Splitting the NMEA 2000 bus: a simple switch trick

Sat, 04 Jul 2026 07:35:01 +0200

On Merrimac we carry a lot of NMEA 2000 equipment. The backbone runs the length of the boat and serves some two dozen physical devices — autopilot computer and controllers, two big chartplotters, instrument displays, the H5000 Hercules CPU, wind, depth, heading and GPS sensors, AIS, and the ship’s computer. Together they claim fifty addresses on the bus.

NMEA 2000 on Merrimac

Splitting the NMEA 2000 bus: a simple switch trick