Moonlighter475

Hi Jim

Appreciate your advice please re correct way to calibrate the fuel flow on the following NMEA network.

I have just set up a NMEA 2000 network on my new boat, and connected it to the Suzuki DF115 4 stroke (2009 model). On the network I have a HDS5x sounder with Airmar P66 transducer, HDS5m GPS with inbuilt GPS antenna, and of course the Suzuki engine interface.

On the HDS5m I calibrated the Suzuki engine interface and selected the model year, engine housepower etc and also set up the fuel tank/engine configuration (single engine/single tank).

I found that initially the fuel flow was way too optimistic however when I was recalibrating didn't do it correctly - on the refuel screen I "added fuel" with the amount used to fill the tank and then refilled as well and calibrated, added the fuel amount again. The result was that it then showed me using twice as much fuel as actual.....

After trying a couple more times without getting more accurate fuel data, I went back into the network menu last week and found that somehow the system had not "saved' the engine year/model details. So I reset all of this and also reset the fuel calibration setting to the factory settings.

Yesterday went out and when I refuelled it said fuel used about 65 litres, but actual was only 22 litres. So to recalibrate I:

Opened fuel menu, selected refuel, then highlighted "set to full", hit enter;

It came up with a screen that asked if I wanted to calibrate, hit yes, I entered correct amount of fuel, hit accept

Then came up with a new screen showing a recalibration factor, I hit next and it recalibrated.

Is that the way to do it? It still seems to be showing more fuel use and idle than expected (about 3 l/hr when my mechanics says about 1.2 or so is correct). Is it simply a matter of doing the recalibration as above several times to get it accurate?

Any help greatfully accepted.

Cheers
Grant

yachtjim

Hi Grant, I wish I had a response as lengthy as your post, but I don't. I have never had any luck on getting the fuel used to work correctly on a Lowrance system. I think it is a great tool to see actual GPH though. You might try posting in the main electronics forum to get some advice as I know some people have had the fortune of it working as expected.

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Moonlighter475

Thanks Jim - I'll give that a try.

Cheers

Grant

Moonlighter475

Hi Jim

Just a quick post to let you know the outcome...after a fair bit of trying.

It turns out that the software on the Suzuki engine interface (manuf by Lowrance for Suzuki) was, well, lets say it was not as good as it should have been.

Lowrance eventually sent us an update file for the software which we installed to the interface cable via the HDS, and we now have accurate fuel flow data displaying on the Lowrance HDS units. As well we have all other expected engine data and alarms available and working perfectly.

Seems that this software issue is at the core of the may and varied problems lots of people have had for quite a few years getting their Suzuki's to communicate correctly to the NMEA 2000 network. But should be sorted now.

Cheers

Grant

yachtjim

Cool, great info, thank you!

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Striper In

How did you obtain this update file info from Lowrance???

Thx

Moonlighter475

Hi Striper

Message with file attached sent to your private email address.

Cheers

Grant