NMEA-2000 Adaptor Cable for Legacy E-TEC

Information about Evinrude I-Command, ICON Pro, and ICON Touch Color Displays
jimh
Posts: 12293
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2015 12:25 pm
Location: Michigan, Lower Peninsula
Contact:

NMEA-2000 Adaptor Cable for Legacy E-TEC

Postby jimh » Mon Jun 03, 2024 5:34 pm

The NMEA-2000 connector that provides the NMEA-2000 port on the legacy (or "G1") E-TEC engines does NOT use the NMEA standard NMEA-2000 Micro connector. Instead Evinrude provides the NMEA-2000 interface on an AMP Super Seal connector with four poles.

Evinrude used to supply the necessary adaptor cable as their part 0764164 and later as part 766026. These cable used to sell at retail for about $70. Reports from dealers in June 2024 indicate that those parts are no longer available.

It is possible to make your own DeviceNET Micro connector to E-TEC legacy engine connector. The simplest way to go about this is to get a standard NMEA-2000 Micro Extension cable with DeviceNET connector. Cut off one connector, and install the mating connector for the E-TEC. (Be sure to cut off the correct connector; the cable that remains should have a connector with PINS that will connect to the network backbone, and the other end will be just four conductors and a shield conductor.

If you don't need the whole length of the cable, you can leave a foot or two remaining on the cut-off connector, as it might come in handy some day in the future--a better choice than just cutting it off with no cable remaining, which will make it completely useless.

You can buy the mating AMP Super Seal connector for under $15. The connector consists of three parts:
  • connector body
  • contacts
  • wire exit seals
You can order the connector body, contacts, and seals from MOUSER Electronics using these part numbers:
  • Body (four pole) = TE Connectivity 282106-1, or MOUSER 571-282106-1 (Two for $2.10)
  • Female contact (15 to 18-AWG) = TE Connectivity 183025-, or MOUSER 571-183025-1 (Ten for $4.48)
  • Seal (Yellow 15 to 18-AWG) = TE Connectivity 281934-2, or MOUSER 571-2819342 (Ten for $0.27)

So that's $6.85 for two connectors, and shipping is extra; the cost depends on where you are located relative to the vendor. Figure maybe $15 total cost.

The reason I show buying two connectors: I always order at least two (or more), because if I make any mistake on the first try to assemble and wire the connector then I will already have a second one on hand, and I hope to have learned from my mistake building the first one to get it right on the second try.

You can also get a set of six connectors (and six matching mating connectors which are not needed) on Amazon for $13. I don't know if these are "real" AMP Super Seal connectors. (They probably are not and are just China-made copies.) If you are an Amazon Prime member, there is no shipping cost. See:


If you do not already have an extra NMEA-2000 Micro extension cable sitting around, you can also buy a 5-meter long extension cable on Amazon for about $37.

Usually NMEA-2000 cable uses very standardized wire insulation color, so you can generally count on the wire colors in most any extension cable to use the NMEA standard.

The wiring of the engine connector also used the standard colors:

1 = RED = Positive power
2 = BLACK = Negative power
3 = WHITE = SIGNAL High
4 = BLUE = SIGNAL Low

As long as the wire in the cable uses the standard colors you can wire the engine end for color-to-color orientation.

If any doubt, you can deduce the actual insulation color seen in the cable to its corresponding signal from my reference information at

NMEA-2000 Micro Connectors
https://continuouswave.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=714&p=4771

So you can make your own E-TEC legacy (G1) NMEA-2000 drop cable for about $50.

If you already have an extra NMEA-2000 extension cable on hand, you can convert it to an E-TEC Legacy NMEA cable for about $15 by just changing the connector (on the proper end) to an AMP Super Seal 4-pole.

An alternative to making your own may be to buy a non-OEM cable from a supplier selling on Amazon. E-TEC engine NMEA-2000 drop cables are available from $50 or more. At the moment of writing this, a vendor called REGATTA PROCESSING STORE had a suitable cable with a network-T adaptor included for $50 available on Amazon. See


The only drawback of the non-OEM cable is a slightly shorter length, only 13-feet; the OEM cable was about 15-feet long. However, with a 13-foot cable you can still add a 6-foot extension cable if needed, and remain below the maximum length for a drop cable of 20-feet.

Also, quite ironically, the Amazon vendor is using a graphic I created on continuousWave.com to illustrate his product.

The OEM-cable is still being sold by Lowrance. It is their part SKU: 000-0120-62, and retails for $110. Compare at