This sailboat thing is a damn sickness. Fix this,change that, modify something else,spend more $. I must say though that looks way better now. Good job
The Official "What Did You Do To Your Mac Today" Thread!
- Thread starter Sock Puppet
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I bought two of them from someone here. The box says "Guest" 12v marine fan. It's model 900. Plan to install the other one aft of the stairs.
I bought an auto pilot (Raymarine ST2000) for an upcoming trip to Catalina Island (first time in the ocean with anything other than a windsurfer.. If things work out, I will install it next week. I have an old windsurfing sail with a vinyl window and used this to throw together frankencover. Not pretty but it goes on off fast and seems sturdy.. I used a speedy stitcher for the sewing.
I think they are "waterproof"
But if you do a google search on something like "is raymarine st2000 waterproof?" some owners experience come up with maybe not waterproof enough. Likely failures from corrosion are rare and it takes years of abuse so I am probably being too cautious.. Since it seems difficult to purchase a cover, maybe there isnt really much of an issue.
But if you do a google search on something like "is raymarine st2000 waterproof?" some owners experience come up with maybe not waterproof enough. Likely failures from corrosion are rare and it takes years of abuse so I am probably being too cautious.. Since it seems difficult to purchase a cover, maybe there isnt really much of an issue.
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One sort of interesting thing Im finding with the tiller pilot.. For as much as you pay for these, you would expect that they would put some sort of limit detection for the arm movement so that the motor did not try and move the arm farther than it is mechanically able to move.
I did a little testing on this since I have heard about this "issue" in the past and manually (by the buttons) moved the arm out to its limit and "pushed it a little". Turns out there is a limiter function but its the fuse blowing.
I hope the control software knows where the limits are and doesn't try and push those limits when holding a course. I have not used the TP yet but can imagine using it in some big swell where the instrument might be swinging the rudder to the stops and the fuse blows with the rudder held over all the way. That would make for a little unexpected excitement...
Im going to mount the instrument protecting fuse (manual says this is about 7 amp or so) in an accessible spot and keep some spare fuses close by as this is apparently how the TP movement limiting function works. The good thing about this is that the fuse blowing does seem to do the limiting job fine.
FYI, the DC power line will have two fuses. One fuse near the power source sized to protect the DC power wires (20 amp) and the second fuse (whatever is in the manual - around 6 or 7 amps) near the instrument that apparently is how the limit function works.
I did a little testing on this since I have heard about this "issue" in the past and manually (by the buttons) moved the arm out to its limit and "pushed it a little". Turns out there is a limiter function but its the fuse blowing.
I hope the control software knows where the limits are and doesn't try and push those limits when holding a course. I have not used the TP yet but can imagine using it in some big swell where the instrument might be swinging the rudder to the stops and the fuse blows with the rudder held over all the way. That would make for a little unexpected excitement...
Im going to mount the instrument protecting fuse (manual says this is about 7 amp or so) in an accessible spot and keep some spare fuses close by as this is apparently how the TP movement limiting function works. The good thing about this is that the fuse blowing does seem to do the limiting job fine.
FYI, the DC power line will have two fuses. One fuse near the power source sized to protect the DC power wires (20 amp) and the second fuse (whatever is in the manual - around 6 or 7 amps) near the instrument that apparently is how the limit function works.
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If you set it to a compass course that is close to centered, you will not likely ever be out at the extents of the arm travel. It should be mounted on the tiller such that the tiller stops before the AP reaches the ends. I recall this from the Mac, Ray was mounted about an inch back from the extents and it never got that far out.
Im using the dimensions in the manual so hopefully dont have an issue at all. With those dimensions, it is the TP arm extension that limits rather than the tiller itself which I think is a good thing as I get maximum travel that way. Regardless of what causes the limit, the fuse is what keeps keeps the motor from getting hot so that is important fuse and has a little different function that we normally care about for fuses (which is to protect the wire from burning up).
