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raymarine boat position is 180 degrees off

14K views 10 replies 10 participants last post by  photon 
#1 ·
Hey Everyone. First time posting here.
I have a Beneteau 393 that has an E-80 chart plotter, linked together with a Raymarine ST60 tridata, ST6000 autopilot and a ST 60 windspeed indicator. There is a Raystar 125 GPS antenna that has worked with the equipment for athe last year. Everything was working fine.
THEN...
I lent the boat to a friend for the weekend, who I trust, and the boat is now 180 degrees off on the course heading. I have a manual compass that shows a heading of 90, and the electronic reading on the ST 60 is 270. The autopilot still works in the auto mode, but if I try to head to a waypoint, it wants to track the boat backwards.
He has kids, so I guess a kid might have pushed a button or something, but I can't find any settings that will allow me to turn the boat back around on the course heading.
I have seen other posts where the boat position indicator is 180 degrees off, but can't find how it was eventually fixed.
Thanks, Doug
 
#2 · (Edited)
Have you tried rebooting the autopilot (i.e turn off and then on again)?

We had it happen to us that the autopilot did a doughnut (360 deg turn) in the middle of the gulfstream under sail at 25 kts of wind - a bit scary.

Once I got the boat under control the autopilot indicated that we were on a course of 90 deg while I was heading due west towards Florida.

M resourceful wife solved the problem by turning of the autopilot for 5 secs and then turning it on again. Worked a charm and never had problem since.

Also check for big pieces of metal objects that you may have placed close to the aitopilot compass unit...
 
#4 ·
Have you tried rebooring the autopilot (i.e turn off and then on again)?

W\e had it happent to us that the autopilot did a doughnut (360 deg turn) in the middle of the gulfstream under sail at 25 kts of wind - a bit scary.

Once I got the boat under control the autopilot indicated that we were on a course of 90 deg while I was heading due west towards Florida.

M resoruceful wife solved the problem by turning of the autopilot for 5 secs and then turned it on again. Worked a charm and never had problem since.

Also check for big pieces of metal oblects that you may have placed closed to the aitopilot compass unit...
Same experience, not once, but several times (along several years). Try to fix it and Raymarine changed the giro compass, but to no avail. I think that happens when the boat passes over some magnetic disturbance.

A reset of the autopilot and the chart plotter solved the problem, all the times.

Regards

Paulo
 
#3 ·
...the boat is now 180 degrees off on the course heading.
Thanks, Doug
Doug,

I have an earlier Raymarine Chart- plotter, so it will make no sense for me to give you the menu sequence. Instead, look in your user manual under the title of "align heading". I have no idea how even kids could have messed it up for you, but take heart - it is easily fixed.
 
#5 ·
Doug, do you have a cell phone? I find that calling Rayma-who-ever- they are called from the boat, during business hours, usually gets some fast free tech support.

Odds are this is a matter of some menu setting for "heading/inverse" or for putting the mag compass into calibration mode and then making a couple of 360's so it can redetermine north.

Lesser odds are that your friend somehow knocked the fluxgate sensor out of place, and popped it back in backwards. (G)
 
#7 ·
We've had a couple of similar episodes with out new Raymarine ST6000 setup... no plotter, just auto.

What I noticed is that in addition to the offest the heading scrolled the WRONG WAY.. ie a turn to starboard generated a lower heading (in degrees). Since this represents positive feedback for the controller, the auto just layed the helm over hard and stayed there.

It's happened maybe 2 times in the year since I bought it, and a 'reboot' cleared it each time. A pain, though.
 
#10 ·
Finally found the solution. Turns out the autopilot dumped the memory, and so had to be completely recalibrated. Dockside calibration, then compass calibration at sea with a couple of circles to get deviation.
The solution came from the raymarine help line while sitting on the boat.
Rebooting didn't give me any changes, so I eventually called the help line. After about 15 minutes they had it figured out and so all is now good.
Thanks for everyones efforts.
Doug
 
#11 ·
Seatrial Calibration is the answer.

My Raymarine Autopilot ST600+ did the same trick on me today, it was showing exactly a reciprocal of the course steered, and worked as an basic autopilot but when asked to steer a route it changed course by 180 degrees!

Re-booting both the instruments and my Raymarine course computer (RL70C) did not fix the problem.

After reading this post I performed the "Seatrial Calibration" as described in the Owners Handbook, motored 2+ circles taking over 2 minutes for each, completed the deviation correction and then the autopilot allowed me into the "Autopilot Heading" alignment screen. Motored in straight line for about 1 minute then hit "auto" and the COG from the GPS was accepted as the heading.

Thanks to previous posts for the encouragement. I have no idea why this fault developed as the kit has performed flawlessly for the last 4 tears/10,000 miles?

SY Susanne
Kithnos
Greece
 
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