Perfect Pass Ooops install?

[extruop]

Just got back from the lake yesterday.  I had a local Centurion dealer install Perfect Pass.  Things looked great when I fired up the boat and ran for the first little bit.  It worked great in RPM and MPH mode.  I was excited to test it out with a rider.  I filled the ballast, threw a board to my kid and pulled him up.  The dang speedo was bouncing around all over the place.  I had the set point at 19 MPH.  I goofed around with a few of the calibration numbers and tried again.  Same dang thing. 

I emptied the ballast and it improved but PP still had a hard time at surf (less than 14 mph) speeds. 

I read the manual again and tried most of the stuff in the trouble shooting section.  I played with the calibration values.  No improvement.  Dang thing works great at high speeds when the boat is plane-ed out, but put weight in it, slow down, and it becomes possessed. 

I came home started searching the threads here and read the PP install PDF.

My verdict, well it aint good.  I am no expert but I am guessing that the paddlewheel is installed to far forward in the hull.  The installer put it up in front of the battery (I have a direct drive X-22) across from the water valve for the ballast system.  I am going to call PP and get their opinion but it is about 3 feet closer to the bow than this sites install PDF recommends for the direct drive.

Any comments?

[wakejunky]

Oooops is right! PP recommends it directly in front of the engine on a direct drive. On my direct drive I installed it in the typical v-drive location. A little difficult to get at but it worked great. With the amount of bow rise you have at those speeds it is probably(definitely) not getting a smooth stream of water across the paddle wheel. I would take it back to the installer and have them fix it. I cant believe they put it that far forward

[extruop]

PP makes a plug that slides into the bulkhead fitting in place of the paddlewheel sensor.  I put one of those babys in tonight.  I also picked up a new bulkhead fitting (from the guy who put it in the wrong place and who cant get to fixing it until next week) and installed it.  I cant wait.

I moved the paddle wheel sensor back where others have had good luck.  I also played around with the throttle linkage and confirmed that the location of the sensor was not the only thing they had gotten wrong (some old posts on PP from Cyclone got me thinking about this).  When I had it out on the lake my WOT (wide open throttle) was a bit lower than I had remembered.  I kind of just blew it off because I was so focused on the other problem.  I now believe that the bracket they installed needed to be modified and adjusted to get truly wide open at full throttle.  It took me a while, but I think I have it corrected now.  I am hoping to get on the water later this week.

[festivus]

hey, what are those sweet graphics you have on your epic?

[extruop]

Thanks.  At first I thought I was a sell out for draging my Epic into the mainstream (you gotta admit that the tribal / flame thing is getting a bit overdone).  but, I have had alot of nice comments out on the water and at the gas station.  Most people dont really believe its really a Toyota.

I like them too. 

[cyclone]

extrupp, I lost 2 mph with the bracket, my top speed is now 38.6. If you can make a progressive linkage or something to fix the problem, go nuts. I don't want to go 38.6 but that's just me! I'm sure anyone that barefoots would want all throttle motion possible, so if you can do it, hell yeah.

If you read all the old posts you'll see that there is about 30% throttle position opening not used. But, it still hits 38.6.

As far a PP goes, when you get done, tinker with the KDW (closed loop gain) and NN, or paddle sample rate. KDW is good for me at 165, NN at 70. That is for good speed control with 1500 lbs of weight and 5 people. It will be twitchy with no weight, I'd reduce the KDW to 125 or so with no weight just people. Play around with KDW, leave NN at  a low value like 70 or 60 for fastest response and best control.

[extruop]

Thanks.  I know you do this all the time but thanks anyway.  I will try to update the wisdom on the threads I am involved in.  My comments will never be as insightfull as yours but I hope I can give a little back.  This site is a HUGE help!