EVC Throttle useage

wakeup

wakeup

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Hi, I've just upgraded to a new D4 engine with EVC control from a manual mer engine. The throttle lever is all electronic fly by wire, but it takes ages (a second or so) before the drive starts the prop spinning and the boat shoots forward. Is it ok if i push the lever in unti I hear the beep and immediately kick the lever out so that I just get a short burst of power or am I going to knacker the gear box. If I wait for the drive to engage before I kick it out of gear I get too much forward or reverse propulsion and end up over cooking what I trying to do? I have tried it and it seems to work giving just the right amount of thrust but I am worried I am going to kill my gear box?
 
Hi, I've got the D4 260 and having come from a conventional Mercuiser setup know exactly how you feel!!

You are right to engage then disengage straight away, you do get used to it fairly quickly!! The first few times its quite nerve-racking!

What boat have you got?
 
Jeanneau Leader 805 with the 260 hp D4, very pleased with her so far but a bit concerning when you put her in gear cos she takes off very quickly at tickover whereas even though the merc was instant it didn't take of as quickly and was more predictable.

Oh and no bow thruster so all a bit scary.
 
They can be pretty fierce, best ploy is to take it out of gear before you feel that it has actually engaged, then you jusy get a small boat movement. with a bit of practise you can actually be very precise. Does not help that the firts movements are when the gearbox is cold and it will proberly engage a bit quicker when it is warm!
 
Had the same problem but using the same method as you do now and much less frantic. I don't think the box will come to any harm, all you're doing (or rather the EVC is doing) after all is changing in & out of gear. The new prop developed for use with the D4 is a bit fierce and I think that contributes a bit to the problem!!!!!!

David
 
I have had the same learning curve with my new Cranchi Pelican 32 fitted with 2 x 225 's. Scared the ---- out of me the first time I put here in gear. Agree with previous regarding slipping out of gear immediately you put throttle to first click. it seems to take about 2 secs for the evc system to actually engage the gears. After a while you soon get the hang of it. Only trouble is it beeps at you every time you go into neutral ... and alerts everyone in the Marina that you are on the go!
 
Could not be doing with all that. Many a times hold bow twp inches off harbour wall, whils folk walk on and off. Or fit into gaps with just an inch or two forward and stern. Dont want no thrutching about!
 
There's a delay even with a mechanical shift as the cones fly up or down the shaft having been prodded by the shifter. Trouble is with EVC, it sounds as if you are getting the delay from the actuator plus the mechanical delay...

dv.
 
Volvo man told me (when asked to make it stop doing that) that it's an anti div device which means that even if you slam from full ahed to all astern (as if we would) you can't do any harm (to the Volvos anyway) so we'll have nice undamaged D4's and boxes/outdrives and a bloody great hole in the bow, but at least that's not thier problem.

David
 
I had a go in GC1's boat a couple of weeks ago and he has the 'fly by wire' controls. It did seem a bit fierce at first but by anticipating the time it takes to click into gear and putting it back in neutral I found it ok.

I think the problem lies in the difference in travel when changing from cable controls to wired. Cabled controls need a good 2-3 inches movement before gear is engaged and you can feel the resistance just before it plops in, but with the wired controls it's much less of an effort and less distance before gear is engaged and you don't get the 'feel' for when it's going to go into gear.

I think Clarkson had the same problem when driving a squillion pound Ferarri with fly by wire gearbox. Flick the paddle, put your foot down and had to wait for the engine to sort it self out.

I think it's just something new to get used to. A bit like the first time with cabled controls I suppose.
 
There is a delay and it is longest when gearboxes are cold. The software makes it faster when warmed up

It is perfectly ok to put stick into gear, and then bring it back to neutral nearly immediately, even before the delay has expired. This does not knacker the gearboxes - the software makes sure of that. When you get the knack of this, you have exactly the same ability to exercise fine control as you would with ordinary cables (including giving it just a fraction of a second of forward gear)

I'm sure you'll think it's great after couple of days using it :-)
 
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