Volvo DPI drive gateway

[Keta]

Hi Keta,
I just noticed that you have a 7 inch display. Do you think that had anything to do with the autopilot? I have ordered a 4 inch display for my engine and I need to know if I have to change that to a 7 inch display. It seems to me that the gateway is connecting the EVC bus to the autopilot and you are not working through the 7 inch display.
Thanks in advance for the information.

I don't think it's working through the 7" display or at least I don't have control of the pilot from that display. I do have control of it through the TZT3. One thing nice about the 7" though is you do see stern drive angle as well as all the other engine data. It's actually a full fledged plotter but I doubt I'll use that feature as I'll want the engine data displayed all the time.

 

[Keta]

I just noticed some renewed interest regarding the NavPilot 300 working with Volvo's EVC system especially with their newer DPI outdrive. I've had the boat out fishing for halibut off the WA coast. A couple of the days was very sloppy weather one of which was marginal...I slept well that night from the beating. By the way my new 28' Farallon did great in it.

The pilot works well. It tracks and holds course well in Nav mode and or just plain autopilot mode. I'm still getting used to which buttons to push et cetera but it's fairly simple to use.

With the crummy weather we backtrolled to slow our drift down. Sabiki mode worked excellent. Good feature.

I haven't trolled with the boat yet but it seems as if it also tracks well at dead idle in Volvo's "slow speed" mode which is sort of like a troll valve. The slowest I can get my boat is around 1.9 to 2 knots or a bit over 2.1mph-ish. Sorry I think in knots. It holds course.

The only complaint I have is the system is a bit sensitive if you slightly move the steering wheel. It'll kick the pilot out of auto. I think Furuno calls it Safe Helm or something like that. Good safety feature so you can grab the wheel to miss a crap buoy or dead head but it's a bit sensitive. For the Volvo EVC system there isn't a sensitivity adjustment through the pilot...yet. I think there is an adjustment for other systems but not Volvo. As the weather calms down I'll be less likely to be bumping the wheel so it'll become a non-issue.

The Pilot works well with Volvo's EVC system.

 

[Johnny Electron]

Keta that is very good infomation to know. Thanks for sharing that.

 

[Pembernose]

Hi all,

I have recently been directed to this thread by Furuno sales as I am looking to buy Furuno electronics for my boat but have twin VP D6 440 DPIs installed. Has there been any further progress with regards to Furuno certifying connection to the DPI EVC2 and have you managed to resolve the issue of alarms?

 

[Sparky Wire]

Pembernose, as long as you are using the R2 Volvo gateway, it will work perfectly. I just had a customer refit to new EVC2 drive system and it worked perfect without any issues. (using Navpilot 300)