Micro Commander controls

Well I finially had enough with MC. I have MS Pilot 34 with twin Yanmars 240hp. I've had professional tech try and solve the problem only with the starboard motor. No results, so I'm changing over to mechanical shifting. Cable run was very easy to do. I had to order the shift control should be here this week. I'm doing the work myself. I will let you know how things work out.

Roger

Have you contacted Mathers for assistance? Or, have you considered Glendinning as an alternative?

I'll never go back to cables...

Pau Hana said:

Have you contacted Mathers for assistance? Or, have you considered Glendinning as an alternative?

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My Mathers don't synch automatically like advertised and I have had several designated experts look at them without any success. I've thought about going to Glendinning but have not followed up it. I have a friend who has Glendinning and he loves them!

Has anyone here ever changed over to MC?

Codger2 said:

Has anyone here ever changed over to MC?

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I did, on a previous boat. Two stations, flybridge and cockpit. The only problem I ever had (after at least 10 years) was that the cockpit control head went bad -- easy quick fix. The sync always worked fine for me.

Matters was contacted by the tech I called. Nothing was solved, all the trouble I have had I really don't want electronic controls. I don't feel I can count on the MC. It's always starboard motor that shifting quits or the unit will not let that motor start.

I used to run a passenger boat with MMCs. They were difficult to synch and wouldn't stay synched. I didn't like the feel of the control heads, which were like cheesy plastic toys and sort of twitchy and not very responsive. Had the local service vendor out several times with unsatisfactory results. They basically told me that I should lower my expectations!

That boat was a custom new-build. Electronic controls were specced by the naval architect, and the MMCs selected by the yard. No doubt price and ease of installation were the driving factors (the cable run from pilot house to main engines was over a hundred feet). As the end user, I will in the future avoid MMCs.

Other problem with Mathers MC

My boating buddy had Micro Commanders on his Tolly. Shortly after he bought the boat he, his wife and their 11 year old son were on the flybridge, idling in neutral waiting for us to leave our slip and all three of them watched as the boat shifted into gear--all by its self. Very close to rip-rap common to our CA Delta levee banks, the boat started to move toward the rocks. My buddy raced to the lower helm and shifted back into neutral, and stood there scratching his head. He then watched this happen again and then the boat shifted back into neutral without his involvement. It was rough on the water that day. We both headed back toward our near-by berths. After a nerve wracking process, he finally got it back in the slip without damage. We began diagnosing the situation. laughing about the boat being haunted. It turns out that on installation, something in one of the control heads was nicked and it was able to shift the gears on its own. On this particular day that boat was indeed haunted. No one hurt but the potential for a disaster was clearly present.

Other problem with Mathers MC

My boating buddy had Micro Commanders on his Tolly. Shortly after he bought the boat he, his wife and their 11 year old son were on the flybridge, idling in neutral waiting for us to leave our slip and all three of them watched as the boat shifted into gear--all by its self. Very close to rip-rap common to our CA Delta levee banks, the boat started to move toward the rocks. My buddy raced to the lower helm and shifted back into neutral, and stood there scratching his head. He then watched this happen again and then the boat shifted back into neutral without his involvement. It was rough on the water that day. We both headed back toward our near-by berths. After a nerve wracking process, he finally got it back in the slip without damage. We began diagnosing the situation. laughing about the boat being haunted. It turns out that on installation, something in one of the control heads was nicked and that unit was able to shift the gears on its own. On this particular day that boat was indeed haunted. No one hurt but the potential for a disaster was clearly present.

Codger2 said:

Has anyone here ever changed over to MC?

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I made a mistake when I posted the above question. What I meant to ask was "Has anyone ever switched from MC controls to Glendinning?"

I haven't switched one system to the other, but I have owned both on different boats. Both performed perfectly.

With any electronic control system, I think there are two very different "packages", and I'm not sure which the OP is struggling with.

On all of them the shift controls and master control box is the same, but how it then controls the engine and gear can be quite different. In both of my boats, the engine and gear were electrically controlled, so there was nothing more than a cable between the control box and the engine and gear. This requires that the engine throttle be electrically controlled, and that the gear control is via solenoids.

On engines and gears that are manually controlled, there are servo boxes for the engine and gear that mechanically control the throttle lever and/or shift lever. I have never owned on of these, but they seem to give you both the best and worst of both worlds. You get the operational convenience of electric shift and sync, but you get all the problems of electric controls PLUS all the problems of mechanical controls. Loose shift cable, or poor adjustment can cause all sorts of problems, in addition to any electrical faults. And to synchronize, presumably the control system needs a reliable tach source from each engine. I don't know how that's handled and is probably very boat-specific.

Well I'm glad to say project completed. Now I can feel comfortable that the shifting will work. This is the first time I tackled a project like this, everything went very smooth.

Roger

I used to found similar trouble years ago with a first generation zf controller. No sync, whatever I tried.
At that moment, we ended replacing original ignition system for electronic one (engines were gas crusader) and then, system sync.
General explanation from zf was sync need to be between 200 rpm difference max on idle...
After that, I design my own system and worked very well for the last 5 years on my actual boat.