Volvo D4 Trip Computer

[Topview]

I have recently acquired a three year old Beneteau Swift Trawler with twin Volvo D4s. I asked about fuel usage information and quickly wished I hadn’t! It appears that Volvo Penta offer “options” for their Electronic Vessel Control. The one I need is the Trip Computer. It is a software upgrade at a cost of £311+vat per engine and 4hours labour to install and set up = £1,000!!! Does anyone know of a more affordable solution?

 

[spannerman]

It certainly doesn't take 4 hours to install, I can upgrade all 3 modules in less than an hour. Its just a software download as the info is already in the engine managment system. Might have check the calibration of the tank senders but easily done with an external plug in sender.

 

[volvopaul]

I have recently acquired a three year old Beneteau Swift Trawler with twin Volvo D4s. I asked about fuel usage information and quickly wished I hadn’t! It appears that Volvo Penta offer “options” for their Electronic Vessel Control. The one I need is the Trip Computer. It is a software upgrade at a cost of £311+vat per engine and 4hours labour to install and set up = £1,000!!! Does anyone know of a more affordable solution?

Some dealers sure do try it on, how about you tell us who wants thus kind of £££ to do a simple task.

 

[kennyh]

I've thought about having the trip computer s/w or other 3rd party solution installed for my Volvo Penta D4. The purpose of gathering any such data is to allow me to improve consumption performance by using a more efficient throttle/trim and hence save money.

But in no way will I ever be able to make back £500-£1000 of an investment to even break even (within a reasonable time).

So, it's cheaper / more cost effective to do nothing.

Sad that manufacturers don't seem to get that having crazy pricing for s/w such as this is entirely prohibitive to consumer use (And I work for company and understand that ROI is important).

 

[[2068]]

I don't mind paying something for software, as someone has to write and maintain it.
But the installation process should be easier/cheaper.

 

[Anders_P42]

If you want to do it on the cheap install the software on one engine and multiply by two

I have it on my single D6-370, it's a useful tool for knowing how dirty bottom is. Clean my 10.2m boat uses 50lph, dirty bum it uses 60lph.

I calculated mpg at various rpm and found best mpg between 2800-3000rpm @ 1.7mpg. So it costs nothing more to cruise at 20k instead of 17k.

 

[[2068]]

If you want to do it on the cheap install the software on one engine and multiply by two .

If I only install it on one side, there will be more code on that side, which will cause a list
I could use trim tabs to compensate, but it sounds like a Heath Robinson solution.

 

[Anders_P42]

If I only install it on one side, there will be more code on that side, which will cause a list
I could use trim tabs to compensate, but it sounds like a Heath Robinson solution.

It wouldn't surprise me if you're paying Volvo to change a 0 (off) to a 1 (on) for display on EVC display as the ECU already knows how much fuel being injected. So it could be same code weight, no ballast required

I don't have real-time mpg as didn't bother with other sensors to make it work. lph is good enough.

 

[kennyh]

I don't mind paying something for software, as someone has to write and maintain it.
But the installation process should be easier/cheaper.

I don't disagree (I'm in IT myself), what I mean is that it should be good value. At £500 per engine, doesn't sound like good value.

 

[aquatom]

If the trip computer software hasn't been fitted then it's very unlikely that the engines have interfaced with the Nav gear to provide the EVC with speed information to enable it to calculate L/nm which is far more useful than L/hr. The Volvo NMEA gateway isn't cheap either.

 

[David2452]

I did mine quite cheaply, just bought the J1939 to N2K interface and plugged it in to the HCU , it takes info from the HCU and should work for both engines, I interfaced first to a C120 classic which was a bit poor as the MFD itself was lacking in the capability to display all but the basics. When I further interfaced a later Garmin I got all the information I could ever want including MPG which the Garmin computes using the GPS. I did not need to upgrade the software though every Volvo pro I have spoken to or has posted on other threads where I have mentioned it says that should not have happened. Maybe I was just uber lucky.

 

[papparazzi]

It certainly doesn't take 4 hours to install, I can upgrade all 3 modules in less than an hour. Its just a software download as the info is already in the engine managment system. Might have check the calibration of the tank senders but easily done with an external plug in sender.

Hi Spannerman - could you please share what exactly happens during the trip computer feature installation? I got quoted over 2000 USD to install this on 2 x D4s and found it just outright a joke. Thinking to buy myself a VOCOM2 device and get a copy of VODIA 5.2 to perform the upgrade myself. Question is, would the upgrade software be part of Vodia or is the dealer required to buy it for each customer and get's a custom download for each engine with some hardcoded logic matching the serial numbers ?
Whats the upgrade like - is this overwriting settings in ECU / HCU / PCU ?

I have already retrofitted a non OEM NMEA2000 gateway (yacht devices) to the engines which connects via HCU. As my engines don't have the trip computer feature I don't get the l/hr consumption on the chart plotter (but all the other data). I was however told that interfacing the engine via diagnostic port with the NMEA2000 gateway (requires a custom cable) would allow me to get the data even without trip computer as all data is already available as you mentioned earlier but suppressed (filtered out) in the downstream ECUs (likely PCU to HCU) .

