LED trim and tab indicators
 

Looking for some info on switching to LED indicators, most likely Livorsi. Trim cable is in need of replacing and the glass on indicator display has small spider cracks from age, so I'm figuring now is the time, if I'm going to do it. Has anyone done this themselves and how was it to do?

Thanks

Expensive.

Seems to be a common problem associated with boating :D

While I don't have the Livorsi style, I just installed the Bennett Auto TrimPro. Has LED display and auto/manual control.

Attachment 572867

It's certainly a luxury item to have. You have to mount the electronic indicator sensors/resistors/encoders (whatever they are) on your transom (inside) and run the cables. I personally did not do the install myself. Makes for a cleaner setup, but it's costly to the point I'm not sure if I would retrofit the system into an old boat. It was something like 2-3X the cost of replacing the old mechanical items. Certainly has a "cool" factor, Not sure is any of that is actual tech help.

You can see it over to the right in the pic. I would not get the carbon pattern again, messes with the contrast and ability to read the panel quickly. Along with my switch panel pattern, nearly impossible to read the labels.

Do you use a short mechanical cable to get from drive to the electronic sender mounted inside the transom or is there a new sending unit that mounts on the drive?

Just add a drive sync by MDC.

this is what I have

That looks pretty slick

do they change color with speed?

Frick- Thanks for the heads up on the carbon fiber. I will definitely keep that in mind.

F2- thats a sweet set up.

I guess my question is, how DIY friendly would this option be?? The boat is a 2000 20' cig, that is super clean with only 100hrs on it. So I'm thinking it would definitely add to the cool factor.

During the redo of my boat we switched to the LED indicators. I like It was expensive but no more cables. Also had them custom color it. Purple face with flat back trim.

who did you use?

While I like the MDC Drive Sync product, some folks prefer to adjust the running angle of the boat side to side by adjusting the drive angle vs. the tabs.



While I do like the pure LED indicators by Livorsi, I don't think they tell me enough. Maybe I am just old school, and while I get the benefits of eliminating cables...
...I prefer the better visual representation provided by cable type indicators including the 'pop-up indicactors' or the option of replacing the dots on your traditional Mercury K-plane indicators with LEDs, which I believe is also done by Livorsi.

not sure..........it hasn't been off the trailer yet..............:picard1:

Used Livorsi

Caseyh, how was it to install the Livorsi's?

The foot print of the oringal one and the LED are a bit different. So may have to change some stuff there. The led was smaller. No cables that was nice. Running the wires in place of the cables can be tricky depending on what your working with in the boat. A tube or just a mess of wires. Mine was all from scratch so made it easy. The transom was plug and play on the drives and tab. Now the through hulls was the trick. Mine a a bit long on the wire side to the sensors. I was not feeling in and repeating what was just done. Text me 225/445/2110 and I’ll send pictures. This damn sight is crazy with that now

I have Bernett Trim Tabs with Bravo 1 drives. I'm removing the Bernett's filling in all the cable thru-hulls/screw holes and then gel-coat. The indicators are moved by the 33c cables. I want to make the change now to electronics senders.

How do the senders hold up to salt water? Does anyone know the longevity of them?

Wow, if you are going through that much effort, I'd probably be upgrading to 280 K-Planes.

^^^ I am. I just want to know how the electrical sensors hold up compared to cable....

have digital senders on 380k's since boat was new in 08 and haven't had any problems with them at all, been rock solid

Just helped my friend put the Livorsi LED indicators on his 35' Playboy. He had enough room behind the gauges in the dash to mount the Mechanical to Electrical converters. This made for an easy installation. Just simply unhook the cables from the old indicator and connect them up to the converters. Didn't need to replace cables, or crawl around and try to mount them on the transom in the engine bay. Expensive, but he loves them. We put a new Garmin in the dash and a Fusion stereo at the same time, too. Along with NMEA 2k network, everything feeds into the Garmin. The Livorsi indicators come with NMEA 2k connectors, so was easy to hook them into that network, as well.
Hope that helps.
Good luck.