Trouble: Raymarine ST1000 Tillerpilot

[Dennis Kitchen]

On Monday my tiller pilot failed to operate and I noticed it was stuck on 074* and flashing C but after 4 attempts to calibrate it was still a no go.
I called the number on the Raymarine web site and waited almost ten minutes and I finally hung up. I did some research on the web and found a copy of the service manual and determined via the flow chart and the ohms check that the flux-gate compass had failed. Crazy, this unit probably has less than 20 hours run time on it.

So back to the phone. I called the number again and got guy#1 who could barely speak English who immediately transferred me to guy#2 who could barely speak English who transferred me to Tech#1 who said "we don't service these any more" and transferred me to guy#3 who could barely speak English who transferred me to Girl#1 who said I didn't have a valid part number so she transferred me to guy#4 who could barely speak English, who transferred me to Tech#2 who said "we don't sell that part to the public you'll have to mail in the unit to see if we can fix it" , then he transferred me to machine that gave me the address which was finally the listed repair company I was trying get to and now have no way to connect back to the tech.
By now I am becoming quite irritated. The part is listed all over for sale in Europe on the web but I now don't want to spend over a hundred dollars on a part that fails so easily by a company whose customer service is so poor.

So back to the part, M022 flux-gate. I had a completely open circuit between terminals one and two which should have read less than 10 ohms. Terminals 3 to 4 and 3 to 5 were in spec or close to it. Since it is just low voltage windings I concluded it must be a poor solder joint so I reheated all the connections. No luck. Then came all the phone hassles listed above. Decided to try one more time before I threw it all in the scrap pile. So I again reheated all the solder connections keeping them hot long enough to burn the lacquer off of the wires in the joint but not long enough to melt anything else. Viola! The ohms test is now correct between terminals 1 and 2. Now the compass works again. I can't wait to get it back to the boat and perform the calibration again.

I hope this info will help anyone else who experiences this failure. And " two thorns" to Raymarine.
Dennis

 

[justsomeguy]

And here I thought this was gonna be a tale of woe. Kudos!

 

[Dennis Kitchen]

And here I thought this was gonna be a tale of woe. Kudos!

Woe is my middle name......... or is that whoa!!!!!
Dennis

 

[walt]

Just the under 10 ohms.. is good start but not yet conclusive.. You could do a quick bench test. Power the unit with 12 volts and push the track button. Then just rotate the unit and you should see the actuator move in and out somewhat proportional to how much rotation you manually did.

Is it possible to post the link to that service manual... I wouldn't mind having that myself.

 

[Dennis Kitchen]

Walt,
Yes I did power it up and verified the compass was now working and changing headings as I rotated it though I didn't hit the auto button to watch the ram move. The ram always did still move in the manual mode.

http://www.olajedatos.com/documentos/st1 & 2000 service manual.pdf

Dennis

 

[rgranger]

On Monday my tiller pilot failed to operate and I noticed it was stuck on 074* and flashing C but after 4 attempts to calibrate it was still a no go.
I called the number on the Raymarine web site and waited almost ten minutes and I finally hung up. I did some research on the web and found a copy of the service manual and determined via the flow chart and the ohms check that the flux-gate compass had failed. Crazy, this unit probably has less than 20 hours run time on it.

So back to the phone. I called the number again and got guy#1 who could barely speak English who immediately transferred me to guy#2 who could barely speak English who transferred me to Tech#1 who said "we don't service these any more" and transferred me to guy#3 who could barely speak English who transferred me to Girl#1 who said I didn't have a valid part number so she transferred me to guy#4 who could barely speak English, who transferred me to Tech#2 who said "we don't sell that part to the public you'll have to mail in the unit to see if we can fix it" , then he transferred me to machine that gave me the address which was finally the listed repair company I was trying get to and now have no way to connect back to the tech.
By now I am becoming quite irritated. The part is listed all over for sale in Europe on the web but I now don't want to spend over a hundred dollars on a part that fails so easily by a company whose customer service is so poor.

So back to the part, M022 flux-gate. I had a completely open circuit between terminals one and two which should have read less than 10 ohms. Terminals 3 to 4 and 3 to 5 were in spec or close to it. Since it is just low voltage windings I concluded it must be a poor solder joint so I reheated all the connections. No luck. Then came all the phone hassles listed above. Decided to try one more time before I threw it all in the scrap pile. So I again reheated all the solder connections keeping them hot long enough to burn the lacquer off of the wires in the joint but not long enough to melt anything else. Viola! The ohms test is now correct between terminals 1 and 2. Now the compass works again. I can't wait to get it back to the boat and perform the calibration again.

I hope this info will help anyone else who experiences this failure. And " two thorns" to Raymarine.
Dennis

Keep your eye open on ebay for one listed as "for parts only". You might get one for $5.

 

[kloudie1]

"No user serviceable components inside" .. don'tcha' just love it.. Lots of things can be easily repaired if ya can get some info on what to check and have an understanding of how they work.. and it is fun to fix 'em
Nice work

 

[Dennis Kitchen]

Thanks Kloudie1,
It's fun IF you fix them. But I prefer to have them somewhat worn out before I have to fix them. I like rgrangers post about ebay for spare parts units.

 

[Gene Neill]

I hope this info will help anyone else who experiences this failure. And " two thorns" to Raymarine.
Dennis

I have had the same "woeful" experience with Raymarine. My ST2000 autopilot's display began malfunctioning within three days of use. It took Raymarine over a month to repair and return the brand new unit, which, in my opinion, a GOOD company would have immediately replaced.

Every product can fail. It's the way the manufacturer handles those failures that tells you who you're dealing with.

 

[Alan Gomes]

Here's the definitive fix I came up with for my ST2000+ autopilot: pelagicautopilot.com.

 

[Dennis Kitchen]

Update:
Installed the Tillerpilot this Saturday and it accomplished the calibration ( for compass deviation ) in less than 2 turns. Then as I started the next step to sync with my bulkhead compass I noticed the compass card was not visible. Investigation revealed the fluid was more than half gone and the card was hanging vertically. Compass had sprung a leak and compass oil had been running down the bulkhead inside. Always something............
Dennis

 

[Alan Gomes]

Update:
Installed the Tillerpilot this Saturday and it accomplished the calibration ( for compass deviation ) in less than 2 turns. Then as I started the next step to sync with my bulkhead compass I noticed the compass card was not visible. Investigation revealed the fluid was more than half gone and the card was hanging vertically. Compass had sprung a leak and compass oil had been running down the bulkhead inside. Always something............
Dennis

Well, look on the bright side: at least you won't have to call Raymarine tech support to deal with your compass oil leak.