Zero Off Issues

[OldGuysRule]

We've been having occasional zero off issues with our club boat. (2009 Nautique 196 with 300 hours) Several times this summer the boat accelerates drastically after coming around the east island then slows down below set speed. It always happens at the east end of our lake which has tall trees and it also seems to happen after extended use later in the day. we do have high tension wires over the West (opposite) end of the lake. The solution has been to shut everything completely down and then re-boot. The most recent issue was this past Sunday. On Tuesday, I brought my personal boat to use for the afternoon and evening and the same issue appeared. (2015 Mastercraft - 2 puck system) Same location, same time frame of the day, same symptons. I did the same shut-down routine and everything was fine for the rest of the evening. I'm thinking there has to be some kind of interference with the signals/pucks? Brewski Lake - Indianapolis, Indiana. Anyone have similar issues?

[skibug]

you need to upgrade to the single puck. We had the same issues with our 2015 MC on the two puck system. The satellite communications with the garmin pucks is erratic due to the software reprogramming of the satellites earlier this year.

[LeonL]

I take it that @OldGuysRule personal boat performed ok at another site? If so, it doesn't seem to be the software. While the single puck may solve the problem, it certainly appears that there is a problem at the specified location.

[Not_The_Pug]

Easy way to check if the pucks are an issue due to the upgrade of the satellites is to look at the date. If it says 1999, then you can either upgrade to single puck or see if you can have your duel pucks re-flashed. Another check is if you are only getting 7 or less satellites.

[disland]

single puck upgrade is a no brainer, I have had zero issues with ZO since I upgraded and I believe the pull is better too

[Doug]

If you have the 2 Garmin puck system we had problems with boats across the country this summer They did some changes with satellites in the atmosphere which caused lots of interruptions in signals if you look in your diagnostic screen and see Bad Poss that means you lost signal between satellite and puck. We did not see the problem if you were running the ECI puck just a drop of how many satellites were recognized

[Bjkesler]

we have gone out twice in the last couple weeks when our screen has said no GPS and then the next day it would be fine. does that sound like a puck problem or a GPS problem?

[BrennanKMN]

Pop open the diagnostics screen and see if you have a GPS fail. When I was having issues I found that I had a GPS puck that failed. Replaced it and everything went back to normal.

[Frank_MA]

If you have a SN200 2011 like ours where the zero off is hard wired without the plug connectors, updating to the new ECI pucks does not seem to be so trivial.

Every evening arround the same time our satellite reception goes back from 11 to 3.The error message is just "Bad GPS Position"

Maybe because Garmin still sells the old pucks with a weekly rollback firmware update the problem is actually on the Zero Off site which does not offer any software update for the old Garmin pucks anymore because they generally wanted to switch to the new ECI single pucks.

[Soundingbusy]

Contemplating switching to an ECI single puck on a 2014 TXI for this very reason.

 

Question I have is can the single Eci puck be mounted under the fibreglass like my current Garmin pucks or does it need to be mounted on the topside like all the new current boats seem to have. Note it is a Aus Malibu as I believe some US Malibus of similar vintage have them on the topside. Thoughts?

[jpwhit]

We're having the exact same issue as described in the original post on our club boat. Powering everything off does fix the issue ... typically for the rest of the session.

 

Assuming Zero Off uses the standard Garmin firmware on the pucks, there were recent updates by Garmin that appears to address issues that could be causing this.....

 

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GPS 18x 5Hz software version 4.30

as of August 27, 2019

Download (1.16 MB)

 

 

Change History

 

Changes made from version 4.20 to 4.30:

Fixed satellite tracking bug affecting GPS sensors used before April 6, 2019

 

Changes made from version 4.00 to 4.20:

Fixed GPS week number rollover. Improved PPS (pulse per second) reliability.

[BlueSki]

Has anyone witnessed the speed setting blink between the actual setting and 70 mph? This is happening on the college team’s 2017 Prostar with a single puck. I believe it is Rev R. The speed setting does this when they try to change speed up or down. Once set and skiing, the speed is accurate, but the issue becomes a problem with a team of skiers that all ski at different speeds. If you have seen this, was Rev S a fix?

[BlueSki]

Bump, in the event someone with a Prostar has seen the speed change issue. Topics of conversation were dominated elsewhere last week.

[LeonL]

I would have to think that is a head / display problem and not GPS related

[BlueSki]

@LeonL, agree. They have the single puck so my guess is that it is the hardware of the head unit or software of Zero Off. If nothing else, software is an easy attempt to fix it and gives them the same pull that they will get in tournaments.