Kit to restore speedometer

[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.

[TechBeer]

SilentSeven There is really no downside to the paddlewheel and as I state in my video in most cases this is the best option. And yes you can use the PP Stargazer to calibrate the analog speedometer. As I also state in the video, the switches on the board are very likely not needed. I put them in there to allow for +/- 3 MPH before I realized there was a calibration built into the speedometer..... (duh!). sgregg educated me on that one. I guess if you were somehow WAY off, the switches could be used but that would likely indicate some failure in your paddlewheel.

Yes, the speedometer calibration can be used regardless of which input you choose. What I found with my boat is that my speedometer was off by a MPH or 2 against the GPS but I just never knew I could fix that.

[SilentSeven]

Add me to the list of installed boats. I have the paddlewheel version and it's pretty cool! I did a self install and the kit worked straight away without issue.

As a refresher, you might be interested in this kit if you have the earlier version of the Faria box that uses pitot feeds to drive the factory speedo. A lot of us have disconnected the pitot feeds as insurance to protect the Faria box from water intrusion. If you have a later model of the Faria system that doesn't use the pitots, you won't need the kit.

You can see it work here - https://youtu.be/E5p2HLOvG1w The modification is very accurate relative to GPS speed and it's great to have the main speedo on the dash working again. You don't really get any additional functionality but you do get the satisfaction of having all the dash gauges working again.

Here's a few pictures from the installation process.

On the 206 model, the faria box is located in the aft of the boat in the rear locker and the Perfect Pass is under the helm. This setup requires more wiring work vs other boats that have the faria box and Perfect Pass both mounted in the helm area. The workspace on my boat is also tight due to the installed 'trick tank' option.



Faria box removed with all cables. You have to open the box to add the conversion board and pull a supplied cable from the box to the perfect pass. The new cable is a Y cable that intercepts the paddlewheel signal and feeds it to the modified Faria box. I marked the new cable "S" so it was clear it was for the speedo. Not really required however as each of the deutch plugs is keyed.




Running the new cable to the helm area to connect the paddlewheel signal. I had to remove the combing pad to be able to zip tie the cable under the gunnel. Good excuse to clean stuff up.


Here's the Faria box opened up prior to modification. Opening the box might have been the most difficult task. If anyone is interested, I can post a few more pictures and some lessons learned on how to open. In this picture, you can see the brass pitot plugs that will get removed.



Here's the daughter board installed. The kit is nice as it has all the bits you need. Plugs to replace the brass pitot parts. Standoffs and screws for the daughter board and correctly cut wires ready for soldering. Not shown is the other side of the board where you solder 5 wires to various points within the Faria box. Anyone who's done some basic electronics soldering should have no problem doing the work. TechBeer has a great Youtube installation you can follow or he's happy to answer questions.



Connecting the new Y cable to the perfect pass Paddlwheel wire. Not the greatest picture.



Happy to answer any questions people have.