I'm in the process of installing a NMEA 2000 Backbone and connecting up my
RayMarine E-Seris and my Volvo Penta engines via the Volvo NMEA GW. In
reading the NMEA spec, it mentions..

"In all cases the power and Common ground for the interface circuits must
not connect to other power or ground in a network"

Does this mean the Power Tap for the NMEA backbone should be on a seperate
switched circuit or could it share a circuit with another device on the
network, i.e. GPS, MFD, etc? Also, can the bared shield drain wire be
connected to the boat's common ground?

What are you expected to see or use on the E-series from the engines?

I ask this because I've got my fuel and engine data linked to an E-80 and,
frankly, never use it. There's not enough screen 'real estate' on a single
E-80 to fit the data. That and there really aren't any features in the E-80
that would take advantage of it. There's no fuel tracking software or
anything else. I suppose if you have more than one E-80 on the network then
you could use that for showing the engine data. But with just one, it's
just not very practical. I was rather disappointed to discover this. Ah
well.

And don't get me started on the waste of time that is RNS on a PC...

I've got my network on its own breaker. I don't recall grounding the bared
shield.

-Bill Kearney

"Jason Massarelli" wrote in message
...
I'm in the process of installing a NMEA 2000 Backbone and connecting up my
RayMarine E-Seris and my Volvo Penta engines via the Volvo NMEA GW. In
reading the NMEA spec, it mentions..

"In all cases the power and Common ground for the interface circuits must
not connect to other power or ground in a network"

Does this mean the Power Tap for the NMEA backbone should be on a seperate
switched circuit or could it share a circuit with another device on the
network, i.e. GPS, MFD, etc? Also, can the bared shield drain wire be
connected to the boat's common ground?