Getting a Suzuki df90a to talk to a raymarine axiom nmea 2000

andrewjparish · 30 January 2019, 09:19

Hi, i’m Updating the electronics on my RC585 and hoping that somebody might have tried this already. I have a Suzuki df90a (2011) that I want to talk to a raymarine axiom over nmea 2000. I think I have the correct parts, a working backbone and Suzuki interface cable 2.9.0. (The cable Suzuki marine suggested) But there doesn’t seem to be any conversation happening. Is there a way of configuring the units. If anybody has any ideas that would be fantastic. Thanks. Andy

Xk59D · 30 January 2019, 12:40

The best thing to do is goto the Suzuki outboard forum and speak to moonlighter.

I went through this and I suspect you will need to downgrade from 2.9 given the age of your engine. I've read you cant downgrade the new style cables anymore though. V2.9 did not work on my 2012 df200. I had to send it back to Suzuki to downgrade it at the time.

Btw, you need the ignition on or they dont talk and even if they do there is a very good chance your fuel readings are miles off, hence the need to downgrade from 2.9

If they are not talking at all and ignition is on then it is probably an nmea setting in the plotter I would have thought. I dont have any raymarine experience unfortunately to comment further but moonlighter is the man for info.

Pikey Dave · 30 January 2019, 17:24

+1 to what Xk59D said. It took me 18months if faffing to get my DF140 talking to the rest of the kit. Suzuki are hopeless & aren’t interested in interfacing with none Suzi kit. The NMEA 2k implementation by Suzuki is flaky at best. It can be made to work, but it takes time (and money[emoji849])

Xk59D · 30 January 2019, 17:50

I think (could be wrong so happy to be corrected PD) that if you have digital gauges it potentially is easier as the gauge can share the nmea data after working out fuel flow, alarms etc. I dont have digital gauges so my chartplotters do all the conversions, it works best with simrad (who make Suzuki guages) I'm told but no first hand experience ?

And yes, Suzuki and NMEA on our vintage of engines atleast is gubbins, spank new maybe a different thing.

andrewjparish · 30 January 2019, 19:28

Thanks all for your help. I’ll follow up the leads you mention and let you know how I get on.

Pikey Dave · 30 January 2019, 20:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xk59D

I think (could be wrong so happy to be corrected PD) that if you have digital gauges it potentially is easier as the gauge can share the nmea data after working out fuel flow, alarms etc. I dont have digital gauges so my chartplotters do all the conversions, it works best with simrad (who make Suzuki guages) I'm told but no first hand experience ?

And yes, Suzuki and NMEA on our vintage of engines atleast is gubbins, spank new maybe a different thing.

We’ll have to stop agreeing like this, folk’ll start to talk[emoji6]

jonp · 30 January 2019, 23:05

I had trouble with my suzuki df90a networking, the dealer that fitted mine told me they had connected up lots of them. It wasn't untill after the fitting and found huge discrepancies in my fuel consumption that they informed me they'd had the same issue with them all. I was burning close to 1000lts of fuel per hour according to the figures and no end of calibrating fixed it. At the time I found no solution and gave up on the whole thing after spending over $1000 on trying to get it right.

My Yamaha networking was simply a $140 cable plug in and go.

Xk59D · 30 January 2019, 23:26

That is pretty unfortunate for sure.

I'm curious how you unfortunately racked up 1k fixing a software problem? The dealer or Suzuki should be fixing it, especially if you have their gauges!

Pre 2011 engines (build date, not commission date) usually work best with v2.5 or v2.3. My engine is an early 2012 build so when I fitted my cable it came with v2.9 on it, I knew 99% it wouldn't work but I tried it anyway and right enough, fuel consumption was way off.

Now, if you have Suzuki digital gauges OR simrad plotters you can fix the fuel flow issue as you can downgrade it yourself via SD card (and update fuel flow accurately as it is stored on engine data if using simrad or Suzuki digital gauge) If you don't have either of those then the only option (which I had to do) was send the cable back for a downgrade. I went with v2.8 and it is about 5-10% off now and I have left it there, I may get it better with going to v2.5-v2.7 but it is close. The unfortunate thing now is apparently you cant downgrade the new cables to suit outboards that are only a few years old due to a hardware change not being capable of dealing with the older file extensions, you would need to hunt down an old stock cable (it has a different part number I believe).

The above was what I found out after mucho research at the time, it was circa 2014 I fitted it.

