raymarine boat position is 180 degrees off

dugsmith98 · #1 10-02-2010

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

jorgenl · #2 10-02-2010

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...

wwilson · #3 10-02-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugsmith98

...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.

PCP · #4 10-02-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by jorgenl

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

hellosailor · #5 10-02-2010

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)

brak · #6 10-03-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Lesser odds are that your friend somehow knocked the fluxgate sensor out of place, and popped it back in backwards. (G)

I would start with that. My fluxgate compass from Raymarine could be removed from its base and reinstalled in more than one position. Worth looking into.

Faster · #7 10-03-2010

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.

CaptKermie · #8 10-03-2010

Quote:

Originally Posted by brak

I would start with that. My fluxgate compass from Raymarine could be removed from its base and reinstalled in more than one position. Worth looking into.

I will second that opinion. I diliberately installed my fluxgate backwards so that I could place it in a safer and better location. When I took the boat out to swing the compass I corrected for 180 degrees to compensate. Now if someone were to reset the controls to default or factory settings it would be off by 180 degrees. Then I would have to do the swing compass procedure all over again.

MARC2012 · #9 10-09-2010

PO installed mine backwards,glad to learn can adjust that much,thanks.marc

dugsmith98 · #10 10-19-2010

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