Engine control panels

mogmog2

mogmog2

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 Feb 2011
Messages
522
Location
Sussex
Visit site
These cost a lot of money, presumably at least in part because they are time-consuming to make. For the less sophisticated engine, what differentiates one brand from another - eg Volvo, Beta, Yanmar? I'm looking at a small engine that hasn't got a panel.

AFAICT, You need to know the:
What info you need/want to display
Wiring/ sensor connections
Rev range for the tacho. (Is the tacho pulse usually once per revolution?)
The type of connector plugs for the existing wiring loom/harness

I want revs, hours & oil pressure/water temperature lights as a minimum. If I made my own, I could add guages for the latter. In theory, that is very useful information (over just a critical warning), but in practice, on a yacht where they're not that easy to see, is it worth it?

Anyone made their own or adapted one to their purposes.
Many thanks
 
Tacho is often driven from the alternator.
You could fit a digital one very cheaply.
Years ago I added a temperature gauge and oil pressure gauge to a Yanmar, I got the parts from a motorsport company.
If you're adding gauges like that, they don't really need to be in a fancy panel.
Likewise a voltmeter is very useful, but need not be with the engine warning lights.

An exhaust temp warning might be worth considering.

Some yachts have the panel indoors, some outdoors. Some of the extra gauges might not survive outdoors and are not really needed there. I had one boat where the panel with start,stop etc was in a cockpit locker. Warning buzzer for oil and temp is fairly useful in this case....
 
When fitting gauges the one vital point to remember is that you buy the gauge and sensor to match each other otherwise they won't work. So you first need to know the thread size for the senders to fit into the engine. Also, your alternator will have a "W" connector which supplies the signal to the rev counter. Finally, the hour counter can be connected to the ignition switch so that it runs whenever the ignition is turned on. This is very slightly less accurate as it also counts the time between starting and the engine actually running.
 
lw395, I'm all for audible warnings after our previous travails.
On the Centaur, the standard panel is about calf height & you have squat to read the tacho and there's not many other useful places it could go.
I'm just wondering that, if you can't sweep the gauges at a glance every so often, do they have much value? If you have to go inside to look, that's not going to happen often although they would have diagnostic value I suppose.
 
I Made my own from ply. An on/off switch for the "ignition" and a push button for the starter, 3 warning lights - charge, temperature & oil pressure, a couple of buzzers (charge has its own and oil pressure & water temp share one) and the stop/cold start cable set in and at an angle so it's not going to snag a passing foot. All the connections are in the locker, and covered, and it's all designed to be self-draining. All painted white and set into the side of the cockpit seat near the rudder so I can reach it from the helm. Security is supplied by a 0-1-2-both below, in the locked saloon.

Most panels have clever electronics, AFAICT, to allow one buzzer to be used, but buzzers are cheap, so why bother?
 
I made one by replicating the circuit diagram from the original manual. Luckily my Vetus had a good diagram. Changing from incandescent warning lamps to LEDs required a slight change in order to provide the excitation current for the alternator but easily done with a resistor. What engine are you considering? My panel was laser cut from ply by a friend but many ways to do it.

Yoda
 
Stemar said:
I Made my own from ply. An on/off switch for the "ignition" and a push button for the starter, 3 warning lights - charge, temperature & oil pressure, a couple of buzzers (charge has its own and oil pressure & water temp share one) and the stop/cold start cable set in and at an angle so it's not going to snag a passing foot. All the connections are in the locker, and covered, and it's all designed to be self-draining. All painted white and set into the side of the cockpit seat near the rudder so I can reach it from the helm. Security is supplied by a 0-1-2-both below, in the locked saloon.

Most panels have clever electronics, AFAICT, to allow one buzzer to be used, but buzzers are cheap, so why bother?
Click to expand...

The ''clever electronics' is often half a crown's worth of diodes, tops, but I'd charge more than the price of a buzzer to explain how it works...... :-)
Get sophisticated and have a different sound for oil pressure and overheating!
 
mogmog2 said:
These cost a lot of money...Yanmar...Anyone...adapted one to their purposes
Click to expand...

Another master of the understatement. Our Yanmar 3GM30F one fell apart (UV deterioration?) a couple of years ago, fortunately we were up and running again within a few hours as I had a spare one, having recently bought a complete/running engine, including it's control panel for US$500; I discovered soon after that this panel alone sold for more than I'd paid for the whole engine!

We're back to having a 'spare' as I found a piece of suitably sized perspex in a boatyard skip, cut/drilled the necessary holes in that and re-installed all the Yanmar clocks/lights/switches. I did the whole job in about three hours, just using amateur/hand tools in the boat's cockpit, so they can't be that 'time consuming' for Yanmar's supplier to put together.
 
I prefer understatement to hyperbole. Sadly, it's a dying art.

I have my original Volvo Penta panel and presume I presumably could use that if I was staying with the basics. (Tacho & misc warning lights).

Just need to decide whether there's any point in going with the extra gauges on a shiny new panel.

Another thing to resolve is the Yanmar connectors. It would be nice to be able to match them from my new panel pigtails, rather than cut them off the engine loom. Anyone know any resources on engine/automotive/marine multi-pin connectors?
 
Just fitting a used 1GM10 to replace the erratic 1GM. The panel loom came with a bunch of lewcar spade connectors, rather than the dedicateded connector block. Bit of fun for next tuesday ...
 
I believe most plugs are available if one can identify them to track them down. If not available, I suppose an alternative would be to use something like Superseal connectors - interestingly 12v Planet have them nearly half the price of a random automotive supplier I found - so not all marine suppliers shaft us.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top