New Suzuki's installed interface problems?

[acdiii]

Moonlighter I need your help. Just repowered twin 175s, C/R engine manufacturing date is year 2015 month 3 and the R/H motor is 2015 month 12. I am being told by the dealer that I cannot have a network for both gauges combined but I have to have to separate nema 2000 networks for each individual motor due to software that is not compatible between the two motors....

My current setup is one 4 Inch gauge for one engine and one 4 inch gauges for the other motor. A third 4 inch gauge is also installed that piggybacks off the starboard R/H motor and is used for speed or location coming from the lowrance gps antenna.

Have you heard of an issue like this?

Andy

[Moonlighter]

Andy, i think your dealer is wrong. Badly wrong.

Lowrance and Suzuki recommend interface version 3.5 for 2013 and later engines, so i see no network related conflict between your engines. You should advise your dealer of that fact and ask them to specifically state what they see as being the problem, and why.

Your 3 SMIS gauges should be able to be configured to show whatever data you want. Please note: the gauges are not attached to either engine - they are attached to the network and then they are configured to display data from any source attached to the network, whether that be the engines or the GPS antenna.

One important thing however is that depending on how old your SMIS gauges are, they may need to have their software updated to work with the new engines running V 3.5.0 interface software.

Here is what Lowrance/Suzuki say anout software to suit 2013 and later engines, this is cut and pasted directly from www.lowrance.com/suzuki

Latest Suzuki Device Update Software – 2013 and newer
Latest software update files for all Suzuki NMEA 2000 SMIS / C10 components for motors 2013 and newer. (Self-Extracting ZIP file containing: C10 1.1-50.2.125, 3.5.0 Engine Interface, 2.7.0 4" Gauge, 2.2.0 2" gauge, 2.1.0 Fluid Level, 2.0.0 Pressure Sensor)

All these software changes can be quickly, simply and easily done by a COMPETENT Suzuki dealer. Indeed, if you have a Lowrance or Simrad MFD on your network you can make the changes yourself quite easily too.

[acdiii]

New Suzuki's installed interface problems

Moonlighter...thanks a ton for your detailed response. I will contact my dealer Monday morning and discuss with him now that I have some ammunition. I'll report back to let you know how the story ends.

Andy

[acdiii]

New Suzuki's installed interface problems

Got the issued resolved today....I had made this appointment with this marine installer to install some GPSs and radios and he was not a Suzuki dealer but was a lowrance dealer/installer. He made quick work of the gauges by configuring them properly, now all the data is available to used on any gauge and also totals fuel usage, etc. Interface cable were crossed in the wiring and one of the battery switches had a broken contact and was less than 12 volts going out. Now all systems are functional. We had a frank discussion with the Suzuki dealer about what we experienced on our repower.

Thanks Moonlighter for your help.

Andy

[Moonlighter]

Andy, well done on getting it sorted, looks like you got lucky that the Lowrance installer knew how to set up Suzuki networks. Its not that hard but some installers/dealers simply havent got a clue.

That broken battery switch was a good catch - if there is one thing that our Suzuki efi 4 strokes demand, it is a good solid 12V supply. Put that in the memory banks - if it starts doing strange things one of the first things to check is battery charge, wiring, connections etc to ensure they are clean, corrosion free and tight. If by chance you have wing nuts on your batteries, get rid of them and put on proper stainless nuts and tighten them down with a spanner.

Now that it is up and running you will want to check the fuel calibration. Its an important step to complete. Fill the tanks and in the gauge menu, reset tanks to full. Then go fishing and burn a decent amount of fuel, the more the better, prefer at least 1/4 tank on each engine. Then refill and compare the actial with what the gauges say. If necessay you can then, in the fuel menu, calibrate to improve accuracy. Once the actual and predicted fuel are within 1-2% you can then be confident that it will stay accurate and you can rely on it. Just remember to reset every time you add fuel to the tanks.

Best wishes!

[acdiii]

New Suzuki's installed interface problems

will do on the overall fuel program...two tanks at 129 gallons each. Thanks again for all of your guidance. Our last Suzuki project today is to ensure the isolator charging cable is installed correctly and the house battery is receiving its fair share of the charge...now its back to installing electronics.

Have a good day

Andy

[acdiii]

Moonlighter, I thought my issue was resolved, ran the boat several times a couple of weeks ago and I had multiple "check Engine lights" which turns out to be false after the computer analysis of each engine. Starboard engine is a 2016 and C/R is a 2015. I saw your post on THT regarding this issue with the 2016 interface. I would love to get this issue behind me...
Thanks
Andy

[Moonlighter]

It is still likely to be a software conflict. You need to get the dealer or the Lowrance installer to double check the sw versions as per my earlier posts. And correct them if they are not aligned as per that post.

