The engine interface cabling will vary between outboard brands and models so if you don’t already have one installed you may need to do some research or do what I did hit up your local outboard dealer for some help. My outboard is a 70hp 4 stroke Suzuki and to get my engine data onto the sounder there are two key components I required - an NMEA2000 network and the engine interface cable that connects to the NMEA2000 network. To be honest my boat has been a bit of an ongoing project since new and seems to be in a constant state of upgrades, I’m sure this is nothing new to most fisherman LOL. There are two main reasons I want to monitor the engine data - the first being I wanted to trial some different propellers to optimise the fuel used on my trips and the second reason is I have some bigger trips planned and being able to watch my actual fuel usage is key to being able to plan some bigger more remote trips away. In particular I was keen to start utilising the engine monitoring feature of this unit. As I’ve explained in previous articles these Elite units are like small super computers and have more options packed into them than you can poke a stick at. As I haven't bought the engine from them I suspect they won't be overly keen to assist.After having my Lowrance Elite Ti² fitted for a while the time has come to start utilising more of the features. My local Honda Marine dealer says they have not come across this before but will look into it.

I've spoken to Honda UK who have just advised to talk to a dealer. Of course, I could just splice the connector with bullet connectors and get the job done but I'd rather not molest an engine which is in top notch condition. In both versions, the wires appear to go to the same CAN bus connections at the ECU, just the terminating connector is different. Looking at the Honda owners manual there are four versions of the wiring diagram three of these show a black connector and the fourth shows a blue connector such as I have.

The connector on the lead is black and the connector on the engine is blue - both 6 contact connectors. They are quite similar connectors and the number of contacts and wire colours are the same but the lead has a female socket and so does the engine. However, when trying to connect it to my engine the connector plug does not fit. It is the same part number as Honda and looking at the images from the Honda Marine website, it looks identical to the cable they sell. I've obtained the engine interface lead via Lowrance and have checked it is the correct part as supplied by Honda. I have a 2008 Honda BF50D outboard and a Lowrance HDS5 Gen2 GPS which I would like to connect via NMEA2000. Hi all, I'm wondering if any of you can help in connecting my outboard to my HDS unit so I can monitor the engine using the digital gauge set up.

How to install a nmea 2000 network