Alternatives to NMEA network for Motorguide/Lowrance?

[Aggie13]

I've been thinking about upgrading my boat to link my Motorguide Xi3 to my Lowrance Elite 9 Ti2 and am having a hard time justifying the $230+ for the NMEA2000 Starter Kit and Gateway Kits (which are really just a few connectors and cables) from motorguide.

Does anyone know of any alternatives or if its possible to build your own? If not, is it really worth the money from a convenience perspective?

Thanks for any help!

[Anthonysince94]

Nmea 2000 is used by just about every company to link everything together. So if you decide to upgrade graphs later you will already have everything.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[Aggie13]

Yeah that was in my "pros" list for buying it, I might see if I can find a second hand one for cheap somewhere and hope for the best