Since I have been getting fantastic support through the forums I would like to ask another question. I have two ABV panels with the VDO tachs that have build in digital hour meters. The panels are under a hard dodger and fairly well protected from the elements but do get wet sometimes when washing the boat. The boat has been in Sunny Mexico for about a year and a half and starting a few months ago the hour meters are giving me problems. They will go blank at times, the hours accumulate but the display is blank sometimes one is out other times the other sometimes both. I spoke with my local Beta Marine dealer where I bought the motors and he suggested moisture. It seems to dry here, the meters are mounted on a bulkhead where the exposed backs are in the same (bone dry) space as my VHF, SSB, radio, digital barometer and other electronic stuff, none of these have problems.
I will not discount moisture as the problem but it seems that you should be operating in a relatively dry area right now. Is the humidity high where you are?
We have also seen where exposure to heat and particularly sunlight will cause the LCD display to appear blank or at least very, very faint. If the display is shaded from the direct sun and allowed to cool the digits will reappear.
Similarly, this happens with the display on my digital multi meter. I must shade it from the sun when working with it outdoors.
Do you find that this problem comes and goes with temperature change?
Farron, The boat has been in a very dry area in Mexico (Baja) over the summer and this did not make it better. Right now I am in Puerto Vallarta where it is hot and it hasn't rained for a long time but there is a lot of dew on the boat so the humidity must not be that low. It is not related to a hot display. Yesterday my port engine HM did not work and my SB would work for a while and then go blank. It is strange, I bought a replacement tach and hooked it up yesterday but it required me to set the pulse/rpm relationship. I went into the settings mode on the SB meter to see what this was set at and as soon as I was in the calibration mode the display flickered then went blank. 5 minutes later it worked fine again.
I too have had problems with the LCD hour meter display. It is not related to temperature. It is sometime very faint and sometimes I cant see any digits at all. It is not vibration sensitive, though I seems like a bad connection. My panel is ****pit mounted and exposed to the PNW weather here in Pudget Sound. Don
I bought a replacement instrument and after returning to the boat last week I took one of the offending ones off and apart. The problem appears to be the ribbon connector where the LCD display connects to the circuit board. I replaced the face with the hour meter display and it worked fine immediately. A friend of mine who is retired from working in the electronics field tried to revive the ribbon cable by first gently running an erasor over it to remove any oxidation that would not bring it back to life. We then shortened the ribben by a few mm to have a new wear spot for the connectors and that did not do the trick either. It looks like the ribbon cables just went bad on both of my displays. I will buy one more and exchange the face on the one that is not fixed yet but this really should not be happening with a marine gauge that is in a very protected location as it is on "RotKat".
