Bill, As others have said, the 0183 wire is likely to support the signal cables but not to not support the power requirements of downstream devices, however there are work arounds.
Often when you are replacing 0183 devices with newer N2K devices, the older devices already had power run to them. Using a short N2K pigtail cable, you can splice the signal cable to your existing 0183 network cabling and the power cables to your existing power. Or use a power injector close to the new device. The idea of NMEA 2000 (N2K) was that a single cable would run through the boat and there would be short connections (drops) to the main cable to connect the various devices. Think of it as a set of icicle Christmas lights. The main cable carries the power and the short drops connect that power to the lights themselves. NMEA 0183 was typically wired in one of two methods, home runs or daisy chains. Depends on the installer. Home runs are where all the devices were wired back to one central location and would require that you to use something like Maretron's multiport box to interconnect your devices. This makes for some long wire runs to various devices and could possibly cause intercommunication issues between devices that are separated by the most amount of wire. Shouldn't, but could. If your boat was wired in a daisy chain, you would just need to replace the connectors where the cabling went into and out of the old device and add a T-connector to provide your drop to your device. This wiring method would more closely represent the main backbone system used by N2K, except your backbone runs everywhere in the boat instead of just down the middle. While trying to reuse the existing wiring may save you some expense in the wire costs, typically there is an easy wiring route for a new main run through the bilges or behind the settees. Then you just have to run the short drops through somewhat more difficult areas. About the most difficult one I can think of would be getting up the walls and through the ceiling to the place that the wires enter the mast. All the remaining runs should be fairly easy. My personal opinion is that while doing things to make the existing wire work can be done, it isn't worth the headache and expense that you would encounter down the road when a connection that wasn't done perfectly causes problems for the whole system. Also, manufactures don't tend to warranty things that are not done to spec. So if you are purchasing new equipment, best to go with the correct wiring also. James SV Kristy Message: 2 Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2020 17:56:32 -0400 From: "Bill Coleman" <colt...@gmail.com> To: <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Subject: Stus-List NMEA 0183 vs. 2000 Wiring Compatibility Message-ID: <1c3401d61c15$8cad8000$a6088000$@com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" I am replacing some 0183 wiring for NMEA 2000, and I bought some 2000 end connectors (Maretron FA-NF-ST Mini Field Attachable Connector (Female) FA-NM-ST) that you can screw the terminals into. Some of this 0183 wiring was probably installed before the boat was completed, and It looks very difficult to re-wire. Does anyone know if I can just use the 0183 wiring to now become 2000 compatible? In other words, is there anything lacking in the older wiring, like shielding, twisting, etc, that would make this not work? Bill Coleman Erie PA _______________________________________________ Thanks everyone for supporting this list with your contributions. Each and every one is greatly appreciated. If you want to support the list - use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray
