Autohelm 1000

[Joel]

My boat came with a full Autohelm 1000 tiller autopilot including the windvane and remote controller.No manual of course.The controls seem pretty straight forward with 6 buttons (Standby, Auto, +10, -10, +1, -1). Can anyone provide a brief explanation on its use? Standby and Auto are pretty self explanatory. I'm assuming the other 4 buttons are used to set the relative bearing. Correct? How dows the windvane attachment get used?Thanks.I talked to a person at Raytheon who told me they no longer support that model.

 

[R DEUTSCH]

Autohelm

When you are at standby you steer with the wheel,when you are are on auto,you connot turn the wheel or you shouldnt,you press 10 and it will go 10 degrees and onewill take one degree, press 10 and 1together and that will take you I think 60 degrees for tacking.I see wictch one plus or minus is for port or starboard,that yu can figure out

 

[Miles]

Also...

Not sure about the 1000 but on the 4000 if you hit standby and auto at the same time it goes into windvane mode and steers a course relative to the apparent wind rather than a magnetic course. Might be worth a try to see if this works on the 1000 too... You would of course need a wind instrument interfaced to it...

 

[kevin]

windvane??

I could be wrong because i am not familiar with the 1000, but i don't think that windvane goes with the unit. There should be a flux-gate compass somewhere near the lowest point in your boat. This compass will calibrate your autohelm. You may be able to use the auto pilot with your wind instrument, but i honestly don't think it was sold with one.

 

[Paul Westcott]

I have one on my Hunter 22. The +1 and +10 buttons increase the course 1 or ten degrees and the -1 and -10 decrease the course that much. You can input three -10s and four -1s and decrease the course by 34 degrees, ie., from 270 to 236. Pressing standby shuts off the pilot and pressing auto will turn it on and set it to the current heading. Pressing +1 and +10 together will increase the course around 90 degrees for tacking to the right. The minus buttons turn the boat to the left or decrease the course. I usually press both port (red buttons) or starboard (green) and then follow with two presses of the same 10 button for a good tack on my boat. Handy single handing, press the buttons and then attend the sheets and viola, you're on the opposite tack. There are several calibration controls on the pilot too, also it will take an input from a vane or a GPS. Go to Autohelm's website, you should be able to order a manual for the unit. These are good units, I had an earlier model that gave me many years of service with no problems.