Autopilot and Rudder Position Sensor

[jbondy]

I installed Raymarine's S1 Wheelpilot this year and have been having a problem with it as compared to the Autohelm 3000 it replaced. Pokey exhibits a good amount of weather helm, probably due to the 160 genoa. When sailing to a heading, the Autohelm, which did not have a rudder position sensor, would steer to that heading automaticallyy compensating for any weather helm. The S1, with a rudder position sensor, seems determined to keep the rudder straight rather than steering to compensate for the weather helm deviation. There is a setting on the S1 to tell it that it's in a sailboat, and that's how it is set. I had thought this was exactly the kind of thing that setting would be for. Does anyone know if this is a controllable aspect of the functioning of the S1?

TIA

[Robby Barlow]

Although I'm not sure how to explain this in English, or whether my line of thinking is correct or not, but my first impression is that the sensitivity of the self steering is set too 'tight', resulting in course adjustments being too vague, late & indirect. Try to set it for a quicker / more direct response as this may solve the problem.

[peter_ms]

There should be a setup routine in the Operating Manual. As you go through this, it includes parameters like type of boat. If you dont have the manual you can download it from the Raymarine site. If all else fails, they have a 1800 help my busted ass Raymarine product number you can call while under sail from a cell phone and work out the details real time

I installed the S1 with rudder position sensor... It tracks ok given the tendency of my boat to round up under weatherhelm as well.
It wanders about 5 deg in flat water under motor as well.

[Omatako]

I'm not sure what comparisons can be drawn between the wheel pilots and the under-deck hydraulic types (mine is a Raymarine ST6001) but mine has a calibration routine that has to be performed if the fluxgate gets messed with in any way. This routine (for mine anyway) can be found on the Raymarine website.

Not an informed thought but my take on the thing is that once the fluxgate is given a heading by the operator the AP will try to hold that heading until knows it can't and then an off-course alarm will be set off. I'm not sure that the rudder position sensor has any influence on this process.

Good Luck

Andre

[trantor12020]

I kinda think the S1 is a great stuff (compared to my ST4000MKII) when I sailed on my friend's boat. I think its a matter of adjust to the right parameters which you have to try one at a time. Maybe you could set AP to Wind mode i.s.o. Bearing, that way it won't round up easily.