If you want an inline volume control (PAC LC-1)but like doing stuff yourself, you can make one for cheap. Obtain a dual 100k linear taper potentiometer and two 15kohm .25 watt resistors. You will also need two RCA female connectors or pigtails, I buy all this stuff from <a href="http://www.allelectronics.com" target="_blank">www.allelectronics.com</a>. The splitters I hacked up were 1$ ea. The 15k resistors paralleled with the wiper to ground make the 100k pot into a 12k analogue taper pot. What that means is that when the pot is at 1/2 turn, it will be roughly 1/2 the volume. With a linear taper pot, it would be 1/2 the resistance but not 1/2 the volume. Log taper works better for volume controls, this method "sounds" better than currently available log taper pots. The PAC LC-1 is a simple dual linear pot without this useful modification. <BR> <BR>Solder the wires as per this crude drawing. It is drawn looking at the back of the dual pot, shaft facing away from you. You don't need an enclosure, you can panel mount them in your dash or whatever. This control goes in line with your head unit output before your amp. <BR> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65921/336142.jpg" alt="Upload"> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65921/336143.jpg" alt="Upload"> <BR><img src="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65921/336144.jpg" alt="Upload"> <BR>

Psyclone, <BR> <BR>Thanks for posting this, the topic of volume control is discussed often, I am surprised nobody has made any other post... <BR> <BR>It would be great to have a section in Wakeworld called "How-To" with info like this. <BR> <BR>I believe that you involved with Perfect Pass, and I know that you are quite adept electronically. Any idea how hard it would be to integrate a simple GPS processor to auto-calibrate a perfect pass? <BR> <BR>Mike

hmm have to think about that. My plate is full right now with another (non-work) related project. The stuff I did for PP was some pretty simple mechanical design. Hey, it got me PP for cheap! <BR> <BR>I think a box could be made that would produce a pulse output based on a speed input from a GPS. This pulse output could feed the paddle wheel input. I don't think the GPS would respond fast enough to give decent speed control, too long a time constant. It would hunt around like when the KDW is too small or too large. <BR> <BR>Do you want a device to take the paddle wheel pulses and adjust them before driving an analog speedo? PP has a fudge factor for speed, but an analog speedo probably is driven off the raw pulse count. I think you may have mentioned that to me before. <BR> <BR>I am on a hard learning curve figuring out PIC programming right now, when I get it down it won't be hard to do any of these things. <BR>

FYI I don't think you can apply this mod to a PAC LC1, I think they are just a dual 10k linear pot. Adding a resistor would drop the resistance too much and load the output of your head unit.

Does PP loose its set up? I set mine with the GPS last year but it haven't checked it this year. <BR> <BR>How about tying that volume control right into the PP so the tower volume automatically attinuates when the PP comes off speed lock?

Mikeski, <BR>A thought, how would it compensate for River/Lake Current? GPS would give you true ground speed. The Paddlewheel speed is ground speed +/- current speed. It's an interesting idea. In fact, late model Malibu's have a GPS option $800-$900. It plugs directly into the ECU (the ECU drives the Tach, Speedo, and Dash. I'm not sure how it outputs the speed data. <BR> <BR>I've done some software development work reading GPS units. Serial GPSs output a simple serial string that contains a Lon &amp; Lat &amp; time &amp; some other stuff. It'd be do-able (beyond my ability) to read that with a PIC. When you have two Lon&amp;Lat points and a time stamp for each one, you can turn that into velocity. It gets really tricky, well a little math, to figure out distance in Miles -- which is required to calculate speed in MPH. You have to do some triangle math to figure out the distance between two LAT points (as the further your travel north from the equator, the closer the LAT lines come together.) Which means you'd have to maintain a COS, SIN or TAN table in your PIC. ---anyway, I've hijacked and I'm rambling, but thought some people might be interested... <BR> <BR>Troyl, <BR>I, along with some guys at work, looked into producing an automatic volume attenuator based on speed to aim it at Wakeboard tower speakers. We found that speed based volume controls are protected under US Patent. <BR>

Craig, <BR> <BR>I remember the threads about the Patent. I was just wondering if the Patent was broad and strong enough to cover a straight attenuator (not speed adjustable volume) that just came on and off with the Perfect Pass lock.

Troy, <BR>I'm not a patent attorney, but I would think that since PP is speed related, any volume control device that turns on and off with PP would be considered as speed adjustable volume control. Of course, the patent literature and the legal system would determine whether or not this is covered under the patent. Not trying to start an argument or anything, just throwing my .02 out there.

Psyclone, <BR> <BR>Awesome. You have part numbers for the pots by chance?

Psyclone, PIC programming is a pain isn't it? My friend and I wrote about 3000 lines of code apiece on the 8 bit processor. Such a small instruction set!! <BR> <BR> Anyway have fun. (I know, you aren't)