Will a LMF-200 work without the NMEA 2000 system?

[496 Cubic Inches]

I want a simple fuel management system and was looking at the Navman 2100. The word at Boaters World is thats its been discontinued.

They are know carrying the LMF-200. I skimmed thru the manual and saw that in big,bold letters that it wouldn't work without a NMEA 2000 network.

The guy at BW said it works fine without being networked with the NMEA system.

Does the LMF-200 work as a stand alone unit?

[sneaks]

Yes yes yes. It will ONLY give you GPH, however. If you want full use, ie: GPH, MPG, Speed etc., just add the Lowrance GPS sensor. The total is still under $300 street, and it would include everything needed.

[chainsaw42]

NO, NO, NO! actually, i agree with sneaks, but he is wrong in fact. it will ONLY WORK W/NMEA 2000, but, yes it works as a stand-alone fuel mgmt system...confused? the ep-10 fuel flow sensors are nmea 2000, it's that simple. so, one lmf-200 & one (or 2/3, depending on # of engines) ep-10(s), and you have a stand-alone fuel flow system, but, as sneaks says, only gph, not mpg. but to answer your two questions directly, YES, the lmf-200/ep-10 can be used as a stand alone fuel mgmt system, but NO, the lmf DOES NOT work w/anything not nmea 2000. i have a lmf-200 & (2) ep-10s and think the value is awesome. i would, however, love it if it read my old nmea gps speed for mpg...

[sneaks]

Uh, Chainsaw42 the new Lowrance GPS sensor puck IS NMEA2000. Go to the LowranceNet sample system where you put a system together and you will see the Lowrance GPS sensor is, in fact, the neatest and slickest way to get that little LMF-200 going as a mini-system that'll give you position, speed, mpg, gph, and everything but where the fish are biting.

Don

[chainsaw42]

uh, sneaks (?), if you paid attention to what i said, yes, it works as a stand-alone system if you include the NMEA 2000 ep-10 as a part of that system...i interpret his underlying question as whether or not it is compatible w/anything other than the NMEA 2000 network protocol, and the answer is definitively NO.

whoever said anything about the lowrance NMEA 2000 gps puck being slick or not? do you honestly consider that part of a stand-alone system?? he talks about the guy at BW saying it can be networked into a NMEA system, and that is misleading, at best. it has to be a NMEA 2000 system, or buy new equipment. 496, i hope i understood your question...

[sneaks]

Oh give me a break, Chainsaw42. The LMF-200 includes the EP-10, otherwise it's simply the LM-200. And my Yes Yes Yes was Yes it can work as a stand alone system because it includes everything needed to create a NMEA2000 bus. You state "He (meaning me) is wrong in fact." Where did I say it would work with anything but NMEA2000? Maybe we both need to pay more attention to detail.

As far as the NMEA2000 GPS puck being slick, I said it, and no I don't consider it a part of a standalone system but I do consider it as a future option and it was directed at the original poster. I too have a LMF200 system, have successfully integrated it into my Raymarine C80 Seatalk2 system, and also consider it an outstanding value.

Don

[496 Cubic Inches]

I have a 50 gallon tank on my boat and with most boats the fuel gauge is worthless. I want a simple unit that will help me keep track of fuel consumption. I don't care about speed,depth, positioning,ect. I have other electronics for that.

I want an accurate way of determining how much fuel is left in the tank. I want to be able to see that I'm burning X gallons at 4500rpms,X gallons at 4200rpms,ect.

I was looking at the Navman because it seems to be the best bang for the buck. It does what I want,and I don't have to worry about networking,or compatibility. I can plumb it into the fuel line,run some power to it and call it a day.

The Standard Horizon FF41 looks good as well,in fact alot of guys think its indentical to the Navman. I could buy the Standard Horizon,but its in the neighborhood of $100 more.

Floscan is great, but again way more than I want to spend. I don't even want to know what the Yamaha gauge costs.

[sneaks]

The LMF-200 at $149 (street price) will do precisely what you want to do as listed in your previous message. Drill a hole, mount the gauge, cut the fuel line AFTER the filter, insert the sensor making sure it's mounted so the arrow is vertical, hook up the power leads either to the ignition wire or a switched DC supply, connect the gauge backlight to your present guage lighting (so far it's the same as Flowscan and Navman) then connect all the cables together with the supplied hardware and you're done. Yes, you have to go through calibration and setup for your installation but you have to do that with all fuel flow gauges with but one exception. That exception is that you must first tell the MN200 to look for the fuel sensor. Yes it has more hardware (two "t"s and a couple of plug in resistors) but it's just a matter of plugging the connectors in. Consider it just a fuel gauge with some small added hardware that's easily hidden. You can ignore the fact that you've also just installed a whiz-bang NMEA 2000 bus.

