New FI-70 Screen Setup

Hello everyone,

I am considering purchasing the new FI-70 Instrument and have a few questions regarding its operation which I cannot seem concretely answer from the manual. My intended purpose of this gauge is to be used on a new boat I am purchasing, which is a 16' aluminum boat with a 90 HP Honda outboard. I will be installing an NMEA 2000 backbone on this boat to be able to read engine information supplied by the outboard. My desired configuration of the display would be to have an analog tachometer, fuel tank level and engine trim level displayed on one screen. I have looked at the screen configuration options listed in the FI-70 manual, though I cannot seem to find this configuration as a possibility.

Ideally I would like the exact screen layout as in the Engine Category option (containing an analog tachometer, digital tachometer and one user defined readout) though being able to view an analog tachometer, engine trim level and fuel tank level readout at once. Does anyone know if it is possible to reconfigure the Engine Category screen layout, or create a custom screen layout, to achieve this? I know it is a new item therefore user experience may be limited at this time. If this configuration isn't possible, I will most likely purchase the digital/analog NMEA 2000 gauges Honda offers. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Rick

The new FI70 is very versatile. I expect this item to be very popular especially with the very low power usage (0.15 A max) and aggressive pricing. You can setup the three items you want, but not with having the RPM as a gage. It would look like this.

You could put the Engine trim, RPM, and Tank level in any order you wish.

Since the gage screen takes up a lot of space, it not currently possible to have all three items you have chosen displayed at one time. For example You could setup an engine gage with RPM, along with a choice of Eng Temp, Fuel Rate, Fuel used,Boost, Eng hours, Oil pressure, Coolant pressure, E Load pressure, Gear oil temp, Gear oil pressure. Each one of these items will toggle with one push of the button from the full engine gage screen. (also keep in mind it also offers the warning indicators in the background)

Two points to consider...
First: Each FI70 display has 7 customizable displays so you can have the engine gage with RPM and then a press of the button be on a screen with three other items displayed like Tank level, engine trim, and xxxx.

Second: if you want to see the items without changing the display, just add a second FI70. Then you can have one with a full gage screen showing lots of info while the other has a three part data screen.

Thanks for that in-depth response Johnny! That's unfortunate I cannot configure the screen the way I want it, though after seeing the three items on screen in your first picture, it's not as bad as I thought. If possible, I may split the Engine Trim section into 2 allowing me to see trim and engine fuel consumption side by side, for a total of four pieces of information on the screen.

Do you have any experience with how the display operates under 'night' mode? I do a fair bit of night driving and I'd like to have a dim display, though still bright enough to read everything clearly.