Hour Meter

Interesting. My digital hour meter on my BF 225 does advance whenever the key switch is turned on.

Mine too.... really wish it didn't as i think any meter that runs whenever the ignition is on is fairly useless.

Ideally I'd swap our old Navman chart plotter and fish finder for a NMEA2000 multifunction device (Simrad NSS12 Evo2 ...... swoon!) and then get something* to record the hours - but I've not enough money

* I think there's a 0183 to 2000 converter that also records hours but only when the engine revs are over 100.

Yes, it's a nice feature as I've left keys on in older boats before, but it makes doing what I'm trying to do a challenge.

I just heard back from Faria on this and it should be pretty simple. For $7 I just bought a DC square wave signal generator that I'll use to simulate a signal from the ECU to the tach. You need at least a 200 Hz signal to get the hour meter to start advancing. I'll post later on how this works out.

When you turn the key on does the volt meter show voltage with the engine not running? It looks to me like the black/yellow wire comes from the computer to power the guages and the fuel pump. When you turn the key on the computer will cycle the fuel pump once and after the ecm recieves the pulse signal then it turns on the guages and the fuel pump. Im just wondering if you just need to jump the hour meter directly to the battery to get it to run? I just wonder if you want to power up the whole system if you can just jump the hour meter direct to the battery?

Yes, when I put the key in the ON position the volt meter registers and the digital hour meter comes on but the hours don't advance. Faria confirmed that this is the way it's supposed to work. It's a feature to prevent the hour meter from running forward if you accidentally leave the key on which is nice unless you want to intentionally run it forward like I do. You might have older gauges if yours don't work this way.

The signal generator I bought did the trick. Tach reads 1000 rpm and the clock is running.