ZO to Z-box ABC/123 setting comparison

[WBLskier]

I just installed a used z-box/stargazer upgrade to my 1998 Malibu Echelon 325mph monsoon. Does anyone have any insight on how the Z-box ABC/123 settings compare to the ZO ABC/123 settings? Maybe this is boat specific, in which case if anyone is using a similar boat I'd be curious. I don't ski ZO enough to really have a good reference, but I'd like to train behind something as similar in feel as what I usually pick in ZO, which is B2 (for no obvious reason other than the middle choice). Thanks.

[UWSkier]

Since ZO has boat-specific programming and ZBox does not, you're likely dealing with an approximation at best. I'm betting ZBox feels like whatever the fine folks at PP used as their reference ZO boat. Might be worth a call up to them.

[sunvalleylaw]

Following.

[Steven_Haines]

If you look through your owners manual there's quite a bit of information that allows you to tweak your ABC 123 settings to closer emulate the new boat pull. All you need to do is read and tweak! Good luck!

[gregy]

From my experience its really important that the calibrations are correct for the speeds. In Stargazer mode if its slow it will try to make up the speed in the second half of the course. In Z-box it seems like it wants to make it up much quicker. We set on the phone with PP at the lake with my buddy's MasterCraft while they were helping us tweak it made a big difference. Might be worth updating the software if you don't have the latest version.

[jcamp]

I use the same ZBox setting as I do in Zero Off and don't notice much difference, if any at all.

[colo_skier]

Same as @jcamp However do a search for pp being wonky on this web site. Ignore the stuff about the fresh air exhaust in there and read about what I had to do to my pp and z-box to get it to operate the same as a zero off boat for my situation. It may be applicable it may not. But it may save you a lot of headaches. B2 seemed to be the closest to pp classic pull for me. One thing some people has noted is that the choice of pull is more about how you ski versus making the boats feel exactly the same. ie try all the settings see which you really like best and work from there. Have fun and ski more.

[eleeski]

Got my first Zbox sets today in a class F tournament. After years of ZO and even more years of PP classic, I was not impressed. ZO is a VERY consistent pull. Once you find what you like, you always get that. PP Classic is the same pull but the times can vary a bit more but it still feels wonderfully consistent - and you might not get hammered if you overpull.

 

Stargazer has always felt bad. Even when I used it a lot early on. It seemed to always hammer me to make up time. Stargasser?

 

I've heard good things about Zbox so I was intrigued to try it. OK, I'm not at my slalom best right now but I can still feel things. A couple of slightly strange pulls at the ball rattled me. Next round, things got worse. It sure felt hot coming into one ball - like it never acquired or settled in. MOP. Now my confidence is shot but at least the Class F gives me a 4 pass minimum. Didn't help. So I abandon my beloved C3 setting and go A1. Better. Still some weird spots - but in the pull where I had lots of time to adjust. At least I made a pass. Didn't get to where I've been recently. Kind of discouraging.

 

A couple others struggled with the feel - including a PP skier who uses PP Classic. Maybe there was a setup problem but the boat goes out a lot with no problems. When I boat judged, we did have a couple times where it didn't acquire and the time scatter was a lot wider than I'm used to vs ZO. Zbox still needs some work.

 

Still, I'm sure that I would be able to adapt. It's close. But I love my ZO.

 

Eric

[colo_skier]

@eleeski I found that stargazer took a lot of dialling in to get consistency. See my thread about stargazer believe wonky. Ignore all the exhaust stuff and see what I had to do to get Stargazer and then z-box dialled in. I suspect most people have not/will not go through the same effort.

 

http://www.ballofspray.com/forum#/discussion/comment/92633

[eleeski]

@colo_skier Thanks for the input. Reading your thread suggests that either there is some corrosion or mechanical issue slowly developing (the boat is a salt water boat) or that the drivers need to be very in tune with the skier - a difficult task in a tournament. At least one reride I granted was due to the pull up profile that had not settled before the skier pulled out for the gates.

 

The boat is used a lot by a college team where time on the water matters so much more than perfect speeds or pulls. The couple of good skiers who use the boat have it dialed for themselves. But one of them was worried because he had a weird pull last week and was hoping things were all right for the tournament.

 

If the experience you and other Zbox users apply to dial it in gets widely disseminated our pulls will get better. I'll try to forward this info. Thanks.

 

On the direct topic of this thread (hard to filter out of my whining post), I liked A1 better than my normal C3. A1 works OK for me with ZO and I'm tolerably familiar with it (A1 rocks if I'm skiing well). The Zbox was a pretty good simulation of that. ZO C3 (or the PP Classic switch) is precise on the timing of the hit - I didn't feel that precision from the Zbox. Transitioning back and forth a lot? Go A1.

 

Eric

[colo_skier]

Just an FYI, This weekend tried the CS/CR rpm reduction on another members boat to try to get it to stop overshooting when the throttle is hammered. We wanted to reduce the rpm of the take over point. Found out that changing it between passes is not a good thing. The boat surged and slowed through the majority of the pass. Powered down and powered back up and everything good to go. Take up point reduced and overshoot almost gone. So if you dork the ctrl settings power off and power down. This seems to reload the tables.

[WBLskier]

I skied pp classic for many years and always struggled skiing ZO. For comparison, in PP classic I would get a couple at 35 off 34mph most days and then I'd go behind a ZO boat and run a few at 28 and be ugly the entire time. I added zbox (version 9) at the end of the summer and skied it for about a month. It was an adjustment for me and at first I skied about the same as I do behind ZO. I skied at Pickos for 6 days a couple of weeks ago and noticed almost no difference behind a 2017 200. This was maybe my 12th trip there and I have never skied as well there as at home despite perfect driving and conditions. This time I skied the same as I do at home right away. This may be entirely consistent with eleeski's review since I do not train regularly behind ZO. Maybe Zbox is harder to ski behind than ZO and that's why now I can ski ZO fine. From a training standpoint I feel like this is the first time I can ski behind ZO without an issue and I've been training behind zbox only. My two cents.

[jpattigr]

I updated my Z-box to version 9 this spring and found my 05 196 to run much better, consistent times in the course. My best pass's behind my 196 were 4@32 and at my ski club skiing behind a 6.2 ZO 17 Prostar was 3@32. I find the Prostar a firmer pull but consider that the 6.2 vs my 343? The latest Z-box works great in my humble world!