Reprograming Jabsco ballast timers

Tried to reprogram the fill times on the ballast timers according to the sequence in thread below, but could not get the timers into program mode.

Are there steps that are not included in the description beyond the repeated Fill Off Empty sequence?

http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/3183/548242.html?1203641167

Gracias.

Try going from fill off empty off fill 4 times and stopping with the switch in the fill position. that is how I got mine to go into program mode, go slow stopping for 1 or 2 sec on each movement of the switch. The led should blink the number of 30 sec times it is progrmed for.

Finally got to try it again today.

Tried exactly as above, ending on Fill and got led to blink 6 blinks, which means system is system full -- so not sure I got it to actually go into program mode. The minute I tried to switch to Off, to add time with the F O F O sequence, the led stopped blinking.

Should sequence be done with empty tanks? Does battery need to be disconnected to start with a reset?

Thanks again. Much appreciated.

Part that sucks, once you do get them programmed, don't disconnect the battery or you will have to do it all over again. Just eliminate them, thats what I did.

what boats have these timers in them. sounds like a huge pain in the but. i like the old fashoned way of waiting for the water to piss out the sides better. then you really know its full

Jason,
All MCs from '07 forward, and the '08s drain out the bottom, not over the side like before. I would agree with ya, old way was more convenient.

The ballast pumps still piss out the sides for the overflow when tanks are full. Drain out the bottom when draining the tanks.

In addition to that, these timers actually monitor current draw and detect when the pumps are running dry and shuts them off.
The timers and intelligence here is nice when the system is stock and working well since you lessen the risk of burning out the pumps by running them too long or when the system is dry.

HOWEVER, if you want to modify it and add extra ballast plumbed in, you either have to bypass these things or get timers from Jabsco that allow you to program them for longer (stock ones are only 6 or 8 minutes for the rears I believe). And even then, if you lose power, you have to reprogram the fill/empty times.

If you manually go around them, now you have to manually look at guages to see when tanks are empty to shut them off since they no longer piss out the sides on the empty cycle.

Maybe there is a good reason for this system (like pumps failing to early) however it definitely makes modifying harder and almost everyone agrees that an XStar needs more weight than stock.

(Message edited by Schmo on April 28, 2008)

Dave, I agree with all you have said, the only problem is that Mastercraft changed the setup so they dont "piss" out the side rather they drain out the bottom. Of course making impossible to visually verfify if they are empty. I know why they did the timers but it would of been great if they could of left this aspect of the system alone. Now we folks that add ballast have really no good option.

Matt, I agree with all your points. I may have been unclear but I didn't like the change to drain on the bottom.

We almost came home with a 2007 XStar Demo because it was a killer deal but it fell through for various reasons. That was one of the few things I didn't like about the new MC models. The crazy timers (can deal with those) and now draining out the bottom. Out the sides works great and I just love the visual indication of what's going on.

Needless to say, we decided to stay in the Supra line just because of value and relationship with our dealer.

Good luck to you, you do have options but you just have to do a little more manual checking of where the system is at rather than the visual clues.

Skeeler,

You sure about the battery thing? I always turn my pergo off, so I guess I'll find out Friday. I just did the install and the reprogram last week. If it did a reset, I guess, I will revert back to the way I worked around it before the new timers. I ran a fill cycle and after it timed out, I reset the pergo and got another 6 minutes and the tanks and sacs were all full.

if you run your switches on empty when you first get in the boat, let them time out(blinking) and then go to full it will run them for a full cycle. for some reason mastercraft wrote the program for you to time them out in empty first.