WARNING: Safety issues with Mathers controls
- Thread starter SeattleJew
- Start date
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
andrewf
Veteran Member
Hi Raffy
Sorry I have gone quiet … been a busy time.
A small update now that I have been nursing the boat around on one and a half engines.
The problem of the half selection of port engine forward occurs as soon as the ignition is switched on.
Turn the key and 9 times out of 10 port gearbox will instantly move to HALF forward thus causing beeping as soon as you try to select forward. It will select reverse no problem.
This is the same on both stations
The instant half forward movement occurs PRIOR TO ANY STATION BEING SELECTED IT IS ON TURNING THE KEY.
After a while for no reason it corrects itself.
What does that tell you??
Good one ay!??
Sorry I have gone quiet … been a busy time.
A small update now that I have been nursing the boat around on one and a half engines.
The problem of the half selection of port engine forward occurs as soon as the ignition is switched on.
Turn the key and 9 times out of 10 port gearbox will instantly move to HALF forward thus causing beeping as soon as you try to select forward. It will select reverse no problem.
This is the same on both stations
The instant half forward movement occurs PRIOR TO ANY STATION BEING SELECTED IT IS ON TURNING THE KEY.
After a while for no reason it corrects itself.
What does that tell you??
Good one ay!??
Raffy
Veteran Member
With what the description of the problem being at both stations I would have to say the problem is in the processor in the engine room. Send me a photo of your box cover in the engine room so I can see it there is anything we can have you do to repair it. You can send that to my email edr@controlmastersinc.com so I can blow the picture up.
Symphony
Senior Member
Andrew, you are getting some expert advice here, but you still might try what worked for me since I had the exact same symptoms as you describe now: random low-voltage error codes at the engine room modules, a an engine randomly going into forward at start up, sometimes with beeping.
The very knowledgeable tech manager at my Marina advised me that I would need new controllers and new modules because they were the 2006 version and obsolete. We got on the phone to ZF who nicely listen to the problem and agreed with him to replace, the controller, harness, and the modules, because they were obsolete. The boat was new to me, and this problem did not start occurring until a month after I owned it. The boat had sat for two years previous to my purchase.
Drawing upon my 1970s electronic tech training, I decided to give it one more shot for repair. Considering the low-voltage random alarms, I took a new pencil with a fresh eraser on it and carefully cleaned all of the little pins of the control cables connecting to the engine room modules. Do not bend the pins because you could cause a crack further up and never be able to figure it out. I did not see any obvious corrosion, but that fixed my low-voltage error.
Unlike you I had just one station. My throttle look a little different than yours, but I remove the entire unit from the helm and looking up inside from underneath I saw the throttles arm move a wiper across a series of contactors. Using my same high-tech pencil eraser, I gently cleaned each of these pads. I noticed possible filmy corrosion on the offending engine side at and near the neutral detante. This fixed the random start up problem.
I never had another problem with the ZF Mathers system. It was fantastic because with the buttons I could sync my engines, or switch into troll mode, or have high or low idle. And of course, I did not lose use of the boat, waiting for all the parts and people to come to put it together.
YMMV
Good luck taking care of your hole in the water.
The very knowledgeable tech manager at my Marina advised me that I would need new controllers and new modules because they were the 2006 version and obsolete. We got on the phone to ZF who nicely listen to the problem and agreed with him to replace, the controller, harness, and the modules, because they were obsolete. The boat was new to me, and this problem did not start occurring until a month after I owned it. The boat had sat for two years previous to my purchase.
Drawing upon my 1970s electronic tech training, I decided to give it one more shot for repair. Considering the low-voltage random alarms, I took a new pencil with a fresh eraser on it and carefully cleaned all of the little pins of the control cables connecting to the engine room modules. Do not bend the pins because you could cause a crack further up and never be able to figure it out. I did not see any obvious corrosion, but that fixed my low-voltage error.
Unlike you I had just one station. My throttle look a little different than yours, but I remove the entire unit from the helm and looking up inside from underneath I saw the throttles arm move a wiper across a series of contactors. Using my same high-tech pencil eraser, I gently cleaned each of these pads. I noticed possible filmy corrosion on the offending engine side at and near the neutral detante. This fixed the random start up problem.
I never had another problem with the ZF Mathers system. It was fantastic because with the buttons I could sync my engines, or switch into troll mode, or have high or low idle. And of course, I did not lose use of the boat, waiting for all the parts and people to come to put it together.
YMMV
Good luck taking care of your hole in the water.
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I have a ZF microcomander setup with main and fly station … and also a remote that can be plugged into one of 2 ports.
The remote has been squirrelly, often only taking control of only one engine ever since I owned the boat. Today the plug came apart while removing … I had been jiggling it since it always seemed like a connection issue.
Any advice for what’s needed to get this reliable? New plugs ? Cables ? Obsolete so abandon ?
The remote has been squirrelly, often only taking control of only one engine ever since I owned the boat. Today the plug came apart while removing … I had been jiggling it since it always seemed like a connection issue.
Any advice for what’s needed to get this reliable? New plugs ? Cables ? Obsolete so abandon ?
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Raffy
Veteran Member
HI, sorry you have a problem with your remote, these are repairable but they have to be sent to us for repair. Your problem is usually a result of the cable being pulled to tight while in the base connection or not screwed into the base connection. This unit new is now around $6500 and we can usually do a complete repair including the control Pots for around $1900. If you wish to have it repaired you can contact us at edr@controlmastersinc.com
