Zero Off - Any Gizmo's Out There, too help us out with the satellites ?

[Stevie Boy]

So here we have a brand new 200 with zero off, we ski on a lake where the run in is fairly short, one end is open, so no problems there, the other end has a island, that we stop in front of, it is surrounded by tall trees, when we set off we go round a small narrow cut with tall trees and bushes either side, we think the problems that we are experiencing with zero off are related to the satellite or lack of.

Problems being sudden surge in speed or dropping off of speed, is because we momentarily lose satellite signal and the boat gets confused when it picks them up again, because it,s not where it thinks it should be.

Is there any gizmo's out there to improve capture of satellite or something that we could position at the side of the lake ?

[estrom]

chainsaw?

[BCM]

I don't know a lot about ZO, but I have taught a few college level GPS/remote sensing/orienteering courses, so my suggestions are based solely on my understanding of the basic fundamentals of how GPS works. As a forester, I have been let down by GPS systems many times in steep and/or forested areas, so trees will impact a GPS unit. When my handheld doesn't have contact with enough satellites, it doesn't know where it is either.

 

GPS systems generally need 3 satellites (ZO may be different) to get an accurate location. My first step would be to get your hands on a basic hand held GPS unit (Garmin or otherwise). It should have a screen that shows the satellites which it is able to communicate with. I would idle through the narrow area (where you are having trouble) while watching that screen several times. If you are getting below 3 satellites regularly, then the Gismo mentioned below could help.

 

As far as Gismos to help go, I have a Stihl MS 460 that does a real nice job of removing trees.

[gregy]

One of the public lakes we ski at has high cliffs and we loose GPS signal in a few places. Wonder if mounting it higher would help, on top of tower or pole? I think the GPS units are made by Garmin. Might try contacting them.

[Phil2360]

Have seen plenty of weird things with GPS, discussed a bit of it back here:-

 

http://www.ballofspray.com/forum#/discussion/6873/gps-errors

 

Cheers

 

[ForrestGump]

I don't think the boat is losing enough satellites to cause this. You only need 3. How many are showing. We typically show 9 satellites.

 

That said, we had to replace one gps puck and then the ZO head unit. It's a 2013 team with the Linc 2 so the ZO is a small box under the dash behind where the keypad is. We were having speed control issues coming into the course. It would close the throttle coming up to the 55s, which the skier could feel, then accelerate into the gate. Sometimes(at 34.2/55k) would drop as low as 32.5mph and then accelerate to 34.9mph through the gates. If you go into diagnostics, you can see any codes and see if the ZO is throwing a non functioning gps signal at any point.

[GregHind]

What model gps puck is it? You can probably connect an external antenna up to get a better signal.

[Phil2360]

Think it might be one of these:-

 

https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/oem/sensors-and-boards/gps-18x-5hz-/prod13195.html

 

Don't think this one has an antenna connection.

[GregHind]

Pp uses a unit which looks the same and used to, if doesn't still have an external antenna connector. At the least you can extend the wires and mount the farming puck higher. Possibly you connect an antenna or replace it with another garmin which will take an antenna. They are Very basic, standard units

[Stevie Boy]

Thanks guy's, we have four satellites showing in a straight line, two with good strength and two with low strength from what I understand you can have four satellites in a straight line, but if you drop to three there needs to be triangulation, I,m thinking the chainsaw option might be the only way out.