Autoglide
Autopilot for your trim tabs. Stop fiddling with your trim tabs all the time.
All I really wanted was trim tab indicators until I ran across and installed Lenco's Autoglide.
The boat now analyzes the pitch and roll in real-time and adjusts the trim tabs accordingly to level the boat out making for a more comfortable ride. Should guests get up and move around while on plane, the boat will figure it out and adjusts the trim tabs auto-magically. When I accelerate to get up on plane, the trim tabs are automatically deployed to push the bow down and signifcantly improves hole shot. It also corrects the boats natural port list when on plane.
I generally do not touch my trim tabs while driving with Autoglide.
The Autoglide replaces the trim tab switch on the helm, it adds a controller (which has a gyroscope and accelerometers) which I mounted under the helm seat.
The controller connects to the:
Port and Starboard trim tabs,
12v power
Helm trim tab switches
NEMA 2000 network (for engine and GPS data)
A Yamaha to Nema2k gateway is required for proper operation.
Ignition wire (to know if the engine is on or off).
There are accelerometers and gyroscopes within the Autoglide controller. The controller must be mounted vertically, cables facing aft for it to operate correctly. The Lenco optional L-shaped mounting bracket wasn't optional because of this installation requirement.
After installtion, we took the boat out to calibrate the Lenco Autoglide. It has to know what balanced port/starboard is, as well as the normal cruising pitch angle. Calibration takes a few minutes and requires flat/calm water.
Note Engine RPM data is required via Nema2k for the Autoglide to function. If your boat doesn't have a Yamaha Engine to N2k gateway installed, you'll have to add one.
Here's a drawing of the Yamaha engine and N2k data busses in the boat.
I bought this on a gamble, as the boat always preferred to lean to Port and I was always messing with the tabs trying to correct.
Make no mistake, this is one of the best upgrades I've done to Channel Surfing. I do not touch the trim tabs at all now. It totally exceeded my expectations.
The boat does pop up on plane quicker and it's nice to not have to adjust the trim tabs at all, especially when folks move about the cabin while underway. (It does have manual override as well). Watching it work, it does things such as simultaneously tapping the starboard side tab up while tapping the port side tab down in short bursts to adjust the level of the boat. The Autoglide is evaluating pitch and roll 25 times a second.
Because it's tied into GPS and engine data it knows when the boat is turning and will not try to level the boat in a turn.I still need to adjust the engine trim on the outboard. The Autoglide just balances the boat roll and pitch based on changing conditions in real-time using the port and starboard trim tabs so I don't have to touch the tabs at all while driving.
Also note, this is NOT the equivalent of say, a Seakeeper or paravanes. The Autoglide is merely auto-pilot for your trim tabs to help keep the boat balanced when up on plane, cruising.
At slow speeds (less than 10knots), the trim tabs aren't effective.
When I'm going to slow-boat for awhile (less than 10mph) the Autoglide will see the engine RPM high and will think I'm about to get up on plane. Thus, it will deploy both tabs to help improve hole shot. I override the Autoglide and retract the tabs as it saves a little fuel to have less drag.
Installation was fairly easy and straight forward. The L shaped mounting bracket is required. I ran out of room on the Nema2000 bus so I ended up replacing 3 T's with a single Multi-T (4 port) that takes up less horizontal space. This required removing the chart plotter from the helm to gain access to the Nema2k bus. The only cable I actually had to crimp was the purple ignition wire. Easiest way to do this is a butt splice to the orange wire off the old trim tab controller. (cut the orange wire an butt splice the purple wire from autoglide to the orange wire which is the ignitaiton wire). Zip tie's were also needed to keep the autoglide harness wires from touching the Webasto heater or air conditioner.
The project cost about $1k in parts and I did all the labor myself. It took me about 4 hours.
Yamaha Nema2k Gateway.
Parts can be ordered at our Amazon Affiliate site.
Last updated: 9/3/2023
