Phil2360

Our boat is a 1997 local Aussie built boat from a small manufacturer & running a Carby 6.6 litre (Spelling correct). Probably less than 20 built. Wakes Great at 22 & shorter. We average 10.9 Litres (correct spelling again), (2.9 US gal/hour) over the past 15 years. Bit of slow stuff in that, but if it's a slalom only 32+ outing we burn about 14 Litres/Hour max. Baselines for 34 & 36 are 2890 & 3070 rpm. Think our consumption is so good because the big cubes of the 400 Chev is doing it so easy. They guy that built it has done a few 350's & recons they are lucky to get below 15 litres/hour & run about 600 revs higher at 36. Bigger is working easier in my books.

Ahh come on @horton, not talking about a huge amount of code!. Just multiply something by 2.2 internally. Besides the options allow you to select either pounds or kg's in the user setting, so it's partially there already. We're on a short setup so it makes a big difference.

Why's Crew weight gotta be so difficult for us Aussies. I always get a blank look from the female members of our crew when I Start with; 75 + 35 + 55 that's 165kg's, Double that's 330, add another 10%, that makes about 360 pounds. Please Perfect Pass, Make a software change so we can just enter 165kg's. Will make a lot in the boat much more co-operative. It might have been changed in Version 8, but I can't get any confirmation as yet.

@lff That's pretty much the same as what I saw.

@ntx Perfect Pass, as per their video. Think I still like the Magnets Personally.

Had a good play about with my system yesterday with on skiers present. Mapped the course a couple of times & was interesting to notice how the timer beeped several metres before the boat got to each buoys. I mapped it at about the ski pole & I'd guess the system triggered about 2 metres or more before the pole passed the buoys. I Know GPS position is never much better than +/- 3 or 4 metres. What do other people find?

Rule? they've always seemed Ok. Moon Shine anyone?

@colo_skier there would be no need to "trick" Stargazer, as it now has totally different software loaded, so the stream of serial data coming from the Z-Box will probably contain both positional & accelerometer data. If the serial port is running at 19200 Baud, that's 1920 Characters per second, so plenty of data could be communicated in a given second. Agree that the raw data would probably be pre-processed in the box as the NMEA data from the Garmin is really not what the system would be interesting. Probably communicates either distance traveled, or instantaneous speed for every 5 Hz update.

Hmmm, I'm in Aus too & been emailing Perfect Pass since December. Quite often it takes 1/2 a day for them to get back to me..................

@rico The GPS used is a Garmin GPS 18 5Hz. It communicates over an RS-232 interface, or what is otherwise known a serial port on older computers. (Mice & modems mostly used to use these ports). So the GPS port in the master module is just a serial port that can be programmed for any purpose. So it's logical now that the GPS talks to the Z-box first & then the Z-box talks to the master module, communicating both GPS & accelerometer data. As it contains it's own micro processor, it must also be capable of doing some processing on both sets of raw data before it talks to the master module. Here's a Diagram of the GPS's connection to a PC. http://static.cl1.vanilladev.com/ballofspray.vanillaforums.com/uploads/FileUpload/5f/52368465d9c8509856d7bb9853d288.jpg

Can't help myself. Gotta have a look inside things to see what's there....... http://static.cl1.vanilladev.com/ballofspray.vanillaforums.com/uploads/FileUpload/fb/9ebb829596e99eeb42b7c1693d3ad9.jpg Assume the little chippy in the bottom left is the accelerometer.

Got my Z-Box today. As my master module was a very early production it needed modifying a bit. Here's a few pics. 1st is the un-modified board. http://static.cl1.vanilladev.com/ballofspray.vanillaforums.com/uploads/FileUpload/38/ab2854ea614645d398e847784ded29.jpg Others show the replacement replacement regulator in place. http://static.cl1.vanilladev.com/ballofspray.vanillaforums.com/uploads/FileUpload/8f/a36e34e7761b1e84e10ac08628b667.jpg http://static.cl1.vanilladev.com/ballofspray.vanillaforums.com/uploads/FileUpload/22/d4f69d32941e06e10b69f61054e07c.jpg http://static.cl1.vanilladev.com/ballofspray.vanillaforums.com/uploads/FileUpload/18/ee6bf6c3e7ad5b0f5f1b5e21d1770b.jpg Cheers Phil

@Horton Wasn't worried. Just wondering why they'd disappeared. Do you have a time limit on that sort of stuff? Can understand that you'd have a hosting Quota for stuff you need to store etc. Also, what about a how to relating to various ways of including photos in posts. Embedding vs Attaching etc.

