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Post by rodgerg on Sept 14, 2012 18:20:39 GMT
I have a Volvo engine and engine control board and am sure that when I bought Ostara two springs ago the digital display was showing the engine hours. I have just noticed today that the display is blank. I have tried a search on the Forum and can find no mention of this having been mentioned before. Anyone any idea where I should start looking as I assume its a loose wire! Thanks Rodger
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Post by tedp on Sept 15, 2012 9:16:45 GMT
As we probably have similar boats and engines, I wonder about the display, as I never saw a display on the control panel of my boat. I wonder if we have the same type of control panel, with a row of indication lights faintly illuminated red, just below the RPM meter. I do have a very dicey alarm beeper though, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I have heard of more trouble with Volvo Penta control panels. But since the engine is OK, I haven't investigated any more except for checking the wires and these were OK.
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Post by j on Sept 15, 2012 13:19:56 GMT
You're problem might be completely different to our hour meter problem (36i - Yanmar 3YM30) - but you may as well have a read of this; The LCD module is connected to the main circuit board via a flat ribbon cable. The problem is poor contact between the pads of the ribbon cable and the board receptacle. Lever up each end of the receptacle to release pressure on the cable and pull it out. Lightly clean the pads of the end of the ribbon cable with contact cleaner. You may also need to get a little contact cleaner inside the receptacle. Fully dry each with heatgun/hairdryer before reconnecting. Be careful when doing that as you don't want to overheat the ribbon cable. I always use Caig cleaning products. This has worked every time on several different gauges for me. From: www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f14/hour-meters-have-stopped-working-on-both-4jh4ae-yanmar-displays-76479-2.html
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Post by sailbleu on Sept 16, 2012 7:38:11 GMT
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Post by tedp on Sept 16, 2012 19:21:07 GMT
Thanks, Sailbleu. An hour meter has never been visible on the panel of our boat, and the alarm beeper works intermittently, it varies with wet or dry weather. Same symptoms as described for the hour meter on the other post. Welcome to the world of electronic engine control!
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Post by Full Circle on Sept 20, 2012 6:32:06 GMT
I tried the various fixes on the net, but in the end I have fitted an RS components 12v mechanical hour meter, hooked up to the ignition circuit. I left it on for 3 weeks over the closed season to match the known engine hours on the boat, and then installed it next to the engine control panel. 2 seasons, and it is still working.
Cost of replacement instrument: £320 Cost of replacement RS Hour meter: £8
Hmmm.
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Post by lateron on Sept 29, 2012 19:35:48 GMT
I haven't got an engine hours meter [Yanmar 2GM] but have heard of 'vibration' hour meters that do not need wiring just fixing to the engine somehow and they then pick up the vibrations and count the running hours of the engine. Anyone any experience of these? Ron
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Post by rhb on Sept 30, 2012 4:24:12 GMT
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Post by sailbleu on Sept 30, 2012 4:34:14 GMT
very fancy , but I guess they nearly come at a price simelar to the one of a new VP meter wouldn't you think ? But why make a big fuzz about a cheap wired meter , it can be installed in the engine compartiment and when the alternator is running you have all the power you need to run it. My hourmeter has been blank since the start , but sometimes there is a faint indication of the hours though . Not all of the time , it's random , but occasionally I can read the number. Those rare moments of cooperation help me to program the maintenance like oil , filters and so on. Regards
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Post by lateron on Sept 30, 2012 8:10:24 GMT
Actually having visited the website suggested the vibration meters cost 49 dollars = about £34. I may investigate further as it seems a simple answer to having no meter. Ron
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Post by lateron on Nov 11, 2012 12:20:26 GMT
Further to the engine hours meter thread . I bought a vibration type hours meter for 13$ from an ebay source.
I've stuck it to a bulkhead in the engine compartment where I can see it and it works !! Although a little on the small side it manages to distinguish between engine vibration and the bouncing around of the boat when sailing at 6 /7 kts. Just an alternative to expensive electrical ones. I'll be monitoring it. Ron
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Post by sailbleu on Nov 11, 2012 15:20:33 GMT
Further to the engine hours meter thread . I bought a vibration type hours meter for 13$ from an ebay source. I've stuck it to a bulkhead in the engine compartment where I can see it and it works !! Although a little on the small side it manages to distinguish between engine vibration and the bouncing around of the boat when sailing at 6 /7 kts. Just an alternative to expensive electrical ones. I'll be monitoring it. Ron No link Ron ? Regards
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Post by lateron on Nov 11, 2012 19:17:08 GMT
Sailbleu If you mean is there an electrical link the answer is no, it needs no wiring cos it has an internal [quartz watch type] battery. Ron
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Post by sailbleu on Nov 11, 2012 20:43:38 GMT
No Ron , I mean an E-link . Sellers website.
