Autohelm AP fails to acknowledge course change

[Rich Stidger]

This is a new problem to me. I have an Autohelm (prior to RayMarine) ST7000 autopilot with a Corepack 100/300. My GPS is a Garmin 492 that is interfaced to the Corepack via NEMA.

The normal action when in GPS Track mode and the GPS issues a course change is that the AP will sound an alarm and indicate which direction the boat will turn for the new heading. The Track button must be pressed to accept this new course. This has always worked in this fashion in prior years.

This year the AP does not alarm at a course change, but continues on the previous heading. If I press the Auto button it drops out of Track mode and then pressing Track it returns to Track mode and then sounds an alarm and waits for a second press to accept the new course.

I have verified that the same selected data sentences are still selected on the Garmin GPS as in previous years. I'm wondering if somehow a piece of data is not being transmitted or received on the data bus could be the problem.

Has anyone experienced this action and is the cause known as to why the AP will not ask for acceptance of the new heading?

 

[Hello Below]

Rich, I have had good luck getting assistance on this forum:

Raymarine.ning.com

 

[Bill Roosa]

Don't come near my boat as you clearly have a case of demon infestation. I'd recommend rafting up with that guy at the office that you don't really like and getting the boats to touch. Given that it is a data/communications demon I'd go with the ploy of taking up how nice his AP/GPS/potter/..... are to entice the demon to move to his boat.

Seriously, that is a head scratcher. If the sentences are being sent then the AP control box should react to them. Since it does react after futzing with it that would mean the sentences are available to the unit. Have you tried impact modulation? The only thing I can think to try is the microsoft solution of factory reset.

 

[Rich Stidger]

Bill,

OK, I did cycle power, but I never thought to see if there is a factory reset. I'll look.

BTW, have you ever met my good buddy, Mr. Murphy?

I've just spent the last three hours on another problem that I thought was solved twice before this season- a badly running Nissan 3.5hp kicker. I ended up disassembling the entire carb (again) and again cleaning our all orifices (again) - this time with a pipe cleaner for the large and a toothpick and a single brush bristle for the small sizes. I saw nothing amiss, but after re-assembly the engine now seems to run very well and it is quickly responsive to throttle whereas before it was not. Now if I can coax my wife into trusting me and the wicked outboard again, I will be all set......

Now, back to the AP.

The only things in life that give me problems have either engines, keyboards, or long hair......

 

[kloudie1]

Call that "help" guy in India and he'll tell ya to reboot the autopilot!
Seriously, I think there is a "master reset" that should clear what is sounding like a software glitch? but be sure to write down the tuning constants before hitting the switch. Hello Below may have the process on that link. Good Luck, Rich.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Hey Rich,
That is why I use oars, linux, and have a hair length standard for the boy.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Course that does not help when your just plain stupid. Went to the boat this morning to get the fan. Have a water leak and need to dry some concrete block. well I check the battery water and all the cells are showing plates and the batteries are warm. 8-( After 4 GALLONS of water I check the voltage and they are at 12.0!!! Went back down towards lunch and after resting for 5 hours the voltage was 11.4 Seems the chief mechanic failed to switch the hot,warm, cold switch on the truechage 40 from cold to hot and cooked the batteries. I'm gona fire that guy. I only got 5 years out of them (course they where in there when I bought the boat so can't complain)

 

[Rich Stidger]

Call that "help" guy in India and he'll tell ya to reboot the autopilot!
Seriously, I think there is a "master reset" that should clear what is sounding like a software glitch? but be sure to write down the tuning constants before hitting the switch. Hello Below may have the process on that link. Good Luck, Rich.

I've been all over the manuals for the AP, ST7000 control head, RL80CRC, and Garmin 492 chartplotter. Specifically I can't find any master reset for the Core 300 AP computer or the ST7000 control head. Although the RL80CRC also has routing capability, it is not activated for routes so I don't think it is causing a conflict or problem. The Garmin claims that it is outputting the correct data, and since I can manually exit and re-enter Track mode and the AP then requires the confirmation, I tend to think that the Garmin GPS/Chartplotter is providing the correct data.

I'm still trying to get approved/authorized on the Raymarine Tech website so I can post the question.

Meanwhile I am at anchor in Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard enjoying the summer and looking at my list of issues to see what else I can try to fix.

 

[Calif. Ted]

Rained last weekend, Tuesday my st60 wind was doa, noticed some condensation, so I took it apart, removing 1/4 teaspoon of water. Little bit of corrosion on the bottom of circuit board (that's not a good sign) dried it overnight. Reassembled and it worked, go figure.
Went for a sail, hit the "auto", no response but display was reading ok. Later took it apart, couldn't see anything wrong, reassembled, worked fine. Probably a loose connection, the st60 leaked because the 2 top screws on the backing plate had broken the plastic base of the female threads.
I once had a repair manual that stated "Sometimes complex microelectricals are becoming confused and requiring simply the hard reboot to awaken".

