---

Hi SP- I'm not going to get into the motor wars (other than to take issue with the Optimax being called "new") but I can tell you that the Yamaha was VERY easy to integrate with my Lowrance GPS head. I don't have Garmin experience, but a quick search on Garmin Yamaha engine interface cable turned up lots of stuff. If your existing setup is NMEA-based, I think it will just be a matter of getting the right pigtail to connect to the motor. For my setup, I didn't even need to go NMEA, just used Yamaha command link parts and connected from the Command Link bus straight to the GPS. I really like having the full suite of data, including water pressure, temperature, and mileage.

Tim