Perfect Pass on an outboard

[John1010]

Hello all,

I’m new to this forum and
I’m looking some advice on installing Perfect Pass on an outboard. My present boat is a Malibu Response With Perfect Pass.

I am going to buy an outboard boat to ski behind. I love the extra room in the boat and the small wake of an outboard. However, I am not willing to give up speed control.

Both Mercury and Yamaha now offer speed control on their new engines. However, you need digital throttle and shift DTS. Apparently the DTS option is not real popular. Due to supply chain issues the DTS engines have a 6 month + lead time to order right now. I don’t want to miss the summer season.

I understand Perfect Pass does not endorse or make a system specifically for outboards. I’ve resigned myself to buying a mechanical throttle engine and building a conversion kit.

Does anyone have any info/recommendations as to which engine manufacturer is the easiest to convert/install? Someone said that Perfect Pass for a Mercruiser will hook right up to a Mercury ob. Others say the Yamaha on is the way to go? Does anyone have some advice?

Thanks,

David Sandstrom

[motoxr]

Good morning John1010.

I know some others on this forum have made the connection to their outboards. (More of a fabricated process)

However, you may want to take a look at JCraft boats as they have now made this a factory option with Yamaha and Perfect Pass. Side note - these boats and the set ups do look amazing.

Good luck.

[John1010]

Thanks motoxr, you’re right the Jcraft looks like a sweet ride. A lot like my old Barefoot Sanger. However I’m looking for a bit more room. I’m gonna contact them and see about how they modify the Perfect Pass for the Yamahas. 
David

[buechsr]

@VONMAN runs ppass on his outboard and as i recall has posted his setup/mods here.

[VONMAN]

@John1010The install was straight forward for my 2015 Mercury 200 Pro SX. I ordered a Star Gazzer Wake version (it has the slalom package in it) for a 200hp Mercury V-6 sterndrive, the throttle cables are the same making it easy. And I could go into the menus to change from a V-6 4-stroke to a V-6 2-stroke. Follow the instructions carefully and it works great. PM me if you need info or help.

[On_edge]

I believe that the PerfectPass system that J-Craft is using is plug and play on the Yamaha VMAX outboards.

[John1010]

Thanks Vonman and On_edge, I spoke with Darby over at J-craft and you are correct the system they use and sell is plug and play for the SHO Vmax Yamaha. Nice to know Mercury is an option as well. I think I’m gonna go with the Yamaha SHO. I’ve heard some people need to install a pylon extender with the V-8 Merc because it’s so tall. From where I sit, that gives the edge to Yamaha. 

[DangerBoy]

@John1010 I installed a Steady Pass system on my Evinrude 150HO eTec last year and it works great. I'm still tweaking the PID coefficients to try and optimize the performance but I got it down to where it pretty much always stays within ±0.2 mph of the target speed most of the time. That's plenty accurate enough for me and the people I ski with. We just free ski though.

https://www.steadypass.com/

I looked at Perfect Pass and thought about it but then I talked to the guy who owns/runs Steady Pass and he was so eager to help me be the first person in the world to ever install a Steady Pass system on an eTec (3 other people had successfully installed Perfect Pass on an eTec before I did my installation) and then looking at the huge price difference between the two systems I decided to go with Steady Pass over Perfect Pass. 

When figuring out how I was going to install the Steady Pass on my outboard I consulted with the three gentlemen who had installed Perfect Pass on their eTecs. Two of them had fairly similar implementations and the other one's was quite different. I ended up doing mine different again but using some features of both systems those other guys had come up with.

In talking to those other gentlemen, they are not getting any better performance from their Perfect Pass systems than I am from my Steady Pass and the Steady Pass system gives you the opportunity to tweak more settings or coefficients than Perfect Pass does so you have more ability to refine (or screw up) the performance of the speed control system with Steady Pass than you do with Perfect Pass. And when you consider that Perfect Pass costs several hundred dollars more than Steady Pass and doesn't offer any better performance, I can't see why anyone would go with Perfect Pass over Steady Pass on an outboard. I highly recommend you look at that system.

If you're going to install this system on a Yammy, then the installation will be very similar to my eTec as both types of outboards are push-to-throttle. A Merc will be a little different and maybe a little easier as they are pull-to-throttle.

I very carefully and thoroughly documented my entire installation procedure so I can provide you with a lot of information and photographs of every step of the procedure. It took me a little while because I really took my time thinking and considering options at each step but in the end it wasn't really that hard to do. I'd be happy to share all my information with you if you'd like to see what I did.

In the picture you can see my installation. The servo/linear actuator is in a white 1" PVC tube in the upper left part of the photo. You can follow the servo cable down to where the throttle cable and the throttle cam lever are. I later replaced the unsightly white twist tie holding the servo cable in place with a neat little black zip tie after I had finalized the routing of the servo cable.

