Repairing dead Faria gauges driven by Faria Gateway

[TechBeer]

If you have one for more Faria gauges that have gone bad read on. These are the "analog" gauges generally to the right of the Tach and Speedometer. My 2006 SV211 has 4 of them (Oil Pressure, Fuel, Temp, and Voltage) as shown in the attached picture. I was able to replace the Temp gauge several years ago before they were not available. Now the other 3 have gone bad. These gauges are driven by the Faria Gateway using a proprietary serial bus and are "daisy chained" from gauge to gauge. I think that many failures are blamed on the gateway or bad wiring when in fact the gauges have gone bad. There are "upgrades'' available but if you want to maintain the original look of your boat you CAN fix these gauges.

I have created a short YouTube video outlining the procedure. Please don't make fun of my cinematography skills.....

Leave a comment or private message me if you have any questions.

[ScooterMcgavin]

Great info here on the no longer available gauges. Definitely can help somebody trying to keep the original look of their stock gauges.

[BigRedSV211]

This is great... thanks for sharing. I'm going to go fix my oil pressure gauge and temp gauge!

[SG]

This is great! I have a bad fuel gauge and was just about to replace it with the newer analog gauge and run wires from sender. I would much prefer to have my original gauges and I don’t want to pay $1500 to replace the gauge set with analog and lose water/air temp and depth indications. I have never done any soldering (unless you count sweating copper pipes) so I will have to figure out how to do that, but it doesn’t look too difficult. Thanks for posting this. I’m sure I’m not the only one facing this issue.

[TechBeer]

If you go on Amazon and search for soldering kits, you can find something "decent" for about $20. Add in the stepper motors and capacitors and you're maybe in for $60 including shipping. That is less than a single gauge if you could even find one...... And you can fix them all. And then again in 10 years when they go out again... :-)

[NautiqueJeff]

I just watched that video -- GREAT information! Thank you for making that!

[TechBeer]

I just wish there was an easy way to get that bezel off and then on. Maybe Faria would sell me their old machine..... :-)

[CarlitosAir]

Nice work Techbeer. I wonder if you could answer this question for me, most of my gauges still work, sometimes so I know I'll be at a point where they'll need rebuilt, however the last 3 gauges to the far right don't light up when the rest of them do, it's that linked directly to the gauges led or anything else. Does that anything to do with them being daisy chained, abs one of them is out causing the rest to fail?

[TechBeer]

CarlitosAir, The first question is: do the last 3 gauges function (but don't light up) or are they completely dead? If they are completely dead I would first make sure the jumper between gauge 1 and 2 is fully seated and maybe clean the contacts. You might jiggle the connectors with the ignition on to see if you get any reaction from the gauges. If the last 3 gauges function normally, but just don't light up then this is more perplexing. As I mentioned before the gauge lights are a bunch of LEDs driven by the controller in the gauge itself. When you turn the lights on a command is sent along the Faria bus from the gateway out to the gauges. Just like a command is sent to put the needle on the gauge in a certain position. If the gauge functions normally but won't light up then I might look at the ground from the gateway to the gauges.

I am battling a weird symptom where my voltage gauge, which is the last gauge in the daisy chain, is intermittent. It will work initially but if I turn the lights on the voltage gauge goes dead. It's the only gauge I'm having any trouble with (after repairing them all). Of course the voltage reads fine in the multifunction display that is part of the Tach. I'm suspecting some sort of grounding issue......

[Miljack]

TechBeer, thanks for the posting, I have a question regarding diagnosing the gateway gauges. My engine water temp. gauge is not working, yet the display in the speedo is showing the eng water temp. My dash gauge very occasionally will start to work, then, the needle will "sweep" from low to all the way to the right, and then back to the very left and then stops. Is that indicative of a failing (or dead) gauge, or maybe I have a loose wire in the daisy chain?
TIA

[TechBeer]

Miljack That is classic symptom of dying gauge. I assume the water temp is not the last gauge (voltage on my boat) which tells me that the wiring is probably OK. I was perplexed for a while why the data would be available on the speedo but not the analog gauge. I think that separate packets of data are sent from the gateway out to the speedo MFD and the analog gauges. One option is to take the gauge apart and work the needle back and forth a few times. Then reconnect the gauge (with the plastic lens off) and see if it works. If it does (the stepper motor is dying) you can go through my repair process. BTW, it doesn't matter the order in the daisy chain that the gauge is connected to. If the water gauge is in the middle somewhere you can bypass that gauge and connect it at the end of the line. Also you can connect multiple of the same gauge in the daisy chain and they will both work. I did this in fact to an "extra" temp gauge I had repaired and it worked fine. So I had 5 small gauges (2x temp gauges) and they all worked. The extra Temp gauge was just sitting on top of the dash. You do need to create, or try and purchase, an extra jumper wire in that case.

Let me know.

[Miljack]

Thanks, based on this, I think my fuel gauge is going too. I have replaced the sending unit, and have measured the ohm range for the sending unit. I did find some not so good wiring in the ground area for the dash (on the port side under the glove box on my 230) for the fuel gauge. To be honest, the wiring on these era of boats is not that great. I figured I was going to either rewire the whole boat, or, just upgrade the boat.

The recent thread where a member upgraded to a digital display has me interested in tackling that if more of the gauges start to go...

Thanks for the posts and info, it's very helpful!

[TechBeer]

I agree, but most of the questionable workmanship that I have seen is with the connectors (which I guess is sort of the same thing). I made another post related to a PP problem that turned out to be incorrect "keying" in a connector straight from the factory. Took me 10+ years to find it......

My problem with the "digital display" is that you lose the "vintage" look of your dash. If I ever went that route I would find a way of inserting the "guts" of the newer display into the existing gauges. As I've said before the stepper motors are the weak link in the mid-2000s gauges. But they are used everywhere in the industry, and very likely in the newer "digital displays" too....

[larryrroma@gmail.com]

Great video, Thanks for sharing this.

[dy9213]

I just followed your instructions for all four of my smaller gauges. They were intermittent before and now all work perfectly. THANK YOU! Saved so much time and money compared to the replacement harness kit.

- I bought the Dr.Speedo kit with the genuine Switec X27.168 motors from Amazon.

- Capacitors, I went up to 1812. Slightly bigger so easier to manage for me.

- De-soldering the motors weren't too bad. I pulled on them with my fingers and slowly melted each post and pulled it out a bit at a time. Eventually I was able to snip the posts. I used a suction desoldering tool from the opposite side of the PCB to clear the holes (while heating from the front side).

- De-soldering the SMT caps were scary. I learned the trick was to ADD solder first. This allows the heat to conduct into the pads and melt out the solder underneath. I yanked too hard while it wasn't fully melted and lifted some of the traces. I was able to use the fancy soldering station at work with the two prongs to do this. Definitely need a good setup for this part.

- Assembling the new motor and cap was straight forward.

- I used a plier to bend the edges back in. I used a folded up piece of paper to prevent marring up the front bezel. Needed to be careful here.

- As far as testing goes, I plugged them in one at a time to the harness. Fuel and Voltage was able to display something. Oil and Temp showed no movement but I was able to displace them by hand (with the system off) and you can see it zero out. Also when turn the power off, you can hear and see minor movement on the gauges as they try to zero out.

Overall, like 1hr / gauge and like <$10/gauge. Again, really appreciate you posting this. This super great.