Raymarine Auto Pilot

[Thinksnow]

Help please: 2002 Hunter 306 with original Raymarine instruments. This happened end of last season (2024) - went hard over on the wheel which caused the ‘Rotary Rudder Reference Transducer’ for the Auto Pilot to dislodge from it's mount & the rudder readout on the Raymarine Smart Pilot went all the way to port and froze there. I re-installed the transducer unit below deck to the rudder assembly, but it didn’t work- not sending signal to the Smart Pilot (double checked all wiring). A Raymarine tech said to verify the transducer wasn’t working by doing a resistance test specified by Raymarine. I did that, and verified damage to transducer. I ordered a new Transducer unit, did the same resistance test to verify it was working properly, then installed as per specs. Turned everything on… it worked for about 5 minutes then suddenly the rudder position readout went all the way to starboard this time, and stopped working - again no signal to ‘Smart Pilot’ readout. Repeated the resistance test on this new unit, and it now failed. Does anyone have any idea why? I don’t want to buy another $400 transducer unit and blindly try again. Is there something wrong along the line that is ‘shorting out the transducer??
Thoughts appreciated ~ cheers

Michael

Raymarine ST60+ Wind,Speed,Depth
Raymarine ST6002 Smart Pilot system
Raymarine Rotary Rudder Reference Transducer

 

[Tally Ho]

No Good suggestions, but is there any way that the drive wires to the AP motor, or the wires for the rudder sensor are wired backwards? I hooked up a new AP, and accidentally wired the drive motor “backwards”….

So when I took her for a sea trial, she started out holding course, but as the computer called for STB rudder, the motor turned the wheel to Port. And the more the computer called for STB rudder, the harder she turned to port.

I did a few crazy Ivan’s in the bay before I figured out what was happening.

Also, is the geometry for the sensor still OK when you remounted the sensor? 90 degrees when wheel is centered? And reading 0 rudder angle at the display?

Greg