Phil2360

To Youngman, Go with the Stargazer & a couple of magnets. You'll appreciate the improved consistancy of the pull you receive. I certainly didn't regret spending the money. I've had one upgrade (Ver 7.0.62) & that was well worth the money too. We used to hand drive (foot actually), & the feel of the pull between 3 different drivers was huge. Cheers Phil PS in hind sight I could have nick-named one of my mates "Zero-Off" (early versions).

So Ed,  in real terms, the pregate setting controls how many Km/h above the set speed the boat approaches the gates, ie 70 = 0.7km/h etc. What does the ball one setting do? I presume it does something like define the amount of extra RPM added when the timer is triggered. If that is the case does anyone know roughly what the calculation is. If that's about right for what the ball 1 setting does, how does the 3 ball setting vary in it's part played in the overall operation. Is it a function of extra RPM added for pull applied around bouys 1 & 2 ? Mine's dialed in pretty good for my boys that ski 28 - 34 mph & are in the feather setting (27 & 40 kg). What I found was a big help was to have time cards on the dash that I could glance at as I drove to help really get the feel of what the boat was doing & where it needed adjusting. I would like to understand the algorithithms it uses a bit more though as I think it would help in understanding how the system works & make it easier to "work with it". Time cards I made are attached. I print them double sided on A4 paper & laminate them & stick to the dash with either Blu-Tack or Velcro. Cheers Phil PS. I have read what the support docs say about the background settings, I'd just like to hear a more detailed description on their workings.

Can't understand why no body has realised that there is a really simple, tried & tested solution. Simply add a wake tower with overhead power pickups like electric trains have. Then you take your average Cable ski park, move the pylons a bit & electrify the wires! You could run 24/7 with onboard floodlighting to boot!/vanillaforum/js/tinymce/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-cool.gif Cheers Phil

Just wondering if there are any changes is the pipeline. I had 7.0062 for last season (Aus) & pretty happy with it barring 2 issues. First is Crew Weight being in pounds. I'm sure this is an option that could easily be addressed with a small bit of code. The second is the false triggering of the timer on occasions when we are either turning or driving back over our own wake. Seems as is the timer can be trigger once the system has engaged & at approximately target rpm, regardless of boat speed, which may be as much 10 mph under set speed. It would be better if the timer's lockout could also take actual boat speed into consideration. Phil.

Hmmm, I'm 5' 9" & 176 lbs. Should be back at about 155 lbs. Need to drop about 20 lbs. Interesting exercise the other day. I was carrying two 5 Litre bottles of engine oil back to the car from the Auto shop a block away. They got really heavy half way there & I was only walking. Would have hated to have them in a back pack while I was skiing!

It's the lake we ski on at a friends property down here. He's going on 13, 145cm tall & 34kg. (4' 9" & 74 pounds). Been on one ski & trying the course for 5 years now, & for the last 2 season skiing on a 62" HO Revolt. A couple of weeks back some-one decided to buy him a new ski..... A 65" HO NOS. This is a bit of old film I found. March 2008, just after he got his previous ski, the 62" Revolt. Had probably been on it about 6 times by this stage. Will find more recent stuff later. Phil

Here's my sons 2nd outing on his new ski. Was running solid 26mph last season. Will tell the full story after a few comments.   PS. From memory he was running to 4 or 5 at 28mph, but we were more interested in developing strong technique than reaching a high & scrappy buoy count.

Hi All, Just upgraded my StarGazer from 7.04 to the latest for our upcoming season. Wanting to confirm the correct way to enter crew weight, as I think I read somewhere last season that crew weight was always entered in pounds, regardless of what was set in the system options. They are set for Speed in MPH, Temp in C, Weight in kg, length in m. This is how my old version was setup but I'm sure someone somewhere said that Crew Weight still had to be in pounds.  Anyone know the answer to this? Is it still the case or was it changed somewhere in a version update.  Thanks PhilÂÂ

So who out there knows a bit about programming? What someone could do is look at the programs that are out there for N95 Nokia mobile phones. They have a 3d accelerometer in them & I've got an application on mine that makes graphs, you can see it here:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_thmuDp06o If someone could modify this code a bit (It's provided & in something called Python), so that the data is actually being recorded instead of just displayed then we would have something that could be fun to play with for a starting point. N95's seem the be common out here, all you'd need would be a small tupperware container to waterproof it, & stick it inside your vest. Phil

So what's the thought's on upgrading my 7.04 now Vs later. Our season DownUnder is almost over so if I did order an upgrade now I'd probably have to wait till September to get to use it. That being the case is there likely to be a bit more minor tweaking or changes between now & when our next season kicks off in September. My main issue currently is driving with a short setup. Myself & another experienced driver have no problems getting good times most the time, but drivers with less experience have a bit of trouble getting up to speed & getting the system engaged early enough for a good run more often than not. Will this be greatly improved when I upgrade. Thanks Phil

Do't laugh too much yet,  you are probably confusing him with Chris, (Twin????? Brother) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris_LaPoint Phil

Latest Info off Perfect Pass's Site:- http://perfectpass.com/perfect_pass_whats_new.html  Phil

The Gate entry speed is adjustable in most versions. It's the P{re-Gate setting thats accessed by pressing on/off & up buttons at the same time.