 

[Rich Stidger]

I called the Raymarine tech line and the service rep told me that the fastest way to T/S the problem was to disconnect all instruments on the Seatalk bus and configure just the AP and my Garmin NEMA GPS source and see if the problem remains. As yet I haven't had the time to do this.

But, as mysteriously as this problem appeared, it disappeared a week ago. And now the problem comes and goes, all without any obvious explanation.

I just hate intermittents......

 

[woodster]

I called the Raymarine tech line and the service rep told me that the fastest way to T/S the problem was to disconnect all instruments on the Seatalk bus and configure just the AP and my Garmin NEMA GPS source and see if the problem remains. As yet I haven't had the time to do this.

But, as mysteriously as this problem appeared, it disappeared a week ago. And now the problem comes and goes, all without any obvious explanation.

I just hate intermittents......

sounds like you may have a connection problem in your network some where ......

regards

woody

 

[Rich Stidger]

Woody-

But everything else works. All the other instruments work with correct data, and my RL80CRC radar/chartplotter shows the waypoint name while the AP does not.

 

[Rich Stidger]

The plot thickens......

This AP issue of the pilot sometimes acknowledging a waypoint arrival and change and other times not is frustrating.

Today I discovered a scenario that will cause the problem to appear and disappear reliably. I was able to create the problem and solution repeatedly.

I have in my Autohelm instrument system the following:

ST7000 control head and a Corepack 300 computer
RL80CRC radar and chartplotter
ST50 devices for Depth, Knot-Log, and Wind
ST50 Multi for a repeater and a ST50 NavData for a repeater (both below)
A newly installed Smart Controller for wireless AP control and data readout

Here is the scoop:

Starting from all devices powered off, if I power up the ST50 instruments and the AP and then power up the RL80, the AP works fine and there is no waypoint acknowledgement error.

However, if I power up the RL80 radar/chartplotter before the instruments and AP, then the AP will not acknowledge a waypoint change.

In both power-up sequences all instruments work correctly and the AP works and steers fine with the only problem being the acknowledgement of a waypoint change while in Track mode.

A characteristic of this problem is that when the AP is in the failed mode, calling up the display page on the ST7000 control head for the waypoint name shows "WP 1", and when the AP is in the mode where it will acknowledge the waypoints in Track mode, the waypoint name shows as "WP xxxx", where xxxx are the last four letters/digits of the waypoint name. The source of the waypoint name is from my Garmin GPS via NMEA data directly to the AP course computer.

I will be contacting Raymarine again on this issue. It seems to me that this equipment should be able to be powered up in any order without problems. Meanwhile, I will be certain to power up in the favored sequence.

 

[Hello Below]

Excellant troubleshooting techiques, Rich. This should help Raymarine emmensely in assisting you. However, with the suite of retired instruments (ST50s, RL80, etc.) you may have to live with your power up sequence that you have discovered.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Rich
I'll bet that the computer in the plotter is smarter than it needs to be.
This is exactly like the old computer not seeing the printer or attached screen unless they were powered on before you booted the computer.
The plotter does not "hear" an autopilot when it boots and it goes into a "reduced sentence mode". If the AP is on and talking the GPS picks this up and supplies the full set of sentences.
If you dive into the AP manual you will see that WP1 is a dummy WP used as a place holder till a the user selects a real one. this would lead me to believe that when you boot the system "wrong" the AP is not even using the GPS for course correction. Does she respond to current cross track error? Will the AP command a "turn to WP" when entering track mode. I'm thinking that you are probably already close to being "on course" when this happens and the AP does not have to turn 90 degrees to track to the WP.
Course that would mean that your AP is actually pretty good as you did not notice it not tracking to the WP.

 

[Rich Stidger]

Bill,

The AP performs correctly in every other respect except for acknowledging a WP change. It tracks, auto control, vane control, steers to x-track errors- everything. It just doesn't acknowledge when a WP changes.

Since my last posting I have also discovered that sometimes the AP goes to the fail mode as soon as the radar spits out the "Warming up in 70 seconds" message. Prior to that message the AP had a WP name displayed and after the message it said "WP 1".

Also, when entering Track mode it does request confirmation to turn.

So there is more to this story.

 

[Bill Roosa]

Clearly demon infestation. Have you considered rafting up and making mention loud enough for the demon to hear what a nice boat this other guys is?

I know on my AP when entering track it will just turn to the new heading without asking for permission. Presumably you just entered track mode and know what is going to happen.

 

[Rich Stidger]

I know on my AP when entering track it will just turn to the new heading without asking for permission. Presumably you just entered track mode and know what is going to happen.

Mine always asks for permission to turn onto the new heading. First time, every time. Except now when it is in this funky failure mode where it doesn't seem to know that there is a new waypoint and associated heading.