Older Suzuki networking issues

[ivestfold]

Gooday from winterly Norway, finally the days are 3 hours longer then in the end of December and 2 meters of snow is shrinking down and some patches of gras is showing.
Its that time of year I need to lift the wrapping of my boat to see if all under survived minus 30 degrees celsius this winter!
I have purchased an old Suzuki DF225, its a 2004 model, and my spring project is to see if I can get any data out of this beauty.
The setup today is standard with the RPM meter with 4 lamps.
Moonlighters advice is to find a Suzuki interface cable with version 2.3, but this is very hard to find. Several sources claims that the version 294 will work fine with the pre 2009 models, so I have decided to test this myself and have ordered the 294 version and will build a small NMEA2000 network.
I will replace the round data plug in the engine with a square one and make the extention cable myself, again after Moonlighters advice.
I have also bought a Simrad IS35 since the boat is equipped with and old Raymarine MFD, and are planning to replace the original instrument with the IS35.
I wonder, has anyone tested the 294 on an old engine?
I see that there are a lot of fault indications on the original instrument, can I expect the codes to be shown on the IS35?

[Moonlighter]

Version 294 is an outside chance of working. Some have had success but usually with 2006/7 year, so close to the 2008 it says will work.

But anyway, let us know how it goes. If the normal data looks OK the last thing to check will be fuel flow rate, as that can be the area where there are biggest errors with data.

One thing I am sure you will have noticed is that engine fault codes will not appear on any displays. So would be wise to keep the tacho so they will be able to display on the lights there. Fault codes will not appear on the IS35 or any display other than SMIS or C-10. Alarms will eg overheat, over rev, but not fault codes.

Those fault indications you mention - where are you seeing them? On the tacho lights? If thats where you are seeing the lights are flashing code sequences, then Suzuki fault codes will only clear when the fault is rectified. Fix the fault - then the codes disappear. There are lists of fault codes and what they mean on the sticky thread at the top of this forum.

[ivestfold]

Allright, thanks. I do not have an issue with errors yet, but was thinking potentially.
Andother thought, will it be possible to flash the ECU or even change/ upgrade to a newer version, getting access to a more up to date software?

[Moonlighter]

ECU upgrade - you would need to go to a 2008 ecu to be compatible with the currently available interface version 2.9.4.

I doubt that this will be feasible on a 2004 engine. I suspect there may be too many other changes with sensors, harnesses and the like, but have never investigated this so not sure. You’d need to talk to an experienced Suzuki mechanic who is familiar with those kinds of issues.

[ivestfold]

All right, thanks a lot. Anyway, I will try to set it up as is for the time being.

[ivestfold]

Finally got my 294 engine interface working on my 2004 DF225, just a matter of connecting correctly.. Connected it to the Simrad IS35 and I immidiately got data running into the display. Engine hours, temp and revs are coming in correcty. I have chosen the type "pre 2007" in the network setup and set the size of the tank in the vessel setup. So I guess what remains is to check if fuel consumption will give good readings. Am I correct that calibation of the fuel consumption is just to set the fuel to "full" when filling up a couple of times or are there parameters to set here as well?

[Moonlighter]

If the fuel flow and fuel use data is incorrect, calibrating will improve accuracy.

But only if the error is within about 10%. It is ONLY a “fine tuning” thing.

If the system is reading fuel flow/use at double or triple or whatever of the true value, no amount of calibrating it will ever fix it because that kind of error is indicative of a software mismatch.

Calibrating is done as part of the refuelling process. You fill the tank to full, check the “set to full” button then select Calibrate. It will then pop up a window where you enter the actual volume of fuel added at the pump. When that is done it will pop up a window showing a new K-value. That is the new factor that will be used to adjust the formula used to calculate fuel data. Accept that and the calibration process is done.

The system has an inbuilt restriction that prevents large changes being made to the K factor in one go, and only allows small incremental changes regardless of the fuel added value input by the user. So you may need to repeat the calibration process in 3 or 4 consecutive refuelling processes before it gets the accuracy close to perfect. As I say, this calibration process will only work when the initial accuracy is within about 10% of the true value.

You will soon know if V294 is going to work OK - the first thing is to check the fuel flow rate at idle. You can test this on the muffs. Start the engine and allow it to warm up for a minute to where it settles, and I would think the fuel flow rate should be somewhere around 0.4GPH. (My DF115 idles at around 0.2GPH so thats a guess for an engine that is twice the hp).

The fuel flow rate directly translates into the “fuel used” figures so - If one is wrong, the other will also be wrong in direct proportion.

If you see fuel flow rate at 5 gph or some other ridiculous figure then you have a software mismatch.

The second thing will be data stability. Go for a run and if the engine data stays stable and doesnt drop out partially or completely after an hour of running, then it should be good. Where I have had poor software matches it has suffered data loss within 20 minutes or so, just suddenly lost engine data. Ran a auto select and it came back, but then dropped out again. Rinse and repeat. Becomes unworkable.

Let us know how it goes!

[Moonlighter]

I assume in Vessel setup you selected “1 engine/1 tank” first, then set the tank capacity? Thats what is needed.

When configuring the interface (menu/system/network/devices and locate the Suzuki interface) you only need to set the engine location - set it as Centre. The hp and year settings are auto detectd and even if you change them they wont be saved, so just ignore them.