 

[Andyroonot]

Hi Spannerman - could you please share what exactly happens during the trip computer feature installation? I got quoted over 2000 USD to install this on 2 x D4s and found it just outright a joke. Thinking to buy myself a VOCOM2 device and get a copy of VODIA 5.2 to perform the upgrade myself. Question is, would the upgrade software be part of Vodia or is the dealer required to buy it for each customer and get's a custom download for each engine with some hardcoded logic matching the serial numbers ?
Whats the upgrade like - is this overwriting settings in ECU / HCU / PCU ?

I have already retrofitted a non OEM NMEA2000 gateway (yacht devices) to the engines which connects via HCU. As my engines don't have the trip computer feature I don't get the l/hr consumption on the chart plotter (but all the other data). I was however told that interfacing the engine via diagnostic port with the NMEA2000 gateway (requires a custom cable) would allow me to get the data even without trip computer as all data is already available as you mentioned earlier but suppressed (filtered out) in the downstream ECUs (likely PCU to HCU) .

Software upgrades are activated within the Dealer Network website (Volvo Penta Partner Network or VPPN) and so if you don’t have a user ID & login then you won’t be able to activate the software upgrades
Vodia itself may work with the version you purchase it with but again, as everything is done online it therefore requires a valid ID & password in order to update the tool and download even routine software updates
Whoever is selling it may have worked out how to get around things, but certainly every few weeks we get prompted to load the latest version of software for the Vodia itself, and on occasions, bugs in the Vodia software result in us being forced to update it before it can be used again
$2000 sounds a bit steep for the Trip Computer software although if it involved significant travel costs then it may be accurate?
In the UK, current RRP is £535 inc tax per engine for the software, so $2000 may not be too far off depending on how much they are suggesting for labour & travel?

 

[Andyroonot]

PS-the Vocom box and associated cables aren’t exactly cheap so with the potentially limited lifespan of buying a ‘Vodia’ software package, IMHO you’d be better steering clear

 

[papparazzi]

Software upgrades are activated within the Dealer Network website (Volvo Penta Partner Network or VPPN) and so if you don’t have a user ID & login then you won’t be able to activate the software upgrades
Vodia itself may work with the version you purchase it with but again, as everything is done online it therefore requires a valid ID & password in order to update the tool and download even routine software updates
Whoever is selling it may have worked out how to get around things, but certainly every few weeks we get prompted to load the latest version of software for the Vodia itself, and on occasions, bugs in the Vodia software result in us being forced to update it before it can be used again
$2000 sounds a bit steep for the Trip Computer software although if it involved significant travel costs then it may be accurate?
In the UK, current RRP is £535 inc tax per engine for the software, so $2000 may not be too far off depending on how much they are suggesting for labour & travel?

Thanks. I now understand the account of the dealer is required to activate and download the software upgrade. Would the dealer need to pay Penta for this or is this essentially one business model for dealers to make a profit? Labor and travel is cheap, the boat is located in Singapore. Problem seems to be that the dealers all ask for similar high prices for a software upgrade.

 

[Andyroonot]

The retail price is set by Volvo, so from what you are saying they seem to ignore that & charge whatever they want???
In the UK we would activate the software and load it to the engines on one day & receive the cost price invoice within 1 to 2 working days from then. So yes, there would be a cost incurred on the Dealer.

I would imagine the cost price to a Dealer would be similar around the world although I don’t know that for certain, but if the other costs are negligible then $2000 does sound high!

 

[ChromeDome]

I did mine quite cheaply, just bought the J1939 to N2K interface and plugged it in to the HCU , it takes info from the HCU and should work for both engines, I interfaced first to a C120 classic which was a bit poor as the MFD itself was lacking in the capability to display all but the basics. When I further interfaced a later Garmin I got all the information I could ever want including MPG which the Garmin computes using the GPS. I did not need to upgrade the software though every Volvo pro I have spoken to or has posted on other threads where I have mentioned it says that should not have happened. Maybe I was just uber lucky.

Very interesting difference between what you have experienced, personally and on your own boat, and what Volvo's professional staff preach.

Am I alone in feeling that your perceived reality is true, at least for your engine model and version of electronics?

 

[papparazzi]

The retail price is set by Volvo, so from what you are saying they seem to ignore that & charge whatever they want???
In the UK we would activate the software and load it to the engines on one day & receive the cost price invoice within 1 to 2 working days from then. So yes, there would be a cost incurred on the Dealer.

I would imagine the cost price to a Dealer would be similar around the world although I don’t know that for certain, but if the other costs are negligible then $2000 does sound high!

Fantastic, thanks a lot. If the retailprice is set by Volvo, I now have a basis for a complaint to Volvo as this is not only one dealer but 2 or 3 authorized dealers here in Singapore. In-fact, the dealers are so massively overpriced that I try to avoid them as much as possible and instead import my parts from Europe.

 

[Andyroonot]

Fantastic, thanks a lot. If the retailprice is set by Volvo, I now have a basis for a complaint to Volvo as this is not only one dealer but 2 or 3 authorized dealers here in Singapore. In-fact, the dealers are so massively overpriced that I try to avoid them as much as possible and instead import my parts from Europe.

Have you been given a formal quote which includes the p/n and price they are suggesting they are going to sell it for?

 

[SC35]

Very interesting difference between what you have experienced, personally and on your own boat, and what Volvo's professional staff preach.

Am I alone in feeling that your perceived reality is true, at least for your engine model and version of electronics?

I could be wrong, but this sounds like something a bit different - it's directing the data to an MFD.
The Volvo solution enables you to see it on the gauges and on an MFD.