Yeah I know there are no User set baselines. But... reading the patent document it seems like the system uses a rpm vs speed look-up table that is constantly updated to maintain most accurate values. From the Patent document:- The following table is an example of the velocity vs. engine speed adaptive table as it might be initialized from the factory. This table is a simple linear table which starts at zero velocity and extends to the maximum velocity of the boat (60 kph) at which the maximum engine speed rating (6000 rpm) is also reached: TABLE-US-00001 v.sub.d (kph) .omega..sub.adapt (rpm) 0 0 10 1000 20 2000 30 3000 40 4000 50 5000 60 6000 The following is an example of the velocity vs. engine speed adaptive after the boat has been driven for a period of time: TABLE-US-00002 v.sub.d (kph) .omega..sub.adapt (rpm) 0 0 10 1080 20 1810 30 2752 40 3810 50 5000 60 6000 The patent has some interested reading for those who can handle a bit of propeller head stuff. Found here:- http://www.google.com/patents/US7229330 http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect2=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&RefSrch=yes&Query=PN/7229330 Would be nice if Perfect Pass added an "Auto update Baselines" feature.

Any in how baselines are set with Z-Box? Anyone seen a manual for download yet? Incidentally, how do baselines work with Zero Off? Remember reading something in their patent document a few years back that deatailed a bit about how they were internally calculated, & stored in a table & revised on an ongoing basis. Is that how it works in that sense? Cheers Phil

Wow! tool my boys out for the afternoon... Bit of background, they're 11 & 15. Robbie's PB is 4 @ 36. Started him with a 15 off 32mph; & the boats into the gates at 30. Ball 2 it started to catch up & ran him up to 38 before the end of the course. (he got 5). 2nd run much the same. Re ran a few base lines & here's the changes. 30mph 2490 up to 2635 rpm 32mph 2670 up to 2810 rpm 34mph 2890 up to 3050 rpm Times were spot on with the new baseline, but difference was amazing. Boat has sat in the lake unmoved for 10 days & had build up slime etc on the hull. Big difference in rpm though, at about 150 revs. That's close to an additional 5%. Guess that means when we head back out later this week (hopefully with a Z-Box we will be giving the hull a bit up a rub down with some shade cloth to remove some growth.

@horton just wondering what happened to the pics I attached with this post. Originally I wanted to embed them in the post, but couldnt work out how to do that without first uploading them somewhere. Can It be done? IE upload & embed pics all in one hit.

Another bit of video from the same bloke, but with audio as well.

Hmm, Mines in the country now! But it's Saturday morning so won't see it for this weekend. Oh Well. Maybe one day after work/school. Date/Time Location/Activity Feb 3, 2012 2:19 PM ALEXANDRIA AU/In transit Feb 2, 2012 7:32 PM ALEXANDRIA AU/In transit Feb 2, 2012 7:32 PM ALEXANDRIA AU/International shipment release - Import Feb 2, 2012 5:03 PM MASCOT AU/At destination sort facility Feb 1, 2012 11:16 AM HONOLULU, HI/In transit Feb 1, 2012 11:05 AM HONOLULU, HI/In transit Feb 1, 2012 4:23 AM MEMPHIS, TN/In transit Feb 1, 2012 2:45 AM MEMPHIS, TN/Departed FedEx location Feb 1, 2012 1:10 AM MEMPHIS, TN/Arrived at FedEx location Jan 31, 2012 11:06 PM MIRABEL, PQ/In transit Jan 31, 2012 9:32 PM MIRABEL, PQ/In transit Jan 31, 2012 8:32 PM DIEPPE, NB/In transit Jan 31, 2012 7:24 PM GOFFS, NS/In transit Jan 31, 2012 5:27 PM DARTMOUTH, NS/Left FedEx origin facility Jan 31, 2012 4:13 PM DARTMOUTH, NS/Picked up Jan 31, 2012 2:54 PM /Shipment information sent to FedEx

http://skiall6.com/forum/9-boat-talk/142-z-box-report- Has some video as well.

What did the old plugs look like when they were removed out of curiosity?

@Taelan28 Here's a similar offering from Canon range. http://www.dpreview.com/products/canon/compacts/canon_sx40hs Probably my greatest compliment to Canon is to their very logical layout of controls & the ease of use of their menus.

Wonder how the hours run on electric would compare with petrol, considering the amount of time spent idling in neutral in a petrol boat. We certainly don't turn the engine off every time we put it in neutral.

Also @Taelan28 you really need to consider something with an optical or electronic viewfinder for any serious attempts at sports photos.