Regards
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Post by lateron on Nov 12, 2012 8:28:08 GMT
Yeah I had a senior moment there and realised what you meant after I turned the PC off. However if you look at the Enmco link in rhb's comments on this thread, the meter I got is almost the same as that otherwise log into ebay and search engine hours vibration meter. If I get chance I'll take a piccie this week when I'm on boat for a last sail before it is lifted out Cheers Ron
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pakoenig
New Member
2005 SO 40.3 - 2 cabin
Posts: 6
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Post by pakoenig on Jan 4, 2015 0:58:22 GMT
I removed the Yanmar/VDO tach and disassembled the tach to look for a loose connection or corrosion. I removed the flat ribbon cable that runs to the LCD and I noticed corrosion on the contacts at the end of the ribbon cable that connects to the circuit board. Cleaning the corrosion resulted in the contacts getting voids. So I took a big chance and cut off the bottom part of the flexible strip that is attached to a white mounting strip to get to a virgin part of the flexible strip. It worked! The LCD display is working and as reported elsewhere, the hours still accumulate and are now showing in the LCD.
What I did 1) I cut off lower 1/2 of the white mounting strip to eliminate the bad contact area 2) I peeled back the clear plastic insulating top strip enough or expose a new area on the flexible strip. I cut that small plastic strip off. I estimate is was about 1/32 of an inch. 3) I reassembled the tach and installed it back in the Yanmar B Panel and it worked!
I was so focused on getting it working again that I didn't take any pictures of the process. Now that it works, I go back to the boat (50 miles away) and take pictures as well as cleanup the installation. I'm going to put some dielectric grease on the ribbon connector to hopefully prevent further corrosion on the ribbon contacts.
Long term, I am installing a Noland RS11 Engine gateway to provide engine data to my Raymarine e95. The Noland will also track engine hours based on time that the RPM is greater than 100.
ShareThis
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Post by sailbleu on Jan 4, 2015 5:34:14 GMT
I removed the Yanmar/VDO tach and disassembled the tach to look for a loose connection or corrosion. I removed the flat ribbon cable that runs to the LCD and I noticed corrosion on the contacts at the end of the ribbon cable that connects to the circuit board. Cleaning the corrosion resulted in the contacts getting voids. So I took a big chance and cut off the bottom part of the flexible strip that is attached to a white mounting strip to get to a virgin part of the flexible strip. It worked! The LCD display is working and as reported elsewhere, the hours still accumulate and are now showing in the LCD. What I did 1) I cut off lower 1/2 of the white mounting strip to eliminate the bad contact area 2) I peeled back the clear plastic insulating top strip enough or expose a new area on the flexible strip. I cut that small plastic strip off. I estimate is was about 1/32 of an inch. 3) I reassembled the tach and installed it back in the Yanmar B Panel and it worked! I was so focused on getting it working again that I didn't take any pictures of the process. Now that it works, I go back to the boat (50 miles away) and take pictures as well as cleanup the installation. I'm going to put some dielectric grease on the ribbon connector to hopefully prevent further corrosion on the ribbon contacts. Long term, I am installing a Noland RS11 Engine gateway to provide engine data to my Raymarine e95. The Noland will also track engine hours based on time that the RPM is greater than 100. ShareThis Pakoenig , good for you that it worked. But the VP hour meter is a different story all together. Here the displays break down , and quite rapidly I must say. There are stories on several boards to be found on the net of people repairing it by replacing the display , apparently the total hours are kept up to date in the processor/chip so the new display picks up the actual hours. Replacing the display in our case means taking the controlpanel (which is sikaflexed in) out , disconnecting all the wiring and there by running the risk of something breaking off. I decided to accept the malfunction and do the engine maintenance based on guesstimating. However , a cheap plug and play hour meter is being used by some . Now you have brought up the matter again I might look in on such a gadget. Regards
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pio
Full Member
Posts: 39
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Post by pio on Jan 4, 2015 9:35:37 GMT
I've checked my hours meter of my SO 32 as it didn't work anymore after few years. I've built out the whole meter, opened it and dried the display. After that it worked well, so I've sealed in the display with epoxy. On my desk at home hte display worked fine (I've checked it with 12 Volt feeder). When I reinstalled the meter on board it didn't work at all!!!!!
