Autohelm 4000 fault

[John Visser]

I have an Autohelm 4000 that has "spontaneously" failed, and I may have inadvertently ruined the spare control head - please help. It worked in the fall. I just launched after a major refit, and when I connected the control head, it would only respond to commands to turn to port. A friend donated a retired but funcitonal control head, and we tried that. Same thing. When I change the cotrol on the back of the head to the other direction of rotation, as if the motor were installed to face forward, the starboard control then results in motor rotation, but in the direciton it formerly did for port turn commands, as expected. Throughout the diagnostics, the motor only ever turns in one direction. Direct wiring of the motor (at 9V) verifies that the motor will indeed rotate in both direcitons with the proper driving voltage. So, could it be that a fault in the boat wiring could ruin the control head in this way? If the output is blown, is the output transistor commonly available?Other advice, comments?Thanks,jv

 

[Henryv]

contact Raymarine help

I have found the Ratheon e mail help people to be quite responsive. Suggest you look them up at www.raymarine.com.

 

[Paul Akers]

Send to Raymarine

I sent my A3000 to Raymarine last winter and it was returned to me within 3 weeks, fully repaired. One hour labor and about $75.00 total. Has worked fine all summer.

 

[Dirk]

Check your wires!

The wires that go to the socket where the head unit plugs in are held there by setscrews. Mine had loosened over time and were very easy to tighetn up. Another troubleshooting sequence to try would be to attach the two wires that go from the head unit directly to the motor, bypassing the boat wiring, to see if it works that way.

 

[John Visser]

Update on Autohelm fault

1. I spoke with Raymarine, and although i was happy to be able to reach a tech support person, I was not satisfied with his support. He was unable to listen to me well enough to understand what tests I had conducted. He said I could return it for service, about 2 week turn around time, and $45/hour or soemthing like that. I could also pay an additional fee for expedited service, $25. I think, to "go ahead of everyone else." 2. I checked the wires on the boat. Although I coudl not verify the fault, I still believe one leg of the motor wire must have shorted to ground to ruin the outputs.3. I isolated the damage to one side of the motor output. Each motor leg is driven by a complimentary pair of power darlingtons in TO-220 cases, mounted on a heat sink (each pair). I found reasonable replacemetns at Radio Shack, and replaced the two on the damaged channel (a NPN/PNP pair). Fixed! Tests good on the bench. Fixed the other head while I was at it. If you've read this far, and you ask, I will disclose the part numbers of the original parts in the unit. The ones I used totaled $3.10 plus tax for each unit.4. Next step - replace the wire in the boat.5. Incidentally, I put a connector in the motor lead so I can unplug it to rmeove the wheel, etc. I got the connector at Boat U.S. It is very poor. Does anyone know where I can get good marine waterproof connectors?jvjv