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willow

willow

Regular Contributor
My background tends to make me want to lean toward the latest technology....basically, if it lights up, or makes a noise....I want it in my boat :D:D

My dual engines have all analogue gauges and naturally the boat came all analogue. On the instrument panel they had the port engine gauges on the left and side of the panel and the starboard engine gauges were on the right side of the panel.

One rainy day, with nothing to do, I moved all the gauges so the oil pressures were side by side, the water temps were side by side etc., etc. again because of my prior retirement background.

I did disconnect the analogue tachs and installed a dual digital tach with a sync indicator wheel in it and now it is very easy to synchronize the engines.

I have been looking around for digital gauges for all the engine readings and pose these questions.

1) do all my senders have to be replaced if I go digital on all the gauges?

2) my dual tach is LCD with backlit illumination but the other gauges can be BLUE or RED readouts...anyone have either color and if so which color do your prefer for "night" driving?

3) Should I stick with the expensive name brand gauges or go for some of those off-shore gauges that are normally less than 50% of the cost of name brands sold in USA?

Thanks for your time and if you have any preferences to brands I would appreciate the names.

DKP
 
Thank you for your post.

I would like stay with the round, automotive type gauges....ones that will fit in the present holes as I do have quite a big engine instrument panel. I do like the newer technology that you linked me to and at present I am running a Garmin 4212 Chart Plotter and that would work if I integrated the engine instruments into one of their systems but again, it means a very major overhaul on the entire engine/instrument panel and I really don't want to go down that road....yet :eek:.
 
Don:
With non-ECU controlled engines, I don't think you will find cost effective "digital gauges". A microprocessor is digital (and network) friendly...

I've always had excellent results with VDO's product....They now offer "quad gauges" - I haven't prices them but that's an option if you want to 'shrink' the gauge footprint. I usually shy away from the multi-combined items....preferring the simplicity of stand alone units.....

If you have a lot of time on your hands this winter, and you like to tinker, you might want to explore "PIC" controllers (or whatever the modern version is) and roll whatever you want....

As far a color goes, red always has been good for me....some bulbs have needed to be changed (too bright or too dim) and I even added a gauge dimmer for a customer a while back.....the only drawback to 'analog' is its approaching the 'up ramp' of its life cycle curve....diminishing demand = fewer suppliers = reduced availability and higher cost....

I was happy with the "mirror" setup of the gauges....it worked just fine and quickly got familiar with 'normal' readings....the only other suggestion is to see if "increased sweep" gauges are available...I've seen some newer auto applications and they may have some merit....
 
Jeff.....Re Electrics...........I felt the same way you did but my summers are spent cruising in the 1000 Islands area as well as the Trent and Rideau Canal systems and we have a lot of friends who do the same thing and obviously we meet on different islands and docks and chat. Two of my friends are electrical engineers and in the past five years I have garnered more electrical information by discussing electrical issues with these two fellows than all the reading I have ever done !!!

I certainly don't have the expertise these guys have but they have broadened my electrical knowledge far beyond what I previously thought I knew. Meeting professionals on the water and here on the forum is certainly enlightening for every boater.




Mark.........Thanks for your input....Eons ago, in my other life, the lights were reddish at night and I can remember how well they worked...then we went "glass" and no lights required. BLUE looks kinda neat but I think their could be eye-strain after awhile. I looked at the VODs and they look fine and like you I want stand alone gauges...ones that will fit in the dash holes.

I am not familiar with PIC controllers but with Mr GOOOOOgle and my electric friends I will certainly explore that avenue.
 
Don:

Glad you found some benefit to the thoughts....

The PIC controller - I'm sure there are several out by now - are nothing more than micro controllers with various interface circuits built in with a programming interface that's user friendly....one of them, in the right configuration and you can have all your analog sender units' outputs digitized and sent to any network friendly display unit you want them displayed on.....
 
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