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Raymarine autopilot help

861 views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  Effit 
#1 ·
Hey guys, I'd like to get my autopilot working properly but I'm not entirely sure where to start. It is an ST6001 style (at least the control head) with the rudder indication at the bottom. It works just okay but not well enough to trust it for more than 5-10 minutes.

What appears to happen is the rudder indications slowly fill in to one side and then after a few minutes of that it will start a turn (as if it has run out of rudder and can't apply anymore) or occasionally just goes into a standby mode (probably a safety feature) on its own. Generally, just pressing standby then turning it back on makes it work again for another 10 minutes or so while the rudder indications slowly drift all the way to one side again.

Thoughts on where to start diagnosing? In other words, is this a software problem and it just needs to be calibrated? Or is this a hardware problem (clutch needs to be tightened etc?

It is Edson wheel steering if that helps. I had a problem with the steering rigging a few months back and replaced one of the bushings around the rudder post. Steering works nice and smooth now but the autopilot issue remains.

Thanks!!
 
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#3 ·
Had a similar problem with my Raymarine autopilot. After much searching, it turned out to be a broken wire in one of the (many) Seatalk cables. I was able to find the problem by first disconnecting the Seatalk cable that connected the rest of the network (Sailing instruments -- wind depth, speed, etc) from the autopilot. Thus, the autopilot was only connected to the ram, 6001 control, flux gate and rudder indicator. In this state the autopilot worked fine for me. That told me it was in the Seatalk network external to the autopilot system.

You can use a similar method to troubleshoot. Disconnect one bit at a time. Takes a while, but patience will prevail.
 
#4 ·
CaptainDan99 is a site member that knows these units inside and out. He repairs them and will often have spares. More importantly he is simply a great guy and a pleasure to work with . I highly recommend him.

In the meantime here are some test you can run at the dock:

  1. In standby, push and hold + 10, about 3 seconds, and note how much the wheel moved. Now do the - 10, pushing for the same length of time and see if the wheel moves about the same amount.
  2. At the back of the head, put a voltmeter on the motor wires. Motor must remain connected. do #2 1 and check voltages. Looking for a difference.
  3. Go to auto and wait. Does the wheel drift? at the dock it should hold the wheel steady.
  4. unscrew the fluxgate compass. Go to auto. now rotate the compass about 10 degrees stbd. Note how much the wheel moves. Do the same rotating port. Do this several times, rotating different amounts. NOTE: you must go back to STBY between each different rotation.

These are some good tests to run and will give you an idea of what is going wrong.
 
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