Raymarine Autopilot ACU200 ,EV1 disaster

[suttonski]

Hi,
I hope you can help me because I am not getting any reply from Raymarine USA!!! Certainly the worst service I have ever received.

This is what I wrote to Raymarine USA:
I have replaced my ST4000 Wheel pilot on my Beneteau 361 by the new EV1 with ACU-200, P70 Pilot controller and electric linear type 1 drive.
Very nice interface but very poor performance! Supposed to be easy to set up! 5 weekends so far and still does not work properly. I have the following:
Raymarine ST60 wind
Raymarine ST60 tridata
Raymarine ST60 multi
I also have a Garmin Chartplotter with integrated GPS talking NMEA-0183 and an Icom VHF talking NMEA-0183. No problem getting GPS info from the Garmin chartplotter to the VHF, the Icom display the coordinates within a minute after I powered up the chartplotter.
I have also in the setup a Raymarine Seatalk to NMEA0183 bridging device (E85001)
I have installed the Raymarine Seatalk to Seatalk Ng converter, needed for the ST60s to talk to the P70.
When a set a waypoint on my Garmin charplotter and put the Raymarine autopilot on track mode I get very erratic course control. The sailboat stays on track for a couple of minutes then suddenly changes course by 10 deg, comes back 20 deg then ask me to accept the way point new heading. Totally frustrating! 3 deg of course to starboard and I have an alarm and must accept the course correction. A couple minutes later the same thing but with maybe a 2 deg correction to port then it could swing 10 to starboard. I tried everything but don't know what to do anymore except maybe sell the unit on eBay.
When I press auto on the autopilot the sailboat stays on the right course.
When I go in wind vane mode it is still OK.
The EV1 arrow on top of the unit is pointing forward.
I have tried the EV1 at 2 different location and get maximum deviation = 188deg!
When I try to align compass to GPS I get an error, I think it worked once or twice but does not work anymore.
I can not get the unit to go into compass swing mode to do compass calibration.
Can not even get autolearn mode.
Could anyone help me please before I go nuts with this unit.
Thanks in advance for the help.
Georges Paquette
PS.
I meet someone at the marina last Friday evening, during our annual party, and with exactly the same system and he also get max deviation = 188 degree! Needless to say that many sailors at the party were not impress with Raymarine's autopilot product.

During the weekend I put the display on multiple boxes and I changed one to show BTW. I have correct value for DTW,XTE seems to be bad and BTW shows ---!!! SOG is OK but display --- for a couple of seconds then comes back, it does that regularly.
It seems that the P70 is not getting the waypoint bearing.

Someone told me to check the update for the SeaTalk to SeaTalk Ng converter. I found the software, don’t know if I have the latest version. I will check next weekend. If I don’t have the latest version I still don’t know how I will update because I don’t have a Raymarine Chartplotter. I thought that NMEA2000 was supposed to be open but I see that Raymarine made it proprietary.

 

[Paul Mermelstein]

Hard to tell because I am not there, but a couple of thoughts:

1. Sounds like since it works on Auto but not Track and anything else based upon GPS, it seems like the interface to either the Garmin or the old ST1 bus is a potential problem. Can you get the right GPS information on the ST60 Multi (lat/long, BTW, etc.)? If not, then look to the interface with the Garmin first. If you can get the Multi to report correctly, then see below.

2. With a combination of ST1 for the ST60s and STng for the p70, you must be careful of how you power the ST1 bus. It MUST be powered only from the ST-STng converter or elsewhere on the STng backbone. You must disconnect power from the old ST bus. Very important for the legacy system and the new one to communicate properly.

3. Did you try the tech website http://raymarine.ning.com/forum? It has been helpful to me.

 

[suttonski]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the info. I have the coordinates from the Garmin showing properly on my Icom VHF so this means that the NMEA0183 to ST1 bridge seems to work properly but I will check the Multi next weekend.

I tried the website but I did not find an answer.

I might have to update the ST1 to ST Ng bridge to version 1.21 dated March 2013 but since I bought the unit in May this year I thought it was at the latest software version. Don't know how to update without a Ratmarine Multi Function Display.


Will keep you informed.