[ChrigelKarrer]

I

and I had multiple "check Engine lights" which turns out to be false after the computer analysis of each engine

I have the exactly same problem with my a few days ao installed DF300AP twins.
Randomly come up error beeps and pop-up's on my SMIS gauges showing fake errors, often with a "Forward" message.

Dealer say that there is a problem with SMIS gauges and 2016 DF300AP engines and that Suzukis is working on that.
Meanwhile the only thing to do is to disable alarm beeps ...

I choose to go with SMIS gauges as it seems that the new beautiful C10 gauges have problems with fogging and as the boat is in Costa Rica in a high humidity environment i choose to go with the SMIS gauges.

Chris

[acdiii]

Chris,
The only valid code I got from the engine was the 20 hr oil change reminder, the rest have all been ghost codes.
I fish offshore and when I receive a check engine overheat and low oil pressure I don't take those lightly. These errors code have already caused me to cancel fishing in Florida 3 weeks ago.
What version software are your gauges and interface cables?
Andy

[ChrigelKarrer]

acdiii,

SMIS Gauge Software is the latest:
version 2.7.1
Boot 1-1.70
Build MZ1561

I need to go to the boat to check the Suzuki Engine Interface software,
i i find the time i will go this afternoon to check the sticker on the interface.

As far it got informed the problem will be with all recent softwares and the 2.7.1 supposed to fix this, but it did not...

Stay calm, if the engine overheat, low oil level is detected or similar serious problems, then the engine ECU will go in fail safe mode.

I also don't like to silence this boring beeping,
but i need the boat for work and as the engine has it's failsafe mode i trust in that.
If you have a MFD you can mirror engine data on your MFD to check engine temperature.

The only way to eliminate this proble right now would be to use the C10 gauges, they don't have this problem.

Chris

[acdiii]

Thanks Chris....this not what I wanted to hear. Please let me know the version of your interface SW when you get can it, no hurry.
I will ensure the latest version is installed/updated on mine, and if that does not work, we will proceed from there.

Andy

[Moonlighter]

Guys, i am still confident that this is a software conflict issue. The same symptoms have been reported by others and getting the software matching up has sorted it.

Unfortunately you cant verify the interface software version on the SMIS gauges, and the tag on the cable is not a reliable indicator either because the sw can be changed to a different version. You can check it if you have a Lowrance or Simrad display connected to the network. Just go to network menu, device list, and select one of the suzuki's and it will show you. Check both engines because they could have different versions.

On my earlier reply I posted the info from Suzuki and Lowrance and in my experience if you follow this recommended combination, there is a high likelihood that the problems will be solved.

IMPORTANT: It is the interaction between the interface sw and the SMIS software that causes the problem, so the fix is to get:

1. The correct interface sw for your engine year - in the case of engines newer than 2013 you need sw version 3.5.0. With twins, BOTH engine interfaces need to be updated to this version.

2. Then, you need the correct SMIS sw to work with interface sw V 3.5.0 - and the correct one is SMIS version 2.7. Again, all SMIS displays on the network have to be individually updated.

If you get that lined up you should be good.

[ChrigelKarrer]

As i live in the backyard of the world i bought the Suzuki SDS software and cables,
i will try to recheck the Interface Software tomorrow for you when i do a check if no real codes exist, but the last 2 times every thing was spotless.
The engines run great and i don't belive thet there are any problems, there is just something going "loco" on the Lowrance Suzuki Engine Interface.
When i go inside either the engines or the BCM i can't find any abnormalities so the problem must be between the Lowrance Suzuki Engine Interface and the Gauges.
I triplechecked the NMEA2000 cableing, disconnected the backbone to my Garmin 7610xsv and VHF200 nmea2000 network but the problems persist.

My 2013 DF300AP works great and there is no errors at all and i am confident that Suzuki and/or Lowrance will fix this annoying problem soon.

Chris

[ChrigelKarrer]

I went to the boat and tried to check Suzuki Engine Interface software but i could not find any data for it in the SDS diagnostic software.
The only i found was a sticker on the interface: Soft. Ver. 3.5.0
Probably i need a lowrance or simrad MFD as Moonlighter mentioned to check the true software version, but i don't have only Garmin stuff.

I hope that helps!

Chris