Reveived this answer to my email regarding the problem I had with practice mode on my Version 7.04:- Hi, That is one of the first versions produced so they may be something happening in practice mode I don’t know about, but it should work as you would expect. Sometimes it’s as simple as a return spring issue. Also you might want to look at the baseline for that speed to make sure it is accurate. It first engages to the RPM baseline, then 5 seconds later looks and adjusts to the actual boat speed. Upgrades will be handled with a little updater module. You attach this little device to the Master Module and it updates the software in 2 minutes. These will be $70 US and should be available within the next couple weeks. They are small enough then can be simply mailed saving a lot of the shipping cost. Thank You, Aaron

Hi All, Got a few Stargazer questions for those in the know. Mines Version 7.04 in a much older Aussie carby motor boat. My mate & I are Skiing 15 & 22 off @ 34mph so far this season (barely hard 1/2 dozen decent days here) & have a relatively short setup on out lake. Seem to have it dialed in pretty well on the Pre-Gate, 1 & 3 Ball settings as ABT's are usually .01 to .03 seconds off actual. "N" Settings are:- Pre-Gate is 1.2, 1 ball is 32 & 3 Ball is 24. My son is also learning the course & is skiing 24.9 & 26.7mph. Again ABT's are very good. On "L" (which he skis, he's 30kg) Pre-Gate is .2, 1 ball is 16 & 3 Ball is 10. Anyway today I decided to try giving him an in-between run in practice mode. So set the PPSG for 24.9 with + 1.00mph. What seemed to be happening was that it was coming into the course way too fast, around 27.5 to 28.5mph. I know pregate is in Km/h, so would have expected to see around 26.something, (24.9mph + 1mph + .2km/h = 26.0mph). After the gates & 1 ball it slowed up to more like 27 till it got to 3 ball, then backed down to around 23mp for the rest of the course.  You could almost guess that it's using the wrong Pregate settings, ie "N" settings where (24.9mph + 1mph + 1.2km/h = 26.6mph), & overshooting & not having time to settle before the gates. Only towed him 2 or 3 runs in this mode before going back to GPS Slalom mode, but it was Definitely a lousey pull. Back in normal mode time were great again. Any ideas? Is Practice mode fawed or am I missing something else. Also about short setups; which we have & get the driving right about 3/4's of the time. I've got Version 7.04, is 7.05 any better in short setups. Would it be worth upgrading now or should I wait till the next set of changes comes out. And finally does anyone know how upgrades will be delt with for us folks that are in "far off" parts of the world to where freight is talked of in terms of weeks & Hundreds of Dollars? Cheers for Now Phil

Hi All Finally got my boat out to the lake for the first time this season on Monday. Fitted a StarGazer just before winter & didn't really get to try it last season. The Boats now an 11 year old Aussie Carby boat with a 400 Chev. Setup some baselines & that seemed O.K. 2625rpm @ 32 & 2845rpm @ 34 mph. The Course is not in yet, but towed my son for a few passes using a hand timer to trigger the PP. Looking for suggestions as to best driving technique though. (Only spent 1 Hour on the water Monday). When I drive manually, I lift off the throttle for the beginning of a fairly tight end turn, the use a fair amount of throttle & revs to drive out of the turn & up to speed before allowing the revs to settle down as I approach the course at correct speed. These revs are probably right up there or above my baselines & of course the StarGazer gets a bit confused & seems to want to throttle me back. Tried once to turn it off before the turn then back on but didn't seem to get it very right, but think that may be the best way to go. Heading out again this afternoon & over the week-end so hoping I get a few good driving tips for then. Pic Below gives you a bit of an idea of how much setup we've got, so someone might also comment on just how short our situation is compared to others. (The Red line is a GPS Plot of our path over a few runs). Thanks Phil

Always thought this....  Would fix everything. Incorporate a Load cell in the line, much like the jump switch, but measuring the actual load on the rope. This feeback could be then incorporated in the software. There's some pretty cool load cels out there, ones you can pull from each end, & even bullet shaped ones that can be put inside the rope & measure how much they are compressed as the rope is tensioned. For those who don't know what a load cell is, it's a device that measures load electronically. What's in all electronic scales. http://www.appliedweighing.co.uk/prodisplay.asp?proid=66 Phil

Interesting thing I just thought of would be if people could put up some of their ski locations as GPS co-ordinates so others can have a look in Google Earth. Here's mine:- Latitude -29.8145° Longitude 150.919° Phil

Have a look at Andy Mapple's Slalom Video. He talks for a good bit & shows how to file bevels. He also points out his huge collection of ski's that maybe were filed a bit much. Phil

Masterline Kevlars!  Love the way they wear the handle to be a perfect fit,

 Just been thinking outside the square about speed control & the calibration factors that need to be considered. Basically all boats are going to respond differently based on engines, propellors, hull designs & the list goes on. When we think back to manual driving we got to know a boats response by the way it feels in relation to how it respondes to the throttle. So why don't speed controls work in a similar manner. Consider a built in calibration mode where the speed control take the boat to 34 mph & holds it there. It records the revs then has a few different "Pushes on the throttle" & records what happens. It would know how much throttle it applied & what RPM, acceleration & speed changes this made. This information could be recomputed & stored & used later as a reference factor so the unit is now aware of how responsive this particular boat is. Why not throw way the "Switch". Replace it with a load cell that can actually monitor the load constantly on the ski pole. They're not that expensive these days. The system would now have even more feedback to work with. Would seem to me that this approach would overcome a variety of issues.

I think I read somewhere that you can start the timer manually. Maybe it was by pressing the up button.  Phil.