Perfect Pass : Finished installation

[Mattercraft]

Finished the install on friday. Tested it on the lake yesterday. Everything works perfectly. The install really wasn't that hard. I took my time and it took me all day, but it's in and it works. The toughest part was mounting the paddlewheel. I had a tight spot to put it, but with some careful measuring I got it. Here are the pix.

[Mattercraft]

Here's the display

[ski_king]

Looks great! Good job.
I want one...

[NatesGr8]

Looks excellent :headbang:

[Mattercraft]

The only problem I had with the whole install was that during the process the tachometer stopped working. When I finished hooking everything up I tested it out and everything worked. Then I cleaned everything up, put all panels back on, zip-tied all loose wires. Tested the system again and no tach. I called a dealer and he said uninstall the pp and try again. I did this and still no tach. I put all back together and I decided to take it to the lake for more testing. When I got there there was still no reading on the tach. The second time I started the boat, the tach needle started wiggling and then came back on. ***!! I have no idea what happened, but that caused me to work on the boat for another 2 hours on friday and a big headache.

[MasterMason]

The only problem I had with the whole install was that during the process the tachometer stopped working. When I finished hooking everything up I tested it out and everything worked. Then I cleaned everything up, put all panels back on, zip-tied all loose wires. Tested the system again and no tach. I called a dealer and he said uninstall the pp and try again. I did this and still no tach. I put all back together and I decided to take it to the lake for more testing. When I got there there was still no reading on the tach. The second time I started the boat, the tach needle started wiggling and then came back on. ***!! I have no idea what happened, but that caused me to work on the boat for another 2 hours on friday and a big headache.

I haven't had time to look at it yet, but when I turn on my heater my tack doesn't read right... electrical stuff can just be wierd sometimes.

[Tom023]

MC, I am really impressed with how clean the hole is that you cut in the hull. Whenever I've drilled into gelcoat it always seems to chip a bit. What type of hole saw did you use and did you go outside in or vice versa. Nice job!

[crdickey]

MC, I am really impressed with how clean the hole is that you cut in the hull. Whenever I've drilled into gelcoat it always seems to chip a bit. What type of hole saw did you use and did you go outside in or vice versa. Nice job!

Cleanly drilling through gel-coat and not getting cracks and chips is an easy process. When you start your drill motor, start it in reverse and drill all the way through the gel-coat. Once through change your drill motor to forward and drill through the fiberglass but not all the way through the hull because there is usually gel-coat on the inside of the hull. Change positions to the opposite side of the hull and follow my previous instructions. Very clean, no chip or cracks!. But wait, your not finished...make sure to seal the cut edge of your hull with an approved marine fiberglass sealer or fiberglass resin, or at least silicone. This will insure you do not get water seeping in between the layers of your hull.

[crdickey]

I haven't had time to look at it yet, but when I turn on my heater my tack doesn't read right... electrical stuff can just be wierd sometimes.

This sounds like the oil pressure gauge problem I had last year. Every time I turned on my heater, my oil gauge would peg above 80 psi.

Turned out to be improperly grounded at the factory. The boat has a main ground post and also a grounding strip attached to it. Anything high power, like a heater or stereo amp's need to be attached to the post and not the strip. Also, my grounding strip and some kind of coating on it which had to be scratched off to get a solid ground.

[east tx skier]

Looks good. Regarding your tach, it sounds like it's just your analog tach, right? What about the digital tach on the perfect pass. Does it work?

[Mattercraft]

Yes, the digital tach on the PP worked fine. It was just the analog gauge that didn't work.
Drilling through the hull wasn't that hard. I did run the drill in reverse to get through the gel coat. I sealed up the hole with marine silicone per pp instructions.

[Mattercraft]

One more question. The speed on the analog spedo does not match the speed on the Perfect Pass. Are the spedos on the pp calibrated ?

[André]

Please correct me if i'm wrong but after reading the Perfect Pass manual,i think the only good and practical way to calibrate both PP and analog speedo is with a GPS .
If the PP doesn't match the GPS,there is a paragraph that explain how to adjust the reading on PP.

[east tx skier]

On version 6.4 and older, the only way to calibrate the speedo in slalom mode is by running it through a course. Once you set your first baseline in the slalom course, the digital speedo will be dead on. In 6.5 (and 6.5n), I believe it's possible to set the speedo in wakeboard mode with a GPS and have that carry over to modes other than wakeboard mode. We tried with GPS last summer and ended up calling Perfect Pass who explained that on 6.4, you can set it with the GPS in wakeboard mode, but that it would not carry over to other modes.

So the short answer is, I believe you can calibrate it with GPS in Wakeboard mode and it will carry over. The slalom course method is much easier in my opinion.

[Brent]

Slalom course with magnets is the best way to go to calibrate! :)

[DanC]

I have 6.5 and I think the way it works is;
In slalom mode, below 23 mph the system automatically switches from RPM to paddlewheel (speed). The speed calibrations transfer over from wakeboard mode in this range. Above 23 mph you will need to do the course calibration or you can just go into the menu and manually set each baseline setting using mph vs rpm that you charted using a gps.

[NSXBill]

What did the other recess in the hull turn out to be??

[east tx skier]

I thought that it could be for ballast pumps, but I haven't seen one of those previously.

[Mattercraft]

I found out on another website that the other recess in the hull is for the water intake on the bigger engines. Don't mount the paddle wheel there.

[roddydog]

I'm PO'd I didn't get in on the PP buy. Your job looks great!!
Would've gone with the Wakeboard pro.