[ufoDziner]

@DangerBoy and @VONMAN I've got a Mercury Optimax 200 on a Centurion Falcon Barefoot that I'd like to add a speed control to.  Attached are some pics of the throttle connection and total travel is ~55mm.  I'm open to either Perfect Pass or Steady Pass, just want one that will work.  Any suggestion/guidance is welcome.  Thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[VONMAN]

@DangerBoy Does Steady Pass allow you to map a ski course? Does it have segment times and end course times? Or is it just a speed control?

[VONMAN]

@ufoDziner I have a 200hp 2015 ProMax SX Direct injection 2 stroke with Perfect Pass. Servo sits on a bed of Hi-temp silicone because of the heat sink on the servo assy. Going on 8 years so far. Year round, live in Florida.

[ufoDziner]

@VONMAN Thanks a ton for the pics.  Looks like your throttle arm is identical to mine.  Is the L-bracket you used an off-the-shelf part?  Same question for the spring.  Thanks!!!

[ufoDziner]

From the Perfect Pass videos, it looks like that brass L-bracket might be included with the kit.  Are you able to have the RPM show on the display as well?  I saw the "Engine Settings" page in one of their videos, but haven't found what data is set there.

[VONMAN]

@ufoDziner All the hardware came with the PP. RPM and speed shows all the time. I use the PP for RPM and Speed read out more than the twin speedometers or tach gauges.

 

[ufoDziner]

1 minute ago, VONMAN said:

@ufoDziner All the hardware came with the PP. RPM and speed shows all the time. I use the PP for RPM and Speed read out more than the twin speedometers or tach gauges.

 

Thanks @VONMAN.  My installation is mostly complete.  Just have to install the silicone mat and figure out where the RPM wire comes off the motor.  Any ideas on the RPM wire?  Would love to tap it off of the harness inside the boat, but the PP docs and what I've found so far don't seem to support that type of install.  I'll upload pics and notes after the install is finished.

[VONMAN]

@ufoDziner I don't remember, but the control box is mounted up front so I probably taped into the wire on the tach for the signal.

[ufoDziner]

@VONMAN  Thanks again for the help.  I'm using a Smartcraft gauge, which seems to lack the tach wire from what I can find.  If you know different, any help is appreciated.  Looks like I used the same brass arm as you.  I had to trim the hinge bolt for it by 2mm to clear the throttle cable end.  I also printed a cup for the servo motor to sit in and used high temp silicone to attach it to the lower cowl.  This provides quite a bit of support for the servo from below in addition to the zip ties that stabilize it on the top.

Install pics:

 

Boat:

[6balls]

@ufoDzinerBad ass!

[GregHind]

You’ll have to find the tach wire/get a harness that has it. On my etec I think I had to install two harnesses to get it. One was the digital iconmand and the other was for the analogue gauges. Hard to remember though because it was 2007!!  I’ve don’t plenty of mercs including optis but all were earlier than 2015

[VONMAN]

@ufoDziner You may have to apply more spring tension. And make sure that the L-bracket pivot bolt and the C-bracket on the Throttle cable bolt line up. If they do not you may have some hi idle issues. Looks like you are ready to go.

[VONMAN]

@ufoDziner I tried to find in my Merc shop manual where the tach signal wire would be but all it refers to is Smartcraft gauges. My tachometer is old school. Give a Merc dealer a call maybe they can point you in the right direction. Sorry.

[ufoDziner]

2 hours ago, VONMAN said:

@ufoDziner You may have to apply more spring tension. And make sure that the L-bracket pivot bolt and the C-bracket on the Throttle cable bolt line up. If they do not you may have some hi idle issues. Looks like you are ready to go.

Thanks. We actually started with the stronger spring and changed to the lighter. No idle issues yet (only one day of testing). 

2 hours ago, VONMAN said:

@ufoDziner I tried to find in my Merc shop manual where the tach signal wire would be but all it refers to is Smartcraft gauges. My tachometer is old school. Give a Merc dealer a call maybe they can point you in the right direction. Sorry.

Thanks. Yeah, we have a Smartcraft gauge. So finding the info has proven challenging. According to the wiring diagram I have, there should be a grey wire in the cowling area that provides a tach signal. I’m gonna see if I can track it down next time. 

[03RLXi]

I added an hourmeter onto my 2kW portable generator recently. It displays rpm and engine hours and it's simply has a wire tail that needed to be wrapped around the spark plug lead a few times.  Could you do something like that to get an tach pulse?  

[ufoDziner]

On 9/3/2023 at 12:42 PM, 03RLXi said:

I added an hourmeter onto my 2kW portable generator recently. It displays rpm and engine hours and it's simply has a wire tail that needed to be wrapped around the spark plug lead a few times.  Could you do something like that to get an tach pulse?  

Thanks for the reply.  I imagine that I could.  Using an existing wire is the goal for now.  I'm doing an electrical upgrade this winter (adding a stereo and touchscreen interface to run the systems) and will do some testing for the correct wire then.