Good to hear you didnt have any issues.. I dont think I will either just considering worst case when its easy to deal with (boat parked at the house)
Good to hear you didnt have any issues.. I dont think I will either just considering worst case when its easy to deal with (boat parked at the house)
I've had my Tiller Pilot for about 5 years now. It is true that once the unit reaches the end of it's travel it keeps on pushing but I haven't seen this as a problem. The motor simply stalls. Many motors are intended to stall when they reach the limits. As long as the motor is built to handle this it isn't a problem. I've used shutter motors that stall when they reach the end of their travel on some of our equipment for the past 25 years. Most of the original motors are still in service.
You can test your unit by simply hooking up the power and holding it level as you press the "auto" button. If you rotate the unit horizontally, even a little bit, the shaft will move. It will continue to move until either it reaches the limit of it's travel or until you rotate it back to it's original position.
Yeah, if the arm is that far over consider that the rudder is that far over, and that's not (usually) a normal scenario. You wouldn't have the rudder that far over under a normal sailing scenario, and if the swing was that wide out on the water, would you want the AP driving?
Turns out the manual calls for a 12 amp fuse and my initial setup has a 5 amp fuse in the 12 volt source. I tried the experiment above again with the 5 amp fuse (good experiment by the way!) and the arm extended all the way out, reached the mechanical limit and blew the fuse again. This says the software for the control loop doesnt know where the mechanical limit is. What I understand about DC motors is that they can put out their max torque at zero rpm (why Tesla cars have such great acceleration). Im using too small of fuse but interesting none the less.
Ive watched some video's of TP and normally they dont move much. Someone posted a video in some brig rolling waves and the TP was moving all over the place. Anyhow.. likely all will be fine, just good to know how things work.
Im not sure I would even want to be out on the water then. Also if it swings that much, its using a lot of power. Yep, I likely wont use it that way.
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Yes, that is an interesting experiment. 5 amps is more current than I would have expected. I knew there was a reason I didn't like to let it rattle against the limits for more than a few seconds.
Good point. I can only think of a few scenarios where I would engage the AP in those conditions and, again, only for a few seconds.
True, but you're short or single handed you may need those few seconds to furl a headsail or pull in a reef.
Awesome!!
The inflatable kayak will make a great tender in Two Harbors. That's what we used our first trip. It will also double as a fender between your boat and the one next to you. Have a GREAT time. I wish we could make it this year.
I used the manual's dimensions also and the TP limited the travel. I found in my case on the times I tried using the auto-tack function it wouldn't usually put the tiller over far enough to come all the way about and the boat would go in the irons. I solved this by putting it in standby, lifting it off only the tiller end and putting the tiller hard over by hand, then reattaching it after coming about. That worked fine.
Also some times in heavier seas motoring into the wind the boat would ride up a wave and fall off quickly to one side and the autopilot couldn't react fast enough and would loose control. I first hand steered in such situations but later found out that....
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/macgregor2/outside-29.html
... by using my tiller to outboard tiller connector that the TP could then keep up since the outboard also helped.
Dottie and I recently were out 2 weeks on Flaming Gorge Reservoir and found that under real light wind that the TP struggled some as the boat wasn't moving fast enough for the rudder to be as effective. Overall though I would never now want to be without the 2000 TP and it usually worked 90% of the time when sailing unless the conditions were adverse.
I also have the wire going to the TP plug on a toggle switch. At night I use the toggle switch to turn the TP off and stick it in the Lazarette with it still attached to the plug so that way don't have to attach the plug each day. The toggle switch is just under the hatch for the Laz,
Sumner
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1300 miles to The Bahamas and Back in the Mac...
Endeavour 37 Mods...
MacGregor 26-S Mods...
Mac Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida, Bahamas
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One more good data point for using Seafoam with Ethanol gas. At the end of February I ran my 9.8 Nissan 4 stroke outboard dry of gas (whatever I got from the closest gas station which is 10% Ethanol) and Seafoam mix and its been sitting in Lake Havasu since then. This is a fricken hot place in the summer.. been up over 120F recently and its 113F now. I have fresh gas/Seafoam with the outboard in a large plastic bucket filled with water and it started right up, no issues that I can tell. The one time I left a 4 hp four stroke without Seafoam over a summer here, the idle jet was completely closed and the float was stuck.