Zero Off Issues 2009 SAN 230 TE

[Yaya81]

Recently got a 2009 SAN 230 TE and am having issues with the Zero Off holding speed. It seems to work fine for the initial 3 hours or so (not running the boat the entire 3 hours) we are out on the water. Then all of a sudden it will start surging. Say we have it set for 18, it will go up to 20 or so then drop down well below 18. It was slowing enough to not hold the rider up on the water.

I've done some research and everything I read was saying it is likely the puck and to check the diagnostics. I checked the diagnostics and got 00 active and 00 history. Now I am stumped.

It has the older style circle GPS puck and only one.

Not sure if it matters but I have a few gauges that don't work.

Anyone have any ideas?

[swatguy]

If you search my name I did a post regarding adjusting some settings in the zero off to get little smoother pull in the settings menu. It helped me smooth mine out

[xrichard]

I had intermittent surging issues on a 2008 SAN 210. It was very sensitive to water conditions or anything that started a surge (e.g. going over some rollers, certain ballast configurations, etc)--then it was like a feedback loop where the surging would increase. That might not be the same as your issue, but it was resolved with an updated GPS puck (kind of a trapazoid instead of circular).

[jpwhit]

This is a very common issue with the round Zero Off pucks. The firmware Zero Off installed in the round pucks has bugs relative to the 2019 GPS week rollover. The bugs cause the exact symptoms you describe. Then to complicate matters more, the original chip used in the Garmin round pucks was discontinued and Garmin had to switch to a newer chip. That chip and the Zero Off software didn't get along. So,f Zero Off abandoned support for Garmin pucks.

The official answer from Zero Off is you have to upgrade to their new triangular shaped puck that is made by ECI. It's cost around $650 to upgrade to the new GPS puck and you have to have a special cable to upgrade the software on the Zero Off head unit to a version compatible with the new ECI puck. That cable costs another $300.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_week_number_rollover

https://www.zerogps.com/wakeboard-ze...a-and-harness/

https://www.zerogps.com/zero-off-eco...ogramming-kit/

PM me if you're interested in getting your current puck updated to a version of firmware that handles the GPS week rollover and also will work with the current firmware on your Zero Off head unit. The puck also has to be re-configured in the way Zero Off expects, because the Zero Off software in the head unit assumes its pre-setup and does not attempt to configure the puck. The firmware update resets the puck configuration.