Then I found that the display has it's own 12 Volt feeding through the Volvo Penta "Black Box" and this one didn't work: no 12 volt on it. Since I don't have a scheme of the Black Box I cannot find the reason of having no 12 volt. But I assume that I can find another wire giving 12 volt (only when the engine is running). But I didn't have time yet to find out.
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Post by sailbleu on Jan 7, 2015 4:37:06 GMT
As I stated in my previous post Pio , you woke me up and I decided to look for an other hour meter. I could live with this one: www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6433378514.html?orderId=65288699377535Shipment is on its way , as usual it will take a few weeks to a month before it arrives. Guess I'll install it in the engine compartment somewhere. Regards
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pio
Full Member
Posts: 39
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Post by pio on Jan 14, 2015 12:51:03 GMT
My point was for everyone who intends to replace the hour counter, first to check if 12 volts feeding will reach the disply. I dwasn't aware that this could fail as well and I did a lot of work on the hour counter, without success.
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Post by rene460 on Jan 17, 2015 11:37:23 GMT
The engine hour meter on my SO30i (Yanmar 3ym20) is also a little orange lit area below the centre of the tachometer, and worked well apart from being a bit hard to read until about six months ago. It was still working when this issue was raised about four years ago. A strange weakness for engine manufacturers who expect us to service regularly, after all they do know the engines are installed in boats, and not all in air conditioned enclosures! I have built a simple Picaxe project to count total hours and includes a "trip meter" that I can set it to zero when I fill the tank as I have found the number of hours to fill is fairly constant unless I do a longer than normal trip. Bench tested for 100 hours, it seems to have adequate accuracy for the purpose. Now for a case and find the wire with 12V when the engine is running. But the meter started reading again this week, so installation might be delayed a bit. At least I can update my estimated starting hours!
But well done pekoenig, You may have found a neater solution, at least for Yanmar installations. Did you have much difficulty removing the instrument panel, or was it a very delicate operation?
rene460
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abwiseman
New Member
Posts: 6
Jeanneau Model: SO42DS
Yacht Name: Wayfarer
Country: Scotland
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Post by abwiseman on Oct 25, 2015 9:19:41 GMT
The hour meter on the tachometer for my Yanmar 4JH4E stopped working too. Tried fiddling about with the wiring to no effect. I then found this fix on another forum and downloaded the pdf file which gives detailed instructions about the repair. forums.sailboatowners.com/index.php?threads/engine-hour-lcd-meter-repair.148593/I haven't done it myself yet but it's on my to do list while my boat is ashore for the winter - hope it works, I'll let you know.
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Post by MalcolmP on Oct 26, 2015 7:56:14 GMT
The hour meter on the tachometer for my Yanmar 4JH4E stopped working too. Tried fiddling about with the wiring to no effect. I then found this fix on another forum and downloaded the pdf file which gives detailed instructions about the repair. forums.sailboatowners.com/index.php?threads/engine-hour-lcd-meter-repair.148593/I haven't done it myself yet but it's on my to do list while my boat is ashore for the winter - hope it works, I'll let you know. I have the same issue, display is intermittent - unfortunately if you look at the page: forums.sailboatowners.com/index.php?threads/engine-hour-lcd-meter-repair.148593/page-2 it appears that the "fix" only lasted a short while - the view seems to be the Yanmar/VDO units are well known to be rubbish. Bizarre that Jeanneau (and Groupe Beneteau) continue to fit this garbage year after year - guess so long at is lasts the 12 month warranty they are in the clear
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Post by optimystic on Oct 27, 2015 0:43:39 GMT
Try turning on your nav lights. I can see the read out at night but not in daylight.
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doxie
Junior Member
2010 SO36i. Wings9. Home Port Sydney Australia.
Posts: 19
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Post by doxie on Nov 3, 2015 2:46:51 GMT
hello Sailblue, I have ordered on eof those wireless vibration hour meter from eBay and I'll stick it on this weekend. Where did you stick yours? Is it actually on the engine or on the bulkhead above the engine ?
Thanks..
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