Troubleshooting a FlowScan GPH Meter

J

Jonah

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Hello,

I'm new to boating, and recently purchased an Adventure 208 (see signature for details). It comes equipped with an after-market 'flowscan' GPH meter, which can be seen in the top-right of the attached image. The previous owner tells me that the little display screen below the gauge is supposed to tell me how many gallons I've burned since the last time I reset the counter. Although the gauge (the needle) works fine, I cannot figure out how to turn on the display screen. Any ideas?

It's apparently not the little toggle-switch that you see in the picture (although I can't figure out what that does either), and it's not the 'accessory' switch on my switch panel.

Thanks for any advice!

p.s. On my browser, I have to right-click on the image and choose 'view image in new tab', in order to see the entire image.
 

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It looks like you don't have power to the green wire on the meter. The toggle switch could be a reset switch but if it is the meter should show zero in one position or the other.
I don't know how to show the entire image either but hopefully you can use this diagram to trace the wiring back to the battery.
Good luck.
 

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Although they're excellent units, I haven't messed with one in many years so I can't offer any 100% accurate advice. But I would start with the electrical schematic and pulling the dash panel to check (1) What the switch is hooked to (2) That connections are clean and tight.
 
Although they're excellent units, I haven't messed with one in many years so I can't offer any 100% accurate advice. But I would start with the electrical schematic and pulling the dash panel to check (1) What the switch is hooked to (2) That connections are clean and tight. Another possibility is simply a dead LCD screen, but I would check other things out before replacing.
 
i think there should be a spring loaded momentary push button reset for zeroing the digital meter. maybe somebody replaced it with a toggle and wired it wrong.

floscan has excellent technical support. if you get the model number for the gauge you will be able to get the wiring diagram. i called them last year with some questions and i am pretty sure i got the guy who designs the things.
 
the other possibility is that they never installed the push button and activated the digital meter. the toggle could be instrument lights or something else.
 
This is all very helpful; thanks so much. I'll try following this advice, and will post again when I've made some progress.
 
Hi everyone,

Turns out that the toggle switch does indeed go to the FlowScan Meter, via the green wire that CatTwentyTwo mentioned. I also found that the toggle switch was not getting any power. Although the green wire goes from the toggle switch to the back of the flowscan meter, another blue wire goes from the toggle switch to the auxiliary fuse panel. It was either unplugged from, or was never plugged into, the auxiliary fuse panel.

But now I have a true beginner's question: how do I plug in the blue wire that goes to the toggle switch? Can I just choose one of the empty slots in the auxiliary fuse panel, and if so how do I know what size fuse to put in? Does it matter if the slot 'across' from the empty one is already being used, or are the two sides of the fuse panel completely independent from each other?

Thanks!
 
You should use a 1/2 amp fuse as shown in the diagram and I don't think connecting to the fuse panel is the right way to go. On my 94 208 the fuse panel only has power when the battery selector switch is set to position 1, 2 or Both. If your 96 is the same, the totalizer is going to reset to zero every time you turn the battery selector to Off. I have mine wired right to the battery.
 
CatTwentyTwo said:
You should use a 1/2 amp fuse as shown in the diagram and I don't think connecting to the fuse panel is the right way to go. On my 94 208 the fuse panel only has power when the battery selector switch is set to position 1, 2 or Both. If your 96 is the same, the totalizer is going to reset to zero every time you turn the battery selector to Off. I have mine wired right to the battery.
Click to expand...

CatTwentyTwo is correct.
here is a link to the docs for Flowscan, scroll to page 13 for the wiring diagram and the note about constant +12 volts on the totalizer feed.
http://floscan.com/html/manuals/5500_55 ... master.pdf
 
Hi again,

The instructions that you all have provided (thanks again) refer to a 1/2 amp fuse. Do you all think this means '0.5' or 'one or two'? I'm having a hard time finding anything less than a 3-amp fuse in local stores, but am about to search online.

And, if I do use a 3-amp fuse, is that big enough that I would seriously risk frying the unit?

Thanks!
 
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