CAN Bus Design Guide

[mbell20688]

I am installing two TZT13X MFDs, a DRS6A-NXT and a Hub-102. I found a document on the Furuno USA website called 'Furuno CAN Bus Network Design Guide', document number TIE-00170-B, which emphatically states the Furuno equipment should have a single connection to the CAN bus. All other inter-device communication is handled through the Furuno Ethernet bus. This differs from the network topology in the TZT13X installation manual which clearly shows multiple MFDs connected through the Furuno Ethernet bus and each with a connection to the CAN bus. Which is correct?

 

[jp498]

They need their own connections to ethernet and NMEA2000.
Some things can be repeated over ethernet to the other devices, but they might as well listen to it first hand by being on both networks.
I'm guessing the document referenced is for older equipment.

 

[mbell20688]

OK. I have a followup question. In addition to the two MFD's I have a Vesper 8000, Raymarine autopilot and two RD-33 data panels. When operating the system with only one MFD running the system works flawlessly, but when the second MFD is enabled the RD-33 depth display (and Vesper Wifi depth) intermittently go blank. One of the MFD's powers the transducer and generates the depth data.

I'm assuming there is a problem on the NMEA-2000 as the RD-33's only listen on the NMEA-2000. I tried setting the device instance number for the non-transducer to a higher number to favor the MFD that has the transducer, and also tried changing the system instance numbers to favor that MFD. No joy, and I rebooted after each change. Any ideas? If I invest in a NMEA-2000 analyzer, either Actisense W2K-1 or Maretron USB100, which one do others recommend? Is it possible I have an MFD with a NMEA-2000 problem?

 

[TheReaper]

@mbell20688 has the situation you described been resolved?

 

[mbell20688]

No resolution yet. In a separate thread I mentioned communicating with Furuno tech support and sending them NMEA 2000 data logs that show the problem. No response yet, but I think they had to send the problem to the software developers who are located elsewhere. I thought I would call tech support tomorrow to get a status since it will have been a week. That's not an unexpected timeline for resolution of a software problem.

 

[TheReaper]

Ok. Keep working with tech support via email to resolve this. That's going to be the best way to get an answer.