 2000 connection. As is common, the old gauges have the older, very faded LCD screens and need to be changed or refurbished. I am planning to add the NMEA 2000 system and have ordered the backbone and needed connectors as well as the interface connectors. I am trying to decide how to proceed with the gauges. I can just change out the old gauges with new ones, or send them out to be refurbished (which is the lowest cost). I could change them out with command link gauges which is a little more expensive but better gauges, or I could go all in on the newer display screen that most new Grady's have as standard now. Last, I could also just run the NMEA 2000 through my multi screen depth finder/chart plotter, but I'm less inclined to do that as my only gauge option.
My first take was to forget about refurbing or replacing the old style gauges (with new - old style gauges) and at a minimum spend the extra $3-$400 bucks on the command link gauges that will fit in my existing dash. The second take is to upgrade from command link gauges and go with the Yamaha display screen that is a nicer upgrade and, the current offering on new boats, but about also, $400 more than the command link gauges.
Has anyone done this change out and if so, what did you do and how did it work out ?
Thanks in Advance
I have a 2005 Grady White 225 Tournament. It has a Yamaha f250 4 stroke with the newer CPU with the 6P2-20 number on it and the plug for NMEA 2000 connection. As is common, the old gauges have the older, very faded LCD screens and need to be changed or refurbished. I am planning to add the NMEA 2000 system and have ordered the backbone and needed connectors as well as the interface connectors. I am trying to decide how to proceed with the gauges. I can just change out the old gauges with new ones, or send them out to be refurbished (which is the lowest cost). I could change them out with command link gauges which is a little more expensive but better gauges, or I could go all in on the newer display screen that most new Grady's have as standard now. Last, I could also just run the NMEA 2000 through my multi screen depth finder/chart plotter, but I'm less inclined to do that as my only gauge option.
My first take was to forget about refurbing or replacing the old style gauges (with new - old style gauges) and at a minimum spend the extra $3-$400 bucks on the command link gauges that will fit in my existing dash. The second take is to upgrade from command link gauges and go with the Yamaha display screen that is a nicer upgrade and, the current offering on new boats, but about also, $400 more than the command link gauges.
Has anyone done this change out and if so, what did you do and how did it work out ?
Thanks in Advance