trouble with new suzuki display gauges reseting

[catfish55]

hey guys , I am now nearly bald , after pulling my hair out . I purchase a new 175 fly by wire 4 stroke Suzuki
luv the motor , but the gauge , made by lowrance im led to believe keeps resetting to default .
this means you have to go in and change all the units and tank configurations and where the info comes from e.g. the motor etc., very time confusing . I've had 3 gauges the last one was totally foo bar this one works except for above . the dealer suggests a Garmin display , but if this is defaulting wont the other? I have an EVO2NSS12 THERE ALL MADE BY NAVICO , AGAIN IM LED TO BELIEVE .
any one else having trouble ?
there was a write up apparently, in wa , haven't seen it just was told about it from a mate over there, is it the gauge or the motor?
anyone have any info that may help was considering putting an IS35 DISPLAY BUT NOT SURE IF THE SAME WILL HAPPEN AFTER ALL NEW MOTOR THIS SHOULDNT HAPPEN
HELUP
PAT

[Moonlighter]

To determine if it is the gauge or the network, you could, if your NSS is connected to the network, go into the NSS and select the engine data page. If it is all there and correct, then it is a gauge issue. If not, it is a network issue.

If it is (And sounds likely to me) to be a network issue, the are also some known "conflicts" between certain Suzuki interface software versions and the SMIS gauges, and the current model engines. But it can be fixed, so don't despair!!

Can you go into the gauge, open the network menu and find out what version software the Suzuki interface is running, and report back. Some of the recent versions are faulty, so if we can figure out the version you are running, we should be able to help sort it out.

Turn the engine key on, Go into the SMIS menu, find network devices, select Suzuki and then from there you should be able to find the device details, the software version will likely be V2.8.0 or something similar to that. Let me know what it is and we can go from there.

[catfish55]

thanks moonlighter will do that now! and get back to you

[catfish55]

ok , not sure about the data page on the nss evo2 , found what I think is it went to gauges then vessel shows fuel remaining there too! has a side box that say set to global??
went to Suzuki gauge and this is what that says
LMF-400
VER.2.5.0
BOOT 1-1.70
BUILD R2829
AT THE MOMENT EVERY THING IS WORKING YOU MAY TURN IT ON 4 TIMES AND ALL GOOD THEN YOU MAY TURN IT ON 3 TIMES AND EACH TIME IT RESETS , POSSABLY TO DEFAULT ALL IMPERIAL AS I HAVE IT ON metric and nautical miles
you may have to guide me through nss and the engine data you require
pat
ps thanks for your help
pat

[catfish55]

if I turn the Suzuki on without the simrad turned on the Suzuki gauge is the only one that resets,( from time to time , spasmodically)
when I turn the simrad on it shows correct units and measurements so its remembering !
thinking of adding an ep-85r storage device to the simrad . its the Suzuki gauge that resets to imperial etc. as it was out of the box .
mind you it hasn't done it at all today?
what happens though to the readings on the simrad in litters etc. when the Suzuki gauge reverts back to gallons etc..

[Moonlighter]

Ok Pat, will be in touch via PM. Might be best for me to drop over to your place and have a look at it all. Let me know if you would like to do that.

[scottar]

In theory the Simrad readouts should not be changed by the other gauge at all. They are independant displays that display data as sent to them by the Suzuki Interface. I think the Suzuki Interface is where all the data is stored but not 100% sure. EP-85 is not required if that is the case.

[catfish55]

I am to believe that the ep-85r is for the simrad to remember the fuel usage and remaining etc. when its turned off! so if you turn it on it'll come up on the screen as was before turning off!, will only do that now when the Suzuki key is on .
im hoping your right that the simrad reads the fuel usage as its programed in litres and nautical miles etc. and even though , when the Suzuki gauge plays up, and reverts back to gallons etc. and the part that worries me is in the setting it also reverts from taking data from the Suzuki engine to an external device that's not there .
hard to explain and time will tell but maybe the simrad will do and read all this properly , and forget the Suzuki gauge , anyone heard a whisper that Suzuki is bringing out a colour gauge end of this year. maybe not explaining this that good , hope you understand
pat
thanks scooter and moonshine!

[scottar]

That is normal as when you shut down the engine I think the interface shuts off. It should pick straight up where it left off when you start the engine again with fuel remaining etc. That series of Suzuki gauge is definately a Lowrance and is the same series as used by BRP for the Etecs with some software changes. There have been reliability issues documented by some users but others have been fine. They have no storage for fuel in the gauge at all. The storage is the Suzuki interface. The EP-85 may give you fuel data when the engine is shut off but EP-85's have not been without issue - do your research prior to purchase.

[Moonlighter]

The EP 85 is a network storage device - and it MUST be attached to the NMeA2000 backbone to work. There is no other way it can work.

Adding it it to a Suzuki NMeA2000 network is totally fruitless, because the Suzuki interface cable already has a storage device built in that stores the same data. If you look closely at a Suzuki interface cable, you will see a similarly shaped block to the EP85 halfway along the interface cable - that is the storage device.

So unless you are into throwing $100 bills away, don't buy an EP85 to attach to a Suzuki network!!

The reason people (including some who work for Navico who should know better) get confused about this is because other engine interface cables (eg Evinrude, Yamaha) do not have storage devices built in, so they often need to add an EP85 to their networks.

The NMEA2K network is powered to "on" on most boats (including Catfish's boat) when the engine key is turned on. The engine interface is powered by its connection to the engine, so effectively, both the network and the Suzuki interface come on when the key is turned on.

The Suzuki SMIS gauge is connected to the network, and also, gets powered by the network (ie it doesn't have a separate power connection to the boats 12V system).

So, as soon as the engine key is turned on, the network gets power, the interface gets power, and so does the SMIS gauge, so it turns on. (in a minute I am going to break into that song - hip bone connected to the thigh bone, thigh bone connected to the ...... You know the one!)

And yes, the SMIS is a rebadged Lowrance LMF 400, but with slightly customised software for the Suzuki. Evinrude does the same thing with their Command Link version. I think Honda might even have a version too!

After talking to Catfish today, we have a bit of a plan to do some more diagnosing and think that there is a possibility that there might be a problem with the SMIS gauge, probably software related. If the tests go as we think they might, next step might be to update the gauge to a recently released new software version, and then re-test.

But it could also be simply a bad batch of SMIS gauges, hopefully our tests will give us some more indications of that.

[catfish55]

HEY ALL , well went for a trip yesterday started at mbtbc at manly went over to harries then toward curtain and returned . note that the gauge hadn't played up for days prior but out on the water it didn't let me down , yep reset again .
left it like that reading gallons etc. , basically as out of the box all imperial
but the simrad kept reading in litres and kept record of what I think is plausibly correct , so has the be the gauge , 2nd replacement .
now to try ML'S attack
keep you all posted and thanks for the response
pat

[catfish55]

PS 2 SPOTED MACKS , 2 GRASSY SL, AND MY VERY 1ST MACK TUNA . nerds fish too hehehe
of whom I am very thankful. attempted humour