I've heard of others having trouble with the Onan controls as well. Marine applications (similar to dewatering in some cases) are pretty tough on electronics, espeically ones without good cases.
If you're pretty sure your generator is running fine on it's own and you don't really care about monitoring the generator's output, you could just get yourself an engine control unit to autostart the engine and monitor that part, then just watch the generator's output with a seperate meter.
I'm thinking you don't mind not knowing the generator's output though, since you were ready to run your engine with the IFI RC. I also don't feel the IFI controller would hold up to the saltwater environment... you'd get contact corrosion on the board (not sealed) in just a few years.
I highly reccommend an
engine autostart controller from ECU. They've been around for many years and have controllers running in environments ranging from oil rigs in the gulf to the ice roads up in alaska (saw that in diesel progress). They're fully encapsulated and built like a brick, simple to wire, designed and built in the USA. They'll cost you a couple hundred bucks... but compared to the cost of your generator set or even the cost of an IFI RC, not a bad deal.
Let me know if you have any questions, hope that helps,
Q
p.s. I am a human being inside this geekie exterior... what kind of boat is this? How big? What's it for?
