ZO surging solved & 2009 - future SAN 210 - ZO only

[jdwhite11]

I was having the same issue and I just had mine "upgraded" on my 09 230TE by Buxton Marine. They did some of it under warranty but I did have to pay for the wiring harness, new antenna and some labor. Philb, Buxton told me that mine did the same thing as yours when they installed everything and powered it up. They sent it back to ZO and had the head unit re-flashed with new specs and got it back, plugged it in, and everything worked just fine in the water test. I have not had it on the water since I picked it up a week ago. It's been too cold and rainy here in Texas, oddly enough, to get it out and test it myself. Anyway you might want to send the head unit in and have it re-flashed. Hope this helps.

[philb]

Thanks jdwhite11.
I'll pass your experience onto my dealer.............

[janswake]

HI everyone we just bought a new 236 model year 2008 I was have never even tried the boat so I don't know if the boat will have this problem but it sounds like all older models of ZO are affected should I have the dealer do the upgrade before I even pick the boat up I do not have a local nautique dealer so any shop work would involve a four hour drive.Plus it seems really unfair to have to buy new parts on a new boat I have not even tried yet.any advice would be greatly appreciated.
janswake

[louismblais]

Hey, I'm with janswake right up above.

We talked to the dealer and he reassured us that we wouldn't have to deal with this problem since we ride on a lake as opposed to a river. He says the problem resides in the paddle wheel feeding different speed readings than the GPS witch leads to overcorrection of speed. The explanation seems logical and reasonable to me but what do I know!!??? Hence the question:

Has anyone had this problem on a lake or any rather still body of water?

Thank you guys

P.S. - God i love this bottomless source of information!

[NautiqueJeff]

Hey, I'm with janswake right up above.

We talked to the dealer and he reassured us that we wouldn't have to deal with this problem since we ride on a lake as opposed to a river. He says the problem resides in the paddle wheel feeding different speed readings than the GPS witch leads to overcorrection of speed. The explanation seems logical and reasonable to me but what do I know!!??? Hence the question:

Has anyone had this problem on a lake or any rather still body of water?

Thank you guys

P.S. - God i love this bottomless source of information!

If you have Zero Off, you do not have a paddlewheel that interfaces with the speed control system. ZO is completely based on GPS.

The river issue is a separate problem from the surging issue being discussed in this thread.

[xrichard]

To answer directly regarding lake v. river, there is no difference wrt porpoising...I run both and have porpoising in still and running water. And as NautiqueJeff said, ZO does not use a paddlewheel (unfortunately) which leads to the problem of correcting for current when running on a river.

[louismblais]

Thank you guys

[isenbed]

If you install the new antenna and do not get a GPS signal make sure the software is RevQ with the -110A.mot file. When I first replaced my antenna I got a GPS1 fault code because I had installed the -200 software. Eric at ZeroOff can guide you through the process.

[philb]

If you install the new antenna and do not get a GPS signal make sure the software is RevQ with the -110A.mot file. When I first replaced my antenna I got a GPS1 fault code because I had installed the -200 software. Eric at ZeroOff can guide you through the process.

Yep, same problem here. Vista couldnt recognise the file..........had to download a patch from Microsoft. Dealer says it is working after water test. Cant wait to try it out on the weekend.........

[philb]

Tried it on our local dam & it works great as it should so far..........
Real test will be on the river will hills & ravines either side.
Cant beleive we put up with it not working for a year...............

[Bevan]

Just had the the Zero Off software update installed to my 08 210 (kept original antenna), we boarded yesterday and the difference was night & day...super smooth and accurate speed control with NO PORPOISING....i'm very happy!

[xrichard]

I had the new antenna/software installed and boarded with it for the first time yesterday. If we loaded up the rear with weight (relative to the front), we still got some occasional porpoising, but instead of having to use the hydrogate to stop it, it now stops on its own after about four oscillations. If we rode with a little less weight in the back, then there was no porpoising-- or so little as to be hardly noticeable (...same configuration with which we had quite a bit before the new antenna).

My dealer charged 1/2 hour labor to install but they were already under the dash to replace the ZO gauge under warranty as the front panel developed a bubble.

If you're having this issue, it's well worth the money.

[philb]

Tried it on our local dam & it works great as it should so far..........
Real test will be on the river will hills & ravines either side.
Cant beleive we put up with it not working for a year...............

All good works great everywhere.........different boat.
No more hand throttling.............

[Chad52]

I spoke with Eric at Zero Off and here is an section from his email describing the issue:

"The porpoising issue is mainly seen on the 210 SA Nautiques for some reason. We have seen one or two very rare cases on other models but it seems to be focused directly around the 210’s. Unfortunately, Correct Craft is not treating this as a warranty issue as it is instead being treated as a performance upgrade. Therefore, it is an update where that hardware (not the software) will need to be paid for by the customer. You may either purchase the new antenna and harness directly from us or from Correct Craft. I believe that we both are offering the same price as neither company is attempting to turn a profit on this, we are simply selling the products at cost.

Usually, we do charge our customers a set fee for sending their head units back to us for reprogramming, but in this case, we do not charge for porpoising issue updates. If you would like to send your head unit to me for reprogramming, I will be more than happy to do so. Please just include these emails along with your return address in the box with your head unit so that once it gets here, I know what to do with it and who to send it back to. My turn-around time is usually same day so no worries about waiting forever to receive your head unit back."

He also enclosed a document describing the hardware upgrade, which I am including as an attachment in this post (with his permission).

Chad

[robertsmcfarland]

This is not a true statement from Zero Off if they actually made it. The 220 and the 230 have just as much problem. It was a design problem with the antenna picking up the satellites at the same time trying to keep the boat at a constant speed with the right weight for the best wake. Funny that the new antenna and soft ware fixed the problem. Sounds like Zero Off needs to come to the table and pay for the up grade.