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Canadian Yachting Magazine Brings You The Yamaha Helm Master
My name is Joe Maniscalco. I am the Field Service Manager for our outboard division
and what we have here is our helm master fully integrated boat control system. This is a
triple engine application. We have triple 300 horsepower, 3.2 litre engines and as you
can see all of the componentry for the helm master system is laid out on the transom assembly
here. We’ll kind of go over each component. Up here you have PCU’s (Power Control Units),
one for each engine. Next we have SCU’s (Steering Control Units). On the SCU’s for
a twin engine application we would use one, for a triple engine application we would use
two, so we bring the third one to this PCU right here.
These are steering motors which provide hydraulic pressure to our steering cylinders and on
our steering cylinders we have sensors which feed the position of each engine into our
SCU’s. So each engine operates independently of its counterparts. So we’re able to control
the boat completely by using all three engines independently of each other, whether that
be in forward or reverse, independent of the steering angle that we request the engine
to be at from our helm unit. Andy Adams: So the question I guess would
be can they then go in totally different directions and vector thrust forwards and backwards at
the same time? Absolutely. Depending upon what we are asking
the engines to do the engines can steer independently of each other. The third engine would then
supply assistance, depending upon what is being requested of it. So they can move in
or out, forward and reverse, independently of each other.
Up at the helm we start with our engine ignition and starter panel. So on the triple engine
application I can press one button and all three corresponding engines will turn on.
I press one button here and this is the All Start, all three engines will then start in
sequence. We have two gauges here for our three engines. Then we have our joystick control
and our remote control. On the remote control we have speed control which allows the operator
to engage into gear and using the centre button at the top of the control box, change engine
RPM’s 15% up and 10% down. That varies dependent upon the engine RPM’s. From there we have
station control. This system can have an upper station set up where you can switch from the
main station to the upper station and likewise back down to the main station.
We have a trim assist feature, which when engaged, and the throttle is increased at
pre-set RPM’s, the engines will trim up automatically on their own. As you continue
to go up in RPM’s and hit the next stage the engines will continue to trim for automatic
trimming. On the bottom we have single lever. When engaged, this lever becomes obsolete
and does not get used and everything is controlled from the one lever, all three engines at one
time, forward and reverse throughout its full range. We have centre engine operation only.
When engaged, just the centre engine will operate from the control. And then finally
we have free throttle, which basically removes the shifting and the engines will operate
at free throttle only. So how about we move to the backside and see
what’s on the backside of this? This area right here is our start panel and our little
warning horns kind of stick out of these little boots right here. Right here is a hub connector
which basically transfers information from our gauges to our HCU’s. This is an HCU
which is a Helm Control Unit. Now in a triple engine application we use this second HCU
because the remote control houses the primary HCU. So this would be used on a triple engine
application or running another HCU. These are our gauges, basically a connector here
and a connector here which go into our hub. That is our helm system which is fully electronic,
two feeds out of it which feed into our HCU’s. Right there is our joystick control, which
a single lead comes out of there and connects to the HCU. And that’s the complete system.