Kit to restore speedometer - Faria gateway with pitot tubes plugged - 2003 - 2006

[TechBeer]

The link below describes installation of a printed circuit board that drives the Faria gateway speedometer signal. So if you have a gateway that has pitot tubes either plugged or you want to plug them (a really good idea) this is for you. Inputs can be: Paddlewheel if you have that fitted, Garmin GPS signal if you have upgraded to the StarGazer Perfect Pass, or a stand along GPS puck that I will supply. This is really intended as a DIY kit but I might consider modifying a few gateways or maybe getting some service centers to modify them for me.

Feel free to PM me for more details. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYaORefJk7I

[core-rider]

I assume this is a kit you will make available in the future. I have a 2003 SANTE with the Gateway mounted to the transom, so I’ll need to longer cable, and using the paddle wheel. Do you have cost for the hits yet?

Nice video showing the process BTW!

[TechBeer]

Hi Jason, I have not completely established pricing but essentially cost of parts plus labor. I'm not really looking to make any money. The most expensive component is the shielded cable that I use. So there will be a difference between gateways in the transom vs. gateways under the dash. But I'm not all that familiar with where pitot tube based gateways were mounted during these years. So far, I have not come up with a pitot tube based gateway mounted under the dash so they might all be in the transom. Based on my limited experience this requires a ~25ft cable that needs to be run either under the floor or under the gunnel to the Perfect Pass box. sgregg has done it and can offer some advice.

PM me if you are interested and we can discuss. You are in Huntsville, is your boat still in the water or have you winterized? I am hoping to get real time feedback from folks that do the installation.

[core-rider]

I don't keep it in the water, but in my home garage. I don't winterize as it doesn't get cold enough, long enough to bother. Saying that I could potentially do some testing for you after installing the kit. I am interested in the kit, as while not a huge issue it does irritate my OCD to not have a functioning gauge on the dash after unplugging the pilot tubes a few years ago.

The soldering worries me a bit as I don't have a great deal of practice at it, but with patience and the right tools I believe I'd be fine.

My Gateway is mounted on the transom right behind the muffler in the center. I'd think a 25' cable would be more than enough to reach the dash if routed under the gunnel.

[sgregg]

core-rider, I think my setup is similar to yours (Gateway on the transom above rudder). Perfect Pass sent me approximately 23’ of cable which was enough to make the run from the PP Master Module (mounted on the starboard side of the storage area forward of the observer seat) and under the starboard side gunnel. It was pretty simple to make that run and zip tie in place. I just took a string to pre-measure what I needed for length before ordering the cable.

[SilentSeven]

Wow. Super cool! TechBeer you deserve some sort of MVP award for single-handedly devising solutions to keep the Faria systems in these boats alive. First the gauge repair and now this. Thank you sir!

I'm very much a candidate to put this in my boat and would have to choose between the paddlewheel or PP GPS solution. I think I'm leaning towards the paddlewheel as I like the redundancy of having two differing inputs. I also occasionally run on rivers and so the waterspeed / ground speed delta has appeal as well. Short of having to maintain the paddlewheel, is there any other downside to choosing the paddlewheel method?

Also - am I correct that the speedo correction mechanism works regardless of GPS or paddlewheel inputs? I envision that I could use the PP Stargazer shown speed to calibrate the speedo gauge (obviously need to do this on a lake vs a river). Thoughts?

[sgregg]

Am I correct that the speedo correction mechanism works regardless of GPS or paddlewheel inputs? I envision that I could use the PP Stargazer shown speed to calibrate the speedo gauge…

This is exactly what i did. TechBeer can best explain the switch settings on the circuit card that provide functionality for large speed adjustments but i was able to use the speed adjustment function on the factory Speedo to match the PP gps speed without needing to mess with the card settings.