Electronic throttle control

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Yorfedog

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I have Fairline 36

I have cable control to engines/throttle/gears

I am thinking of putting electronic controls anybody any experience with good or bad ?????????
 
My suggestion - Keep it simple and keep it as it is.

EDC/EVC control systems will be expensive to retrofit, and offer no real advantage that outweighs the reliability/simplicity of your present cable control system.
 
Is it worth it..

I'm with poltergeist... I do love the ease of electronic controls and being able to control them with fingertips but, unless your cables are really stiff, you don't gain much from them and I have had a couple of failures with them as well which I've never had on a cable controlled boat. I know cables can potentially snap or jam but I do drive a lot of different boats and have only ever had failures with electronic controls... quite often related to poor batteries. So overall taking into account the cost of retro fit I don't think I'd bother in your position... cheers Iain
 
Never heard of ssues of cable controls apart from the very rare cable break. But numerous issues with electronic controls, with some expensive repairs following.

Mechanical control is my favourite, and I know of one forumite who is reverting to cables after having gone electronic.
 
To give some balance, we have EVC on our boat (our first boat - Bavaria 32 sport) and I really like them and find them very easy to use.

(while touching wood) we have never had a hint of a problem and have found them very reliable.

Not sure on the retro fit cost + compatability with all engines but I guess you have already checked this out.

Simon
 
Cables give trouble over years, especially on some models that have long and twisty turns to get to the engines and gearboxes, on each curve the cable cuts into the liner over years useage and makes the shift stiff, which in turn snaps the ends off.

You dont know its broken untill you need to enage neutral, this happend to be in Poole harbour quay, we then hit another boat.

The other issue with volvo cables is the plastic anchor points break, this year in Yarmouth stuck in reverse taking the light clear off the pontoon, much to my horror.

Then they get stiff and cause stress to the skipper making boating not as enjoyable as it should be, I have 2 friends who have gone the EC route from cables and never to date had a problem.

Problems occur in bad designed installations and thats down to usually the builder either mounting the contol servo box so that the cables take too many turns and in too hot a place like the engine room, if the jobs done right first time they rarely give trouble.
 
I've just gone from cables to electronic. Have to admit I did not like them at first but they are growing on me now. It is easy to knock them in to gear by mistake and you dont get that mechanical clunk when they get to neutral but you know for sure when they are in tick over and they are very smooth when you just want to rev up a bit.
 
I think the "mechanics" is as follows:
Potentiometer in throttles send electronic signal to actuator in engine bay,which drives mechanical cable into the leg. Problems are- potentiometer failure,actuator failure (expensive- and not that unusual due to often poor location in engine bay), cable routing,seizure.
Of course you do get more fancy engine diagnostics, but i wonder how much of that you can get, engine depending?
 
When I ordered my boat (Sealine S37 in 2002) I had the choice KAD43's (mechanical) or for only £8k more a pair of KAD44's (electronic) I went for the non electronic 43's and have only had one problem .....with the only bit of electronics.....the supercharger speed sensor control.....keep it mechanical!!
 
Electronics

Would be interesting to see how many electronic items actually fail,I mean almost all aircraft use fly by wire controls and they are reliable!!Boat electronic controls must be fairly robust as the big ships use them .There is probably a good warranty on these items ?
 
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