Headed out today and, according to my Raymarine chartplotter, our boat was going backwards. Quick glance at the ST60 autopilot display, and our heading was 180 degrees off. This is the second time in 3 years this has happened, so I can't tell what triggered it. I tried a few things to correct it (restart, etc.), but ultimately had to go into the autopilot setup and change the heading 180 degrees. Has anyone else experienced this? Harry Hunter 456 "Czech Mate"
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Did you...
Did you set your tool bag near the flux gate or re-arrange the cabin and put something with ferrous metal near the flux gate compass? This is a very common thing for folks to do. Many are unaware that a bag full of wrenches will really wreak havoc with an autopilots compass..
Did you set your tool bag near the flux gate or re-arrange the cabin and put something with ferrous metal near the flux gate compass? This is a very common thing for folks to do. Many are unaware that a bag full of wrenches will really wreak havoc with an autopilots compass..
Compass Sensor
Harry, I've just been through this. Check the resistance of the compass sensor. Remove the Compass wires from the computer. Test with an Ohm meter on its lowest scale. • Red to Shield (bare) should be open or infinite. • Red to Yellow should be around 5.0 ohms but never more than 10 Ohms. • Red to Green should be around 5.0 ohms but never more than 10 Ohms. • Blue to Shield (bare) should be 7.2 ohms and never more than 10 ohms. • Green to Yellow should be 7.2 ohms and never more than 10 ohms. The exact readings aren't as important as having Red -Yellow, Red-Green about the same and having Blue-Shield, Green-Yellow about the same and about twice the resistance of the other two pairs. If the numbers you get are bad you have found your problem. If you had to cut the wires to install the sensor that is the first place to check, if not then the problem is inside the sensor. If it is internal to the sensor (and out of warranty) you can open the sensor and unplug and replug the circuit board connector a couple of times and see if that fixes it. Let me know how you make out
Harry, I've just been through this. Check the resistance of the compass sensor. Remove the Compass wires from the computer. Test with an Ohm meter on its lowest scale. • Red to Shield (bare) should be open or infinite. • Red to Yellow should be around 5.0 ohms but never more than 10 Ohms. • Red to Green should be around 5.0 ohms but never more than 10 Ohms. • Blue to Shield (bare) should be 7.2 ohms and never more than 10 ohms. • Green to Yellow should be 7.2 ohms and never more than 10 ohms. The exact readings aren't as important as having Red -Yellow, Red-Green about the same and having Blue-Shield, Green-Yellow about the same and about twice the resistance of the other two pairs. If the numbers you get are bad you have found your problem. If you had to cut the wires to install the sensor that is the first place to check, if not then the problem is inside the sensor. If it is internal to the sensor (and out of warranty) you can open the sensor and unplug and replug the circuit board connector a couple of times and see if that fixes it. Let me know how you make out
Raymarine C80 with autopilot
A year after owning my Hunter 386, I experienced the same problems. Try the recommendations made above, including the location of the fluxgate compass. Ensure it's located in the lowest part of the boat (ours in under the aft berth mattress on a bulkhead with nothing metal around it). Accommplish a reswinging of the compass, per the book under calm conditions. Also, might try turning the system totally off, resetting the power breaker down below, waiting 30 seconds and reboot the entire system. Sometimes that works. I've had to reset/repower my unit occasionally and it resets OK. However, the first year of owning the boat, I had the local Raymarine folks out to the boat to fix this recurring problem. They couldn't fix it in their shop so they sent it back to Raymarine who ended up sending me a completely new system replacement. It works better now, but if I lose the GPS signal it's apt to confuse the autopilot and the system goes bonkers, until I reset/repower the entire system.
A year after owning my Hunter 386, I experienced the same problems. Try the recommendations made above, including the location of the fluxgate compass. Ensure it's located in the lowest part of the boat (ours in under the aft berth mattress on a bulkhead with nothing metal around it). Accommplish a reswinging of the compass, per the book under calm conditions. Also, might try turning the system totally off, resetting the power breaker down below, waiting 30 seconds and reboot the entire system. Sometimes that works. I've had to reset/repower my unit occasionally and it resets OK. However, the first year of owning the boat, I had the local Raymarine folks out to the boat to fix this recurring problem. They couldn't fix it in their shop so they sent it back to Raymarine who ended up sending me a completely new system replacement. It works better now, but if I lose the GPS signal it's apt to confuse the autopilot and the system goes bonkers, until I reset/repower the entire system.
This happened on our 3 year old unit this year
I reset the heading only to have it do it again on the next trip. Next I began to get a “No Data” error message. I contacted Raymarine and they suggest that it was a bad core pack or flux compass. Either way they provided me with a RMA number and I fedexed both units to them on a Monday and they tested both the compass and the core pack. They found a bad board in the core pack and replaced it and upgraded the software... Shipped it back to me and I installed in on the Friday........ Never missed a day of sailing.. Charge, shipping one way... Great, friendly, and fast service (note our unit was out of warranty, still No Charge). http://www.sailingseadragon.com/AutoPilot.htm http://www.sailingseadragon.com/Instruments.htm Good luck Garner
I reset the heading only to have it do it again on the next trip. Next I began to get a “No Data” error message. I contacted Raymarine and they suggest that it was a bad core pack or flux compass. Either way they provided me with a RMA number and I fedexed both units to them on a Monday and they tested both the compass and the core pack. They found a bad board in the core pack and replaced it and upgraded the software... Shipped it back to me and I installed in on the Friday........ Never missed a day of sailing.. Charge, shipping one way... Great, friendly, and fast service (note our unit was out of warranty, still No Charge). http://www.sailingseadragon.com/AutoPilot.htm http://www.sailingseadragon.com/Instruments.htm Good luck Garner
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