Perfect Pass Pro Sucks.. should I upgrade to Star Gazer

[TwinTip]

You can calibrate PP in case the speed that it is actually going at is slower or faster than what it should be. The manual shows the steps (if you don't have it you can download it from PP web site). I calibrate mine in a course and do it in perfect conditions (no wind). If you don't have a course (need magnets and timer/magnetic sensor) you can also do it with your GPS. This should at least give you the confidence that what you set the unit to is what you are going at. After you calibrate it, the speed that you set the PP to should match the speed shown on your GPS.

[xrichard]

I've had PP on two previous boats and now have ZO on my 210.

FWIW, I doubt moving to GPS will fix the problem of speeding up in the turn, though it might reduce the problem. Every speed-controlled boat I've driven does this whether it's paddle wheel or GPS, though it seems likely to me that paddle wheel could be worse depending on the mounting location.

My point: no matter whether you go ZO or SG, you might spend money and find that you are still unhappy. So, you could drop a wad of cash and find you're accelerating 2.5 mph through the turn instead of 5; the boat is still taking some time to settle down; and your solution remains taking manual control of the throttle.

Have you played with the PP settings to reduce the aggressiveness of the pull? I had to play with one of mine extensively to eventually get a pull that I liked in terms of speed variation.

Do you have a buddy with a GPS-driven speed control that you can test out?

WRT PP, my experience with them in the past has been excellent. I've never been "upsold." Quite the contrary: they've helped me above and beyond my expectations.

One last note: if you sometimes ride a river with current, you might want to stick with paddle wheel...adjusting for current using the GPS is much more headache than taking control of the throttle in turns.

[east tx skier]

I've had PP on two previous boats and now have ZO on my 210.

FWIW, I doubt moving to GPS will fix the problem of speeding up in the turn, though it might reduce the problem. Every speed-controlled boat I've driven does this whether it's paddle wheel or GPS, though it seems likely to me that paddle wheel could be worse depending on the mounting location.

My point: no matter whether you go ZO or SG, you might spend money and find that you are still unhappy. So, you could drop a wad of cash and find you're accelerating 2.5 mph through the turn instead of 5; the boat is still taking some time to settle down; and your solution remains taking manual control of the throttle.

Have you played with the PP settings to reduce the aggressiveness of the pull? I had to play with one of mine extensively to eventually get a pull that I liked in terms of speed variation.

Do you have a buddy with a GPS-driven speed control that you can test out?

WRT PP, my experience with them in the past has been excellent. I've never been "upsold." Quite the contrary: they've helped me above and beyond my expectations.

One last note: if you sometimes ride a river with current, you might want to stick with paddle wheel...adjusting for current using the GPS is much more headache than taking control of the throttle in turns.

The first incarnation of Stargazer would hit you with really hard acceleration in the turns if you did not disengage. Perfect Pass released a software update last year (2009) that fixed that issue. I'm not saying that it holds speed within half a mile per hour, but it's not jamming the skier like it used to.

Stargazer is a pure gps overlay off the shelf as of about mid season 2008 (it previously used a speed overlay that was hybrid paddlewheel and gps) . The only thing you get from the paddle wheel is water temperature at this point. In fact, I'm replacing my paddle wheel with a 2" depth gauge transducer. However, I say off the shelf because, as mentioned, if you ride regularly in strong currents, there is a special software upgrade for SG that will allow you to turn control over to the paddle wheel. For wakeboarding, I can see this being pretty useful. For slalom, I've never enjoyed the pull from a paddle wheel speed based versus an rpm based or gps/rpm based system. So when we have a current, I just use the rpm adjust in GPS practice mode.

So basically, from my experience, SG doesn't speed up in slalom mode doesn't use the paddle wheel unless you get request the special update with the river current adjust.