The few eTec & other Outboard Owners on this list may find this interesting (speed control related)

[DangerBoy]

I know there have been three people who have successfully adapted Perfect Pass speed control system to work on their Evinrude eTec outboards and I have been in contact and received help from all three of them. (Thanks @GregHind!).

 

I believe that there have also been a few people who have successfully adapted the Steady Pass speed control system to various other types of outboards other than eTec but I believe (and please fee free to correct me if I'm wrong) that I'm the first person to attempt to adapt Steady Pass to an eTec.

 

At this stage, I just want to report that I have accomplished it, the installation went well and after a little tweaking of some PID controller parameters in the software, the system is working well. With the stock PID parameters provided in the latest (V22.0) version of the Steady Pass firmware, there was too much over and undershoot (hence surging) in GPS Speed control mode to be acceptable. RPM mode was noticeably better but still needed improvement.

 

After trying some new alternative PID coefficient numbers provided by the owner and designer of Steady Pass, speed control in GPS Speed control mode was hugely improved! There is now only a brief overshoot at the beginning and then within a a few short seconds, the system settles into a very stable zone most of the time staying within + or - 0.4 mph of the target speed with the occasional deviation of + or - 0.5 mph. Those of you who run Zero Off on your Tournament boats may not think that's anything to gush about but keep in mind what objectives and needs I was trying to meet. The eTec throttle system is aggressively cammed in the RPM range where most slalom skiers like to ski. That makes throttle control very touchy and sensitive in that speed range. My friends and I are only recreational free skiers but we love skiing and just want to have good runs without too much fluctuation in speed. While driving, we just want to have a system where we don't have to be so exact with our throttle control and don't have to fight with a finnicky and sensitive throttle lever to give our skier a good ride and be looking down at our speedometer more than we're looking ahead at where we're going. Being able to just set the speed we want, hammer it and then never having to look down at our speedometer and make throttle adjustments while pulling our skier was always the dream for us and I achieved that goal in spades with this Steady Pass implementation.

 

When I get back home and have more bandwidth to upload all the photos, I plan to document my Steady Pass installation on the Barnacle Bills Evinrude eTec forum and will provide a link to that post in this thread so that any of you who might be interested in learning what I did and how I got Steady Pass to work on my eTec can easily find and view my postings on the subject.

 

For now, just know that Steady Pass is a credible, less expensive competitor to Perfect Pass. It can deliver comparable performance to Perfect Pass at about half the price and can be successfully, and fairly easily, adapted to an Evinrude eTec or other outboard motor as well as any inboard or inboard/outboard rig. Of course, Perfect Pass is a great system too so you can't go wrong with either of them.

 

Epilogue:

 

Unfortunately, I injured myself on my very first run this season (see this thread for details httphttps://forum.ballofspray.com/discussion/21958/injured-list/p2://) so I won't be able to enjoy the fruits of my labour this season except for when I drive and take my friends skiing. Dang! :(

[DangerBoy]

For those of you who may have Etec outboards and might be interested in installing a speed control system or even for people looking at installing a budget priced speed control system and were considering Steady Pass, here's a link to a post I made on the etecownersgroup.com forum that documents my installation and the results in fairly good detail. There's over 20 photos and two videos in my four posts.

 

https://etecownersgroup.com/post/successful-steady-pass-speed-control-installation-on-2010-etec150-ho-12420854