ZO setting for slow speed light skier

[chrislandy]

2015 Prostar with double puck Zero Off,

 

My kid is starting to run the course now and I'm having trouble finding a good setting for him, 28kph, 65lb soaked through.

 

So far I've been using trick mode & B2 and the speed is rock solid though the course, if I change to slalom mode then the speed hunts up and down but keeps the correct time, I've tried a few letter and number combos and it still seems to do it. He's got a comp at the end of August so we'll need a setting for him.

 

Take someone through at 49-58kph and it's perfectly fine whichever setting the skier prefers

[ral]

I started all my daughters with A1. You will not me able to use trick mode in the tournament, so you would have to live with slalom mode.

[LeonL]

IMHO a 28K skier isn't gonna notice much difference no matter what setting. He just won't load the boat enough for ZO to know he's there. Just go with B2. If your ZO hunts up and down, there is a problem with it. Does your boat fluctuate at 28k with no skier? Your son shouldn't apply enough load.

[chrislandy]

@LeonL that's what I thought, I don't know if it does it without a skier, I'll check tomorrow when I'm up there to service the boat. It's on B2 at the moment.

 

I'm not getting any errors popping up on the ZO. Out of interest, how many satellites does it need to work properly? I'm normally getting between 6 and 9, sometimes 10.

[Mastercrafter]

@chrislandy I’ve read a bit that the new ECI single puck just all around works better, less surging, hunting for speed, etc.

 

I have dual on my 2015 and have the single puck update hardware/software, but yet to install.

 

My dual puck usually sees 6-9 satellites like yours as well. A single puck, same ski site, will pick up 12-16 if I recall correctly. I’ve lost GPS twice in the last year on real cloudy days… I doubt the single puck would have had that issue.

[Ali]

try remapping your course, I would go A1 or A2

[Horton]

@chrislandy The number/letter settings literally makes no difference. A beginner 65 lb skier will NEVER engage the ZO so the the setting is irrelevant.

 

That said your boat should hold constant speed. Are you sure that the throttle is fully engaged?

[chrislandy]

I'm not sure what you mean @Horton , the speed on the dash was green so I presume that means it's all working correctly and engaged?

 

That was exactly what I thought and why I was a bit unsure why it was happening

 

Does it matter how far the throttle is pressed forward once it beeps and turns green? Being new to DBW I'm still on a learning curve!

 

I'll try and replicate the issue tomorrow without a skier

 

[DW]

@chrislandy - may be irrelevant but when I have driven my tendency is not to push the throttle very far past the engagement point. The system(s) hold speed just fine with that procedure. Boats include both MC & CC's equipped with ZO.

[Mastercrafter]

@chrislandy I could be wrong on this but I THINK that even with ZO engaged (green) it will never apply more throttle than what is commanded by the throttle/shift control lever. Driving my boat in open water, no skier, I've seen green numbers below the ZO set speed when the throttle lever is backed down a but. I think there's a buffer zone where it's still trying to stay engaged, but doesn't necessarily have the available throttle to use.

 

Once I hear the beeps and we're up to speed, I drop the lever all the way down to make sure nothing will limit engine speed. Hope that makes sense.

 

I've noticed surging on my 2015 dual puck at trick speeds.. I need to update to single puck and see what happens.

[ScottScott]

With ZO engaged it will only apply throttle up to the relative amount to where your throttle lever is positioned. IF there isn't enough throttle based on that throttle position for it do make the correction the way it thinks it should, there will be a series of fast beeps. (at least on our setup, maybe that varies with boats/systems?) For a light skier, just being slightly higher than where it engages should be ok. For someone that puts more of a load on the boat, full throttle is where you want to be. When driving I always have one hand on throttle so I can pull back quick if something gets weird.

[Broussard]

@chrislandy Mike (mastercrafter) is correct, the best practice is to push the throttle all the way down once engaged. This way ZO has full control of the ECM and engine.

[Kelvin]

Sounds like a dual-puck ZO issue. A couple of years ago, my dual-puck system started to hunt dramatically for speed on occasion. Usually during early evening skiing. Trick skiing and slower jumpers were most noticeable. When it occurred, the system was only picking up 4-5 satellites. Other times it would get around 9 satellites and would be fine. Upgraded to the single-puck system and haven't had any issues.

[jpwhit]

The symptoms you describe is exactly how ZO behaves when using pucks that suffer from the GPS week rollover bug in the Garmin 18x puck firmware. The rollover that impacts the original ZO dual puck system happened on April 6 2019.

[GregHind]

@jpwhit is spot on. Dual puck zero off is hopeless now unless you upgrade the firmware. I built my own cable to do it and there is a thread detailing it on here that helped me build mine. That said you can send your pucks to perfect pass and get them to do the upgrade (yes I said PP can fix zero off pucks) or you can upgrade to the new single puck. Dual puck is great once you fix the firmware.

[chrislandy]

Update, it's driver error! After a half hour or so playing around trying to replicate the issue, the only time it happened was when I drove like I do for the kid and feather the throttle up to speed and leave it there. When I did the same but plant the throttle after engagement, no issues.

 

You learn something every day with these newer boats, I'll take a look at the cable to upgrade the pucks anyway as it would be good to futureproof it.

[GregHind]

@chrislandy it is so much better after the pucks are upgraded https://www.ballofspray.com/forum#/discussion/23632/the-transition-between-dual-and-single-puck-zo-gps-hardware

[jpwhit]

@GregHind, that was our experience as well on our Nautique 200 club boat. We didn't realize how much the pull on our dual puck ZO had deteriorated until after I updated the firmware on the pucks. And since my ProStar at my lake house is the new single puck, it made the club boat and my other boat feel much closer to the same.