Convert 2004 F225 to Command Link

[choogenboom]

Hi All -
I have what should be a fun problem and related questions. I have twin 2004 F225TXRC's on my boat and the boat was struck by lightning. The engines will start and run but with both warning buzzers on and RPMs limited below 2000. ALL 4 guages (2 tachs, speedo and fuel management) are dead and fuses to guages have been checked. I opened up one guage with some careful dremel work and verified it has several fried components so know for sure the guages must be replaced. Best I can tell both engines' oil pressure senders are dead, and both engines fail the stationary ICV test (I have the USB data/diagnostic cable). I bench tested both engines' ICVs and they are functional. Conclusion is the ECU is not con*****ing the ICV. Most likely is the ECU is wounded although the thought crossed my mind of "will the ECU run the ICV test if it has a 0 oil pressure reading?". Am am hoping the answer to that is "no" as that means I do not have to replace ECUs.

As a preface to my next paragraph, the engines are NOT command link capable and I called Yamaha factory support and they told me that in the 2004 model year they switched the F225 over to command link but my serial numbers were before the switch over.

Assuming the ECU is wounded and needs to be replaced I was wondering, can I replace the current ECU (its a 69J-8591A-10-00) with a later model command link capable ECU (60L-8591A-10-00 is listed as an alternate for the F225TXRC and based on what the factory told me conclusion is this ECU is for command link capable F225TXRC engines) so I can get command link capabiliity? Are the ECU connectors pin compatible? It looks like they would be since I see only one wiring harness part number. The reason I want command link is that since each guage is about $400 rather than spend $1600 on new Yamaha guages I want to do a command link to NMEA2000 interface and ditch the Yamaha guages entirely in favor of displaying engine vitals on a NMEA2000 compatible display. That begs another question which is can I connect a command link ECU to a NMEA2000 display?

The only engine sensor that I am aware of that currently does NOT go through the ECU is the trim sensor which currently connects directly to the tachometer. I am guessing I would have to make a connection of trim sender into the new command link ECU?

Thanks in advance to whoever can provide an accurate answer to these questions.

[choogenboom]

I spoke with Yamaha tech support - looks like if you update to a 2005 ECU and wiring harness you can convert to command link. The only reason to change the harness is to get access to the command link signal so I suspect teh command link signals are on what were no connects on teh 2004 ECU and you can likely add just the new wires needed to the harness to bring out the command link interface. I was told the ECUs are supplied by either Misubishi or Motorola - anyone have a misubishi or motorola part number for either the 2004 or 2005 ECU for the F225?

[Longboardebo]

How did you conversion come out to the newer ECUs?

Chris,

Provide us an update on what happened, were you able you able to upgrade the engines to the newer ECUs with support for CommandLink? I have almost the same situation, the ECU is dead and I would also like to integrate the engine information into my RayMarine C80, in particular to get engine temperature and oil pressure.

I would be very interested to know:

a) What was the old ECU part number
b) What ECU part number did you convert to
c) What other parts did you need to do the conversion (wiring harness, etc.)

Also, what about your lessons learned in doing this in terms of things to watch out for with the installation, etc?

Thanks!

[choogenboom]

Hi Longboardebo - wish I could say I blazed the trail for you on this but I wimped out and bought the stock replacement ECU's. I had enough to do dealing with boatwide lightning damage and adding a science project to my list did not seem wise. I did learn in my research that the Command link introduced in ~June 2005 on 2006 model year F225 engines. I also learned that command link is no more than the industry standard CANBUS which it follows is the same standard that NMEA 2000 uses. The CANBUS messages are what the NMEA2000 standard defines - ie the message format so an engine can tell a chartplotter what its oil pressure is. Best I can tell most modern ECU's (for cars, boats, etc) have a CANBUS interface, and I am pretty sure the stock ECU on the 2004 F225 has a CANBUS interface (I am guessing that the USB data cable is what converts its CANBUS output to USB) but likely does not output NMEA2000 compliant messages.

Where I was headed when I aborted the project was to replace the defunct 2004 ECU with a 2006 ECU, but rather than replace the wiring harness to get at the 2 or 3 new wires needed for command link access I was going to simply add the wires to the existing harness. I got stumped trying to get the exact pinout of the 2006 ECU to know which were the new pins I needed to add. If you can work out the connector part number (almost certainly a AMP/Tyco connector) and the pins it uses you can buy the pins, add the wires and terminate in a NMEA2000 connector. I did confirm its a Mitsubishi ECU I never got a line on a source directly from Mitsubishi or some other supplier other than Yamaha on the ECU.

Final note of caution - I have heard that some early F225 models have major corrosion issues in the exhaust manifold (Check threads on the hull truth for this issue) - you may want to consider the cost of that repair, on top of the investment of time/effort in the command link conversion.

[Longboardebo]

Thanks for the update, I'll have to keep looking at the problem and see if I can figure it out. I'm tempted to just buy a new ECU and wiring harness and see if it works, but then I again, I guess I could just buy a new F300 and be done with it

Hope you got your boat back on the water! Lighting, I can only imagine the troubles that must been!

[choogenboom]

I would say 99+% sure that replacing ECU and wiring harness will work fine.

Lightning strikes are not fun. I lost alot of electrical gear on the boat and best I can tell my strike was a mild one. Worst case the strike can burn holes in the hull at the waterline. I think most people underestimate the likelihood of a strike. I have read that 5 boats in 1000 get struck per year, not a small number. I have since taken to removing my outriggers and dropping my antennas when boat is not in use. Live and learn.

Good luck on the conversion, post back and let us know if it worked and what you did.