Icon gauge startup appearance

[fisheye216]

I've noticed a change in the appearance of my tach and speedometer at starup. At ignition, there is a red light that flashes once or twice on the upper part of the tach, which appears to briefly illuminate the numbers 2 & 6. The digital display of the tach then lights up first, while the same display on the speedometer gradually illuminates over a few seconds. Otherwise, the needles of the gauges move to the ends and back as they normally do, and the gauges go through their normal sequence of checks. Both gauges otherwise function normally. Battery voltage from engine data ( Etec 150 H.O.) is unchanged at 12.6V. Any thoughts as to a reason for this abrubt change ? Thanks.

[Rickmcd53]

If you shade your gauge or have it in dim lighting you will notice that the blinging red 2 and 6 is actually a red back light on the whole screen. Since the gauge system may be installed without a warning buzzer the red blinking back light is used as an indication that a trouble code has been set. If a code is active there should be a message on the LCD screen.
I have only installed a few of these gauges so I cannot say if this is part of a self test function or if it may indicate that there is a stored code.
Perhaps Elder or a more experienced tech can provide more information.

[fisheye216]

Thanks for your reply. I went back and checked and did not see any code on LCD screen. It is also strange that the speedometer does not start to illuminate until tach is completely lit.

[Rickmcd53]

I haven't installed that speedometer yet but the tach is the "master" gauge and passes data to all of the other gauges. Your tach requires both a powered network and a key on power source to operate. Usually network power is run from the battery switch so it is "always on" for fishfinders, GPS, etc. In a basic install both the network power and gauge power could be connected to "key on". This could cause the tach to power up before the network wakes up causing a momentary error and/or delayed spedo response.

[fisheye216]

Thanks for your help