Unlike some outboard brands, Suzuki tried to make nmea fueling compatible (perhaps wrongly, poorly for sure) across a wide variety of outboard ages that it was never intended for and by doing so they are left with the old many are called but few are chosen problem. They fix early engines it screws later ones or vice versa. I do agree it isnt great but that was the logic behind it they told me back in the day.

jonp · 31 January 2019, 07:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xk59D

That is pretty unfortunate for sure.

I'm curious how you unfortunately racked up 1k fixing a software problem? The dealer or Suzuki should be fixing it, especially if you have their gauges!

Pre 2011 engines (build date, not commission date) usually work best with v2.5 or v2.3. My engine is an early 2012 build so when I fitted my cable it came with v2.9 on it, I knew 99% it wouldn't work but I tried it anyway and right enough, fuel consumption was way off.

Now, if you have Suzuki digital gauges OR simrad plotters you can fix the fuel flow issue as you can downgrade it yourself via SD card (and update fuel flow accurately as it is stored on engine data if using simrad or Suzuki digital gauge) If you don't have either of those then the only option (which I had to do) was send the cable back for a downgrade. I went with v2.8 and it is about 5-10% off now and I have left it there, I may get it better with going to v2.5-v2.7 but it is close. The unfortunate thing now is apparently you cant downgrade the new cables to suit outboards that are only a few years old due to a hardware change not being capable of dealing with the older file extensions, you would need to hunt down an old stock cable (it has a different part number I believe).

The above was what I found out after mucho research at the time, it was circa 2014 I fitted it.

Unlike some outboard brands, Suzuki tried to make nmea fueling compatible (perhaps wrongly, poorly for sure) across a wide variety of outboard ages that it was never intended for and by doing so they are left with the old many are called but few are chosen problem. They fix early engines it screws later ones or vice versa. I do agree it isnt great but that was the logic behind it they told me back in the day.

My model was a 2014.
First lots of cables were $350, which I was told was all I needed, then told I needed some kind of adapter $150. First trip to the shop I was charged 2hrs labour + extra parts $12 of which was for about 1m of ellectricle tape, cable ties $2 each etc. After I found the inaccuracies they claimed they needed the boat to take on water to test, which ended up being at the dealer for a week, followed by a bill for testing but not fixing the issue. As mentioned they had never gotten one to work correctly, however they did say they had never had any complaints from any of their customers who had had the same fitted to the mercury outboards. The girl in the office Informed me that one customer had run up a bill of $2500 trying to get his 175 Suzuki networked. This dealership has had numerous complaints against them and is no longer used by locals, their reputation is disgraceful.

In saying that I could not find a solution anywhere at the time, I didn't like the boat much so sold it and bought my first rib. The suzuki performed rock solid over the 11months (420 engine hours ) that I owned it.

Xk59D · 31 January 2019, 09:05

Dealer sounds like a nightmare, all they had to do is ask Suzuki or take 10 seconds to Google it. I've not read anyone on Suzuki forum who hasn't been able to fix this. It is a joke though you have to jump through hoops and do this in first place.

I dont know if moonlighter works for Suzuki but if not they owe them a big thanks as he seems to have a great deal of knowledge on fixing it.

Xk59D · 31 January 2019, 22:33

Info here, note the above I said simrad, it should be lowrance instead for updates, apologies.

Forum Resource: Suzuki NMEA2000 Networks - Suzuki Outboard Forum

Simon666 · 14 May 2019, 20:30

Sorry to hijack this thread, but it seemed half relevant for me.
Just picked up a Ribcraft with a DF150.
What's my best option for adding a digital gauge giving fuel consumption etc? The engine is 2007.
Is it possible?

Pikey Dave · 15 May 2019, 17:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simon666

Sorry to hijack this thread, but it seemed half relevant for me.

Just picked up a Ribcraft with a DF150.

What's my best option for adding a digital gauge giving fuel consumption etc? The engine is 2007.

Is it possible?

I refer the honourable gentleman to the answer I gave in “the other place”[emoji6]

andrewjparish · 06 October 2019, 21:54

Solution found to the original question. Curtesy of moonlighter on a Suzuki outboard forum. You need to plug in a Navico plotter (they make Suzuki gauges) or Suzuki multifunction gauge to calibrate the network. (Get the engine chatting) this can then be removed from the nmea 2000 network and the settings are remembered. The raymarine unit now sees the engine data. If you’re interested the Suzuki interface cable I used has the 2.9.0 software. Still to see if fuel flow rates are reasonably accurate but initial test seems reasonable.