Auto pilot for tillers

[walt]

I have had the same problem with the TP wired two different ways.

First, the manual says no more than 13 foot of 14 gauge wire (Im fairly sure..).

I initially had a power run of 14 gauge wire from near my sink area back to the TP and that exceeded the length in the manual so I changed the wiring. I have a run of 4 gauge wiring from the batteries to the outboard and I now have less than a foot or so run of 14 gauge wire off that four gauge. Plus, I put a capacitor very close to where the TP power plug is between 12V and ground. I think this cap is 10000 uf.

Ive also experimented with the TP in standby mode where I make a sudden angle change and note the compass reading. The TP compass reading always seems to respond accurately and with a response time in the one to two second time frame. I "think" the compass is not the problem but its hard to tell.

Since I was in consumer electronics design in my career, I have to say that if Im getting some sort of emi interference with my unit and the way I have it wired, the design is a POS. Magnetic interference would be more understandable but I have the unit mounted on the opposite side of the boat from the outboard.

Since my problem seems to be temperature related, I think some circuit function is changing with temp and at some point the control loop cant keep things locked. I am hoping the speed parameter I changed will make things work better.. but may not know until next winter. A few days ago I motored for about 8 miles at around 6 mph. Temps were in the mid 60's and the TP worked perfectly.

Note, Im using mph units for speed since the TP manuall and settings are listed in mph. If you need to convert to knots, please just divide my numbers by 1.15

 

[walt]

I have to correct something I said regarding the ST2000.. but first..

I had changed the cal setting #5 from the default 8 down to 5 a few days ago and I got a chance to try out the ST2000 today on my Mac 26S with a 9.8 hp outboard. Temperature was probably between 65 to 70F during the test. Bottom line - the TP worked perfectly for every test and was a pleasure to have along. First test, I motored for about 2 miles at about 4.2 mph, perfect lock. I then sailed for about 2 miles at speeds between 3 to 4 mph. Perfect lock. I then motored at around 7.2 mph for about 2 miles - perfect lock.

What I have to correct is that I said the setting #5 was 8 mph. I checked the manual again and I dont believe there are any units given for this parameter. The #5 setting is for average cruise speed and the manual says "use calibration level 5 to set the boats normal cruising speed for operation in Track mode. When interfacing with a navigation system, the tiller pilot uses the boats average cruising speed to perform track calculations."

Well,, "track mode" is where the TP maintains a track between waypoints created on a navigation system received via SeaTalk or NMEA 0183. I was not using the TP this way, I had only put it in Auto mode where it follows the setting when the Auto button is pushed. So Im not sure that my changing the average speed cal #5 actually had anything to do with how the TP worked today.

So.. just like last year, once it warms up, my ST2000 seems to work perfectly and is a pleasure to have. But for two years in a row I have had trouble with it losing lock during the winter and I will estimate that temperature range where I have the trouble to be between 50F and up near 60F. I dont know what happens below 50F as I generally have not used the TP when its that cold.

Anyhow.. the ST2000 worked perfect today...

 

[Windchime2]

We had a Simrad TP22 on our Watkins 27 (previous boat) and we really loved it. Bought it used on Ebay and it worked flawlessly on this heavy little boat, back and forth to the Bahamas. The Watkins had wheel steering so I mounted the emergency tiller when using the TP22. I fabricated a female threaded bracket to attach to the side of the cockpit and a 3/4" threaded aluminum rod to mate with the TP22. On both sides, the TP 22 has drop in pins which made disconnecting very easy. You just put the tiller

pilot in stdby and pull it up and out of the way.
If our current O'day 34 didn't already have an autopilot I would strongly consider adding a TP22.

 

[Ward H]

I have a ST2000 on my O'day 25 and love/loved it. With balanced sails it works very well. In some following seas, heavy MB wakes or badly balanced sail conditions very occasionally it will lock and require me to hit the standby, recenter the tiller and press auto again. Never had this problem while motoring.