Installed SG upgrade and I have a couple of questions.

[makeall6]

I just upgraded to StarGazer software that does not use magnets. Installation went well so I took the boat out to the lake to give it a try. I mapped the course as per instructions. When I passed the gates at the pylon I hit set then did the same at the other end. All seems fine. While skiing I noticed that the PP beeps when the bow goes by the boat guides. Is this normal? It seem that since I programmed the gates at the pylon, the guides would be the same. Full course times are fine except the boat seems hot for the first 3 balls. I am just trying to understand how it all works. I never used to give it much thought but now I kind of find of interesting. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers.

[colo_skier]

Sounds correct to me. PP is beeping were it theoretically believes the boat guides should be relative to the gates. Search for my thread on what I had to do to get SG (z-box was the thread but was the same for SG) to stop the surge at 2 ball. This may be what you are seeing. Somebody commented that you don't have all the settings in the non-dbw version that I had. Not sure which applies to your set-up. Hope this helps.

[DanE]

@makeall6 What kind of Course do you have? Is it surveyed? Remember now with gps timing PP clocks the buoys where they are supposed to be not nessecarily where they are- if the length of the Course is not dead on actual

 

[makeall6]

All great points! The course is not surveyed. We replaced an Accufloat years ago. We dropped the cement blocks by using the Accufloat as a template. Even if I am getting correct course times, the course could be off, right? I am going to give PP a call. Their customer support is top shelf.

[makeall6]

Thanks for the reply. So, if the course is off a bit, it has to be reset, right? I am getting perfect time however.

[ForrestGump]

The times are virtual, based on the start position. Your course could be 150 too long and you'd still get right times.

[MISkier]

The only thing the zbox unit knows, regarding position/location of the course, is each gate. When you enter the gate during a pass, the GPS recognizes the location of the boat as entering the course and triggers the activation of the timer. The timer starts recording elapsed time. The unit then uses GPS speed measurement samples (not location) and elapsed time to calculate the distance the boat has traveled. It does many speed samples and timer data points so that the traveled distance is very accurate when summed to get distance over a particular timeframe. The unit does not use any GPS coordinates or positional representation to determine when you pass ball 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 or the exit gates. All it knows is that you have been driving X speed for Y time and should have traveled distance Z (which it compares to a particular expected measurement for an official slalom course). When it determines that you have traveled a particular distance milestone in the course (e.g., ball 1), it captures the timer reading and equates that reading to the course location it believes you have reached. It records that timer reading as the buoy time. Hopefully, your buoys are actually floating in those locations. Same thing for the exit gate. It determines that you have traveled a distance matching the length of an official slalom course and stops timing. It records that final time as your course time. Whether you actually leave the gate at that exact time depends on your course accuracy and your original mapping accuracy (pressing the button at the correct boat position in the gates).

 

By the way, Zero Off does do this somewhat different from zbox. Zbox only maps each entrance gate, but Zero Off requires you to drive through the course once and map the entrance and exit gate in a single pass. It provides a progress bar on the screen and will anticipate when you should be pressing the button to mark the exit gate. It even beeps and increases beep frequency/intensity as you get closer to the expected gate location. It will tell you if your overall course length is questionable. It cannot tell you if individual buoys are improperly located. I think it might also beep during the mapping at each buoy to give you some sort of visual reference to where it thinks they are located, but it does not know if the buoys are there or not.

[makeall6]

Wow. My head is spinning. I'm going to take up barefooting! Thanks for the info. That really does explain it nicely. We really should have our course surveyed.

[colo_skier]

Now that you know that SG uses were the course should be and not were you put it that still doesn't explain the fast 1,2 and 3 ball times. I think you will have to play with the tables for each of the different weight classes to get the times to be more linear across the complete set of buoys. As said before the thread about z-box has the info on what I had to do to stop the surge at 2 ball. Hope it works for you.

[makeall6]

Thanks colo_skier Heading out tomorrow and experiment. Thanks to all who posted.

[makeall6]

Sounds good. (pun not intended)