Well, it's a slow summer cruising wise due to weather and breaking in new puppy, so in the meantime I've been doing some work on the boat. One thing is getting my calibrations right on my Raymarine gear, C120, radar, autopilot. In so doing I've learned a lot both from digging into the manuals and some great help from Raymarine tech support.
It has always bothered me that the heading displayed on the autopilot and the MFD was always different from my steering compass and different from my nav station compass, sometimes by a lot, like 15-20 degrees. So I found with some help from Raymarine that there are two areas in the autopilot where the displayed heading can be affected. I also learned that the flux gate heading sensor is controlled by the autopilot and not be the MFD. In the autopilot dealer cal area there is a place to enter in the latitude where the system is operating. Well, when the dealer did the dealer cal on my boat the latitude was entered as 0. After entering 41, which is about right for me, the difference between the Raymarine heading and the steering compass heading tightened right up to about 5-10 degrees. Not bad. Also, the radar picture now aligns well with the chart plotter land masses when radar is overlayed on the cartographic display. That used to be off a bit also. Then, after talking with Raymarine, I found out that in the autopilot Sea Trial Cal area there is an entry point for deviation. Again, mine was set to 0, so it was an easy matter to increase the deviation to 5 degrees and now my Raymarine heading matches my steering compass, which has been swung by the way so it is pretty good, closely. What a kick !!!!
Now in doing all this I also became aware that my radar picture was a bit off with respect to the actual position of targets with respect to my boat center line. It became apparent when tied up in my slip that fixed objects, like buoys, were shown in the radar picture about 5-6 degrees from the actual position as measured with a hand bearing compass. Well, it turns out that there is an adjustment for the radar picture on the chart plotter page. So one is able to rotate the radar picture so that displayed objects align with reality. Another kick!!!
So now my system is nice and tight pending a sea trial to be sure it is tight on all magnetic headings.
Just thought I'd pass this along as I have seen discussions about the heading in other posts.
It has always bothered me that the heading displayed on the autopilot and the MFD was always different from my steering compass and different from my nav station compass, sometimes by a lot, like 15-20 degrees. So I found with some help from Raymarine that there are two areas in the autopilot where the displayed heading can be affected. I also learned that the flux gate heading sensor is controlled by the autopilot and not be the MFD. In the autopilot dealer cal area there is a place to enter in the latitude where the system is operating. Well, when the dealer did the dealer cal on my boat the latitude was entered as 0. After entering 41, which is about right for me, the difference between the Raymarine heading and the steering compass heading tightened right up to about 5-10 degrees. Not bad. Also, the radar picture now aligns well with the chart plotter land masses when radar is overlayed on the cartographic display. That used to be off a bit also. Then, after talking with Raymarine, I found out that in the autopilot Sea Trial Cal area there is an entry point for deviation. Again, mine was set to 0, so it was an easy matter to increase the deviation to 5 degrees and now my Raymarine heading matches my steering compass, which has been swung by the way so it is pretty good, closely. What a kick !!!!
Now in doing all this I also became aware that my radar picture was a bit off with respect to the actual position of targets with respect to my boat center line. It became apparent when tied up in my slip that fixed objects, like buoys, were shown in the radar picture about 5-6 degrees from the actual position as measured with a hand bearing compass. Well, it turns out that there is an adjustment for the radar picture on the chart plotter page. So one is able to rotate the radar picture so that displayed objects align with reality. Another kick!!!
So now my system is nice and tight pending a sea trial to be sure it is tight on all magnetic headings.
Just thought I'd pass this along as I have seen discussions about the heading in other posts.
