Jump to content

Welcome to TheMalibuCrew!

As a guest, you are welcome to poke around and view the majority of the content that we have to offer, but in order to post, search, contact members, and get full use out of the website you will need to Register for an Account. It's free and it's easy, so don't hesitate to join the TheMalibuCrew Family today!

Perfect Pass display going out....


Arctic Slalom

Recommended Posts

'04 sunscape with perfect pass.

I think my digital display is crapping out on my perfect pass.

It runs perfect one day, fades out the next day, then sometimes doesn't display at all. Then the next day it will be perfect again.

What up?

Ive become hopelessly addicted to the speed control. Sure is nice for surfing with kids, tho!

Do I need to replace? How much?

Link to comment

you can order a replacement from them I know, and that would be super easy unplug and plug back in. but you might want to check the grounds for the system and just verify that eveything is electrically sound on your computer's power. then after you know that's not a problem. just give em a call they're more than happy to talk to you about their system. I screwed up my grounds at first, and was able to fix it my readjusting my terminals on the grounded bus bar.

A new display will run you $199 - $239 and who knows if that would fix it, the "fade" you're describing sounds like it could easily come from the computer's power and not the display crapping out on you, but then again it could very well be the display too.

http://www.perfectpass.com/?q=parts

Link to comment

Is it going blank, or is it going black? If it is going blank (as in no juice to it) than it is a bad ground or power connection. If it is going black (pixels all black) than it is your dislplay. Mine goes black sometimes, but the PP is still engaged. Also, it will still beep and engage when it is doing this. If yours is going black, one thing you could try is to unplug your depth sounder. I was told by PP that this can cause problems due to the wires being run too close together, and the depth sounder signal messing with the display.

Link to comment
  • 4 months later...

Is it going blank, or is it going black? If it is going blank (as in no juice to it) than it is a bad ground or power connection. If it is going black (pixels all black) than it is your dislplay. Mine goes black sometimes, but the PP is still engaged. Also, it will still beep and engage when it is doing this. If yours is going black, one thing you could try is to unplug your depth sounder. I was told by PP that this can cause problems due to the wires being run too close together, and the depth sounder signal messing with the display.

This is my exact problem in my 2003 23LSV... My PP display goes black anytime that the depth finder has power. I've tried what feels like a hundred different combinations of plugging in one and then the other, isolating power supplies, before/after engine start, before/after boot... The only constant is that if at anytime the depth finder turns on, the perfect pass display will die. If I leave the depth finder off, then perfect pass will run all day with no problem.

If anyone is aware of any fix or work around other than leaving the depth finder unplugged, I would be very interested in hearing it.

Thanks!

Link to comment

I'm surprised that a depth finder doesn't use coax. If it does, try grounding the shield of the coax near where it passes the PP. If it doesn't, or if you can't get to the shield, get an old piece of coax from a ham operator and strip the braided shield from it and use that as a jacket for either the PP display harness or the finder cable. Be sure to ground it on the nearest ground bar. It's pretty simple, and may actually help.

On a side note, I just bought a PP system and was very underwhelmed at the quality of their connectors (for the price). I recommend pulling each connector off and pushing it back on to freshen the contacts up before you do other troubleshooting.

Regards,

Just Gary

Link to comment

I seem to recall that the transducer cable was a coaxial cable however it was very thin. Nothing like quad shield RG6 or anything... After we dig the boat out for storage, we'll give your recommendation a shot. I think I'll also try and dig up some capacitors to do a little low pas filtering as well.

Link to comment

I think I'll also try and dig up some capacitors to do a little low pas filtering as well.

Good idea. I'm assuming that the culprit is AC current coming in on the PP display lines and overbiasing the LCD, making it too dark to see. Simply setting the display contrast lower may help. Maybe PP can give you more info, since they apparently recognize the problem. My PP display has 10 wires (plus a bare ground), and I assume that two are power, two are digital signal, and the rest are display buttons and returns. Surprisingly, they also don't use twisted pairs in the cable. That would stop most interference trouble before it starts. If you have an oscilloscope you could try to probe around to see which lines have the most noise. With a bit of dexterity you can remove the button wires from the connector to see if the problem goes away, then attack just those wires.

Shielding is the best option, but a fairly big electrolytic in parallel with a ceramic disc across the power inputs at the display end might work well. Also, make sure that the two sets of cables only cross at right angles, and don't let them run parallel to each other. A ferrite bead is another good choice. Cut one off of an old monitor or printer cable and put it on the PP cable at the display. Make a few turns on the bead if you have spare cable and can get the connector through. In fact, I think I'd try this order: reroute the cables to get them away from each other, a ferrite bead, then shielding, then caps.

