Golden Channels Inc.

05/31/2025

We're a Canadian manufacturer of NMEA 2000 products.

Our brand new Canadian NMEA 2000 website is now live with all sorts of pro tips, videos, and the best prices on NMEA products anywhere.

Contact us with questions any time. We're the only NMEA 2000 supplier who guarantees your installation will work.

05/11/2025

Having intermittent outboard problems, or perhaps your NMEA Network stopped working over the winter? Our new Capn NMEA Keep It Simple Scanner can help.

04/24/2025

You may have seen our installation video for the Yamaha 6Y8 Speedo and Tach, and if you have, you know that this gauge set does not need to be installed with Command Link, we can provide cables sets to just use NMEA 2000 instead.

If you are considering these gauges for your boat, regardless of if you are using Command Link, or NMEA 2000 for communicating with them, you should be aware of some of the unique aspects of how the speedometer is connected, and the signals it uses.

6Y8 Speedometer requires 3 separate signals

While the Yamaha 6Y8 tachometer gets all it's necessary data from one connection and signals, the Yamaha 6Y8 speedometer requires not only a Command Link or NMEA 2000 connection (your choice). It also has a second connector which is used with a speed input signal that requires NMEA 0183 connections, as well as two black and pink wires for analog fuel tank levels from up to two fuel tank sending units.

Many fish finders / MFDs /Charts have NMEA 0183 connections. Some include them in the power cable. You might have noticed these if you did your own fish finder installation as smaller wires that were next to the large black and red wires to power the fish finder. Other fish finders have separate connectors for NMEA 0183 outputs requiring an additional cable.

However, there are fish finders without any NMEA 0183 signal outputs. Two that come to mind are the Lowrance Elite series (in most cases) and many of the Raymarine fish finders. There are other examples as well.

We often help customers to determine which wires to connect to their Yamaha 6Y8 fish finders. But there were a number whose fish finders would not provide the speed signal for their Yamaha 6Y8 Speedos. For these customers we are pleased to now offer a very simple to install product called the Capn NMEA Yamaha 6Y8 Speed Adapter, which can solve this problem in minutes. Installation is very straightforward, and it has advanced diagnostic features found in the Capn NMEA Keep It Simple Scanner. So everyone can use it or get our help very quickly if needed.

02/26/2025

We have a new website! We've added a bunch of information on NMEA. We've added a new feature we call our NMEA Custom Bundle configurators, that take you through a few questions about your boat, outboard, and fish finder, and design the perfect NMEA cable bundle for the job. Lots more pictures and technical information, and much improved navigation. So, please come pay us a visit.

05/02/2023

Marine Wire Closeout. 40% off. While stock lasts. We are exiting the marine wire by the foot business. 2 thru 10 AWG in Red, Black and Yellow. All wire USA Manufactured by Vertex Marine and 1426 rated.

03/21/2023

There's only two problems with Yamaha's Command Link:

1. Your hub is usually full. There are no device connections left. This is especially true with helm located Command Link hubs.

2. No one knows how to hook up an MFD, Chart, or Fish Finder to read engine data via NMEA 2000 to a Command Link system.

One of our customers posed this problem to us about a year ago, and we now have a fully tested and proven solution that provides not only an NMEA 2000 connection from a Command Link Hub, you also get an expandable NMEA 2000 backbone connection that allows future expansion.

We can also assist you with any other specific questions you may have about connecting your particular fish finder, or VHF radio.

https://goldenchannels.com/product/better-connected-commandlink-helm-hub-to-nmea-converter-first-fishfinder-complete-kit/

11/09/2022

NMEA 2000 Starter Kits are not a complete solution for initially connecting your boats fish finder to your outboard. Come see which pieces are missing and pick up pro tips to get your installation done more smoothly.

If you're considering installing an NMEA 2000 Starter Kit, or if you have recently purchased one of Golden Channels Better Connected™ NMEA Complete Bundles f...

10/03/2022

If you have a new fish finder in your boat (Or a new boat), and the dealer didn't talk to you about NMEA networking, there are exciting new features that your fish finder has that you may not be aware of.

Our short video "Why NMEA?" explains how a low cost cable kit can add very useful features to your fishing electronics.

If you own a new fish finder, or have recently purchased a new fishing boat, sooner or later you will discover that there are additional features that your f...

01/04/2022

We have both CommandLink and NMEA 2000 cabling sets for Yamaha powered boats. Many available for immediate delivery.

11/30/2021

We've finally completed all the design and testing for a very unique cable. And it makes installing a Yamaha CommandLink Speedometer (6Y8 - square or round) much easier, if you are struggling with getting the speedometer to sense GPS data coming from the NMEA 2000 network.

Most GPS devices have the older style NMEA 0183 output, so that is what Yamaha designed to be used with this model of speedometer. However, some newer fish finders ONLY have a NMEA 2000 output, so their speed information is not available to the Yamaha Speedometer.

One example of this would be using this speedometer with a Raymarine Element. The Element outputs GPS information on the NMEA 2000 Network, but it isn't available to the Yamaha Speedometer.

This cable comes ready to go, pre-programmed and tested. It fixes a specific problem, and it can save you days of fiddling and wasted time if this is your issue.

11/28/2021

One of the things we do here at Golden Channels is custom cabling kits with varied lengths and configurations to help customers keep things neat and tidy in their boat, as well as help with the technical aspects of understanding what they are connecting on their boat, and assist them with network component selection.

A customer of ours was kind enough to share his Whipray Classic installation how-to with all of us on the microskiff website:

https://www.microskiff.com/threads/nmea-setup-and-review.96268/