Autopilot

[higgs]

I have a ST 6000 with the S1 corepack. It was working great until I went by the mouth of the Niagara River and suddenly it said No Data. When it started operating again, the calibration was way off. I recalibrated it before a trip last week and it seemed to be working fine, but once past the Niagara River again, it uncalibrated itself. The e compass location worked great in the past and I am not storing anything new near it. Ideas?

 

[Stu Jackson]

Any BIG magnetic stuff around,

OUTSIDE your boat?There are two underground tunnels in the estuary we motor out of, and the tremendous amount of metal only 50 feet down always whacks out our AP. Admittedly, it does loops and turns, doesn't lose calibration.Only other thing I can think of is some kind of electrical disconnect onboard your boat. First time I can recollect hearing this one.Funny gremlins in Niagara?higgs, you may have to go back to "The Smurfs do the Whitbread."

 

[sailingseadragon]

Same thing happened last season

Sea Dragon has a 60001 S1G Core Pack Flux compass and type 1 linear drive.We took Sea Dragon out for her first sail of the season this year... It had been a great day.... Winds 17 knots gusting to 25 knots low 70's with bright sun... Full main and staysail; 7.0 knots; life was good until we started to drop the sails to motor into our marina. Once the engine was fired up and my wife hit the "AUTO" button on the autopilot to hold Sea Dragon into the wind. Surprise, a "NO DATA" error message appeared on the autopilot screen... I reset the unit and within 30 minutes I had the same error message.I contacted Raymarine via their website and within 1 hr they had provided me with a Return Authorization Number for repair asked that I send both the flux compass & core pack to them.I sent our 3 year old unit to Raymarine on a Monday by next day Fedex and I had it back on the boat Friday afternoon. It turned out that the compass was fine but a board in the SG1 core pack had to be replaced and the software upgraded... Cost $00.00… Very fast turn around... Great customer support!!!!!!!!!!Good luckGarner

 

[Greg W]

S1 Autopilot

My S1 autopilot unit did the same thing this summer and I had to replace the autopilot control head. I purchased the autopilot and three ST-60 units from WM in a combination pack. They shipped out the entire $2500 combo pack to me and then I pulled what I needed and replaced with the defective units. I left a note in two places in the box describing what was defective and what I took, then sent the box back. NO CHARGE! Down for one week.THANKS WEST MARINE!Greg WeisheiplDe Pere, WI

 

[higgs]

Thanks

Guess it is time to contact the company - thanks for the info.Stu - I'm spoiled now. The AP is awfully nice for those long trips.

 

[Terry Cox]

We have a 1991 model Autohelm linear drive...

7000 with a 6000 head. Very reliable and strong. There is a point where the system will display a "cross track error" alarm if the boat's course moves away from the way point track. Once the boat moves outside the cross track error range (maybe 300 feet) it will display a "no data" alarm.Terry