When you dig the boat out, post back and let us know what you find. Good luck!

Regards,

Just Gary

Link to comment
  • 10 months later...

Easy TEST and FIX:

- put a silica bag inside the gauge...... if moisture is the issue it will work the next day.

And to permanently fix it (if a moisture problem):

- install heat foil/element (1w) inside the gauge (few $).

And for Perfect Pass engineering:

- ALL outdoor/rugged lcd displays have heat foils behind the LCD !

- WHY: moisture and CLEARER in cold conditions.

Link to comment

My display started blanking out after a night on the lake (even though the boat was covered), the moist air would infiltrate the gauge and it would not display until it "dried" out, usually after our morning runs (I like the idea of a heat/foil element to solve it, would have tried it). PP recommended I take the gauge apart and spray the circuit board with a sealant to eliminate moisture infiltration. I did this, and it worked for a couple outings then went back to failing.

The solution was a new gauge.

Link to comment
  • 1 year later...
On 18-11-2014 at 2:52 PM, iliketoski said:

My display started blanking out after a night on the lake (even though the boat was covered), the moist air would infiltrate the gauge and it would not display until it "dried" out, usually after our morning runs (I like the idea of a heat/foil element to solve it, would have tried it). PP recommended I take the gauge apart and spray the circuit board with a sealant to eliminate moisture infiltration. I did this, and it worked for a couple outings then went back to failing.

The solution was a new gauge.

The silica worked for a full season......next thing I want to try......... install a PC cooling fan in the dashboard. Blowing up hot air from the heater into the instrument cluster.

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...
On 13-3-2016 at 6:16 PM, prettig said:

The silica worked for a full season......next thing I want to try......... install a PC cooling fan in the dashboard. Blowing up hot air from the heater into the instrument cluster.

Update: installed the fan (horizontally behind the PP on the right side). Some extra holes in the PP.

Now when the engine is warm I switch on the heater. Then I can switch on the newly installed FAN (you could connect it to the heater switch as well.... i did not).

Result: it blows hot air from drivers foot area into the area behind the dashboard (from the right side to the left side.......so one side a fan other side open).

In the morning (it is currently 47 degrees, water and air) in my area: you can see all the meters warming up (condensing disappears, better LCD).

Will run it for this seasons this way. If it works it is fine. If not enough than I will add a heater hose and connect it to the dashboard.

 

P.s. will have a really good test next couple of days: sunday we went skiing and we got a hailstorm (like 10 minutes and half an inch !), back, but raining that day, so boat was covered WET... really WET. So if that works it works !

 

Edited by prettig
Link to comment
  • 5 years later...

My display is supposedly going blank and still operating correctly. I say supposedly because it has only happened to my one ski partner when he drives my boat. Yesterday I pulled him first never happened. Then he pulled me and it happened. I pulled another guy after that never happened. Today I pulled him first never happened. He pulled me and it happened. I pulled 2 guys after him and it never happened. I asked him if he had a pacemaker I didn't know about that's causing interference. Lol

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

Have always had this problem but it's been getting worse and it's time to fix.  Does anyone know how I get this gauge out?  Doesn't seem like I'm able to access it from the back?

hDYo9iz.jpg

Link to comment
1 minute ago, Fffrank said:

Have always had this problem but it's been getting worse and it's time to fix.  Does anyone know how I get this gauge out?  Doesn't seem like I'm able to access it from the back?

hDYo9iz.jpg

It should have a threaded stud on the back that holds a clamp bar against the rear of the dash.  You should either be able to reach it from behind, or the whole dash panel will come out giving you access to everything.  It looks like maybe your dash panel is also held from behind, so check carefully for fasteners.

Link to comment
34 minutes ago, justgary said:

It should have a threaded stud on the back that holds a clamp bar against the rear of the dash.  You should either be able to reach it from behind, or the whole dash panel will come out giving you access to everything.  It looks like maybe your dash panel is also held from behind, so check carefully for fasteners.

It must be the whole dash panel. Was hoping someone knew if there was studs that hold the panel in or if there are some kind of fasteners behind those kidney shaped accent panels on the sides (you can see part of one on the right side of my photo.)  

It's the same dash as this one:

4Brf1BY.jpeg

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...