Frankly, I went Lowrance because Navman gauges and Flowscan gauges were out of stock everywhere and I too wanted a FF meter ASAP. Now I'm very glad I did.

[saltyseadog]

Navman 2100 is not discontinued......................

[chainsaw42]

sneaks - 6/11/2006 8:51 PM ...Where did I say it would work with anything but NMEA2000? Maybe we both need to pay more attention to detail. ...

hate to quibble but the title of the thread is 'WILL A LMF-200 WORK WITHOUT THE NMEA 2000 SYSTEM?'

your response? yes, yes, yes. this is wrong, in fact. if you paid more attention you would see that i in fact stated i agreed with most of what you said, but to answer the question of the thread, the lmf-200 does not work with anything other than the nmea2000 bus. and the lmf-200 is available w/and w/out an ep-10. lmf stand for Lowrance Multi Function, not LMFuel like you imply. there, i'm done.

[fmbeach]

Yes, the LMF-200 with EP-10 will work as a seperate stand-alone system.

I have one installed on my Non-NMEA boat. I too waited on a NavMan delivery for 3 months and ended up going with Lowrance.

Very accurate once calibrated and a few tanks run through. Mine is now accurate to the pint. Best investment so far in electronics. The really nice part is that when I finally breakdown and upgrade my GPS the LMF-200 will be functional with all features.

It is, however, not at all intuitive to navigate through the screens. And, the manual was not very clear. Took me a while to get it set-up the way I wanted and calibrate the unit.

[HitfrequenSea]

Got my LMF-200 Friday. Installed it today. I have the garmin network and am using the LMF-200 all by itself. Just for Fuel Flow info. Since I have the Garmin sounder, I took out the small Lowrance in dash depth finder and replaced it with the LMF-200 and used the existing switch with power and panel lights. I did have to purchase an In Line filter due to the lines after my water seperator are steel. (EFI)

The manual is a little hard to understand as far as I am concerned when it comes to Calibration

Hey fmbeach, can you shed a little light on how you calibrated the unit in simple terms? Mine is reading GPH flow, but not sure if its correct.

[edsmith03]

The manual explains the calibration procedure, but basically you start with a full tank, run the engine for at least 5 hours, fill it up and plug in the amount of fuel you used during that time. Pretty easy with one motor and one tank, but with two motors and one tank, the calibration takes on a whole new level of P.I.T.A..

[HitfrequenSea]

edsmith, thanks. It was really hot Saturday and being down in the bilge sniffing ETHANOL fumes made it hard to understand the manual. I have twin engine and twin tanks so should work out ok.

[fmbeach]

Hit,

PM me if you are still having problems.

Simply put you need to start with full tanks, tell it how many gallons are on board, get it to recongnize the EP-10 sensor, allow it to calibrate and you should be good to go.

At next fill-up or partial fill go back to fuel manager mode punch in the gallons added and tell it to recalibrate.

My guage, after 5-6 tanks since installation, is accurate to about 2/10ths of a gallon.

Glenn

[HitfrequenSea]

I screwed up my calibration and need to master reset the unit. I followed the instructions and still get false readings. Brand new out of th box I got 14 gph. then after I screwed up calibration I get about 8gph.

Is there a simple master reset like holding 2 buttons at once that works!! followed the book 4 times and still get false readings.

[BassDaddy]

I was thinking of a Navman 2100, but everyone seems to be sold out. Then I heard about the LMF-200 which was said to be even better, although I don't know why it's better. I want to be able to get instantaneous fuel consumption in gph at various rpm's, total fuel burned, remaining fuel in tank, etc. Will I be able to do this with the LMF-200 and the EP-10 fuel flow probe, or do I also need the EP-15 fuel level probe? If the EP-10 does all this, then what is the EP-15 for? Also, does the LMF-200 work simply by measuring fuel flow or does it actuall measure the level of fuel in the gas tank? I'm just trying to figure out how this dang instrument works and exactly what I need to do what I want.

[edsmith03]

The EP-15 is what measures the fuel in the tank. The EP-10 measures fuel flow. That being said, the EP-10 can tell you how much is left in the tank based on how much has been burnt (assuming you started out with a full tank - or at least know how much is in the tank at the beginning of the trip).

[BassDaddy]

I've decided on getting the LMF-200 instead of a Navman 2100, but I would like a couple more details if someone could provide the info. Could someone please post the "exact" readouts the LMF-200 gives with the e-10 fuel flow probe? For instance, which does it read, gph or mpg? I happen to prefer mpg and I can't determine anything from their literature. Also, just how accurate is the fuel level in the tank after calibration? Would the e-15 fuel level probe be more accurate?

[Cooper]

It will read MPG if you have some speed sensor input - paddelwheel, gps, or pitot. Otherwise you'll just have GPH.