[JohnRPollard]

I and several other members recently ordered new Raymarine Wheelpilot's for our boats. Some folks got the S-1 unit at great close-out pricing from Sailnet, while others like me purchased the newer version (X-5).

The primary difference between the two units is that the newer X-5 has a feature called "Rate Gyro Sensor" that helps it anticipate the motion of the boat, without the need for a rudder position sensor. So the S-1 units have an additional installation step for the rudder position sensor.

I have not installed our Wheelpilot yet. It just arrived yesterday from the Sailnet store. And I likely won't get around to it until after spring commissioning.

But I invite anyone with installation experience, or that is in the process of installing one, to post tips, hints, etc, here in this thread so that we can all benefit from the collective experience.

Looking forward to spring!

 

[norsearayder]

ive got one also but will not install till the water gets soft

 

[TSOJOURNER]

How did the installation go?

Do you know if it is possible to convert an S1 to an X5?
I think the main difference is the control head and the core pack?

edit: Actually mine is a mkII drive unit with rudder sensor but there is no core pack.

 

[JohnRPollard]

How did the installation go?

Do you know if it is possible to convert an S1 to an X5?
I think the main difference is the control head and the core pack?

Well,

I haven't completed much less begun the installation. It won't happen until sometime after spring commissioning. I was really hoping that someone who had completed the installation would post to this thread with useful tips before I tackle mine.

As for a conversion, my understanding is that you can swap an S-1 Corepack for an S-1G Corepack with Raymarine, which gets you the same rate-gyro stabilizer as X-5. Cost is uncertain, I was told "a few hiundred" by a Raymarine rep, but possibly as much as $400 (based on one report from another SailNet member.)

 

[orientalnc2010]

Hi John,
I just installed the S1 version on my 31, the rudder position indicator is a pain to install but with a bit of patience and some trial and error I got it done.
I did not have to build any sort of pad as the height of the sensor mounted upside down under the cockpit sole positions the rotating arm in the same plane as the tiller arm, this is not supposed to vary by more than 5%.
If you have rack and pinion steering be carefull when drilling the pedestal for the bracket that keeps the drive assembly stationary, the screws they send for this purpose are short enough so they do not hit the torque tube that is part of the rack. Also I have on a previous boat used the pedestal as the raceway for the motor cable, not so with rack and pinion.
If you have single lever control it is on the starboard side of the ped, this is where the motor should sit in it's normal position, this is a problem. If you then attempt to rotate the motor to the port side of the ped and align the back of the drive ring slot with the stationary pin the motor sits too close to the compass and it goes crazy. ( Continued)

 

[orientalnc2010]

Continued
Solution was to make a new slot in the back of the drive ring to position the motor low on the port side away from the compass, seems to still cause the compass to deviate about 4 degrees. Drill two 3/8 holes and connect with a dremmel tool. I am thinking about adding some reinforcement around the new slot as the material is very thin.
Also if you have the S1 and mount the rudder indicator sensor upside down, as I did, then two wires will need to be swapped, looks like the blue and green but I still need to call Ray to verify.
The location of the smartpilot computer is interesting, I finally mounted mine in the wet locker and have fashioned a clear watertight cover for it. I tried the hanging locker put it just did not work out.
The electronic compass is under the port sette about 3 feet forward of the hot water heater, this was the closest to the centerline that I could position it.
If you have the S1 and decide to tie it into the seatalk bus and have a seperate feed for the other instruments (so you can use the WDS without the AP on) then you need to hook up the red wire for the seatalk at the computer terminals. Manual say not to but it is a typo. I don't know about the S1G.(built in gyro)
Other than that it's a piece of cake.

 

[JohnRPollard]

Steve,

These are just the sort of tips I was hoping to hear. Thanks!

I actually have the X-5 unit which lacks the rudder sensor. But it is good to know that you were able to mount yours without having to build a mount pad -- I had worried about that and so went with the newer X-5 package. Of course, we have a steering quadrant (wish we had your rack and pinion arrangement!) so we might not have been so lucky anyway.

Regarding the location of the corepack, I am curious as to why you were not able to install it in the hanging locker? Darn, that is where I had planned to put ours.

In my case, I am actually replacing an existing (but defunct) ST4000 Wheelpilot. So most of the components are already in place (except the corepack, which didn't exist back then, it was all driven by the control head). We have dual-lever engine controls, and the existing motor is mounted on the starboard side of the pedestal. I'm hoping the new one will swap into that same place easily enough. But with my luck, there will be some surprises!

Thanks again!

 

[negrini]

John, if you have the rudder sensor, keep it as you'll get an even beter response, and you'll also be able to see the angle on your display (good to check sails balance, for instance). Differently than the fluxgate sensor, in my experience, placing the corepack on a "motion prone" location will help your Gyro compute acceleration rates more efficiently, as those crystals will sense beter the motion allowing for yaw/axis correction.

 

[orientalnc2010]

Steve,

These are just the sort of tips I was hoping to hear. Thanks!


Regarding the location of the corepack, I am curious as to why you were not able to install it in the hanging locker? Darn, that is where I had planned to put ours.
some surprises!

Thanks again!

Hi John,
I could have installed it in the hanging locker but IMHO it is too cramped, just trouble shooting the unit or even changing a fuse would be tough. The access in the wet locker is much easier and the cover solves the wet problem. There is no reason not to install it in the hanging locker other than that.

 

[TSOJOURNER]

Seeing if any of the readers who bought the S-1 wheelpilot have made progress on the installation. Bought one and should get this week to start putting it in. Like everyone else looking for advice and hints. Thanks
Thisisus
Islander 32
Mobile AL

 

[brak]

I'd like to add something to this. S1G is the previous model that did include the rate gyro (it is essentially S1 with rate gyro functionality turned on). I have that core pack on my boat.

Incidentally, from the documentation of S1G, though it is trying to be as foggy on the subject as possible, it really seems like it only uses rate gyro during the "learning" process but not in normal operation (I sure hope I am wrong on this, but thats what it seems like).

 

[Faster]

I, too, am in the process of installing an S1, replacing a Raytheon ST4000+ whose drive ring more or less disintegrated.

Last night I installed the new drive ring, which btw looks a much more robust and better-engineered assembly than the old. Went very well, the holes you need to drill are well marked on the inside of the ring, make sure you chose holes with matched number pairs as best suits your spoke pattern. The ring self centers well esp when you "soap" the spokes as they suggest.

While attempting to drill the first hole on my cast aluminum rudder post arm (Edson link & lever steering) naturally the drill bit broke (bad working angle and medium access/long reach) so will have to try again tomorrow.

btw the only place the manual says not to connect the red Seatalk wire is if you're powering the Seatalk network from another source. If you've only got the ST6002 controller on Seatalk you must connect the red.

I was hoping that my old ST4000+ head unit would run the motor drive until I sorted out just how/where to mount the smartpilot and managed to get the rudder sensor in place (I will need a pad) but it did not seem to want to do that - strange, as I'd expect it's just another 12V drive and the old cable seemed to fit....

Since the new controller is a Seatalk device and the old was self contained, there's a fair bit of wire re-routing required now which involves pulling cables through the pedestal guard tubing - always fun.

So tomorrow's job is to prepare the steering sensor pad, and finalize the position of the smartpilot unit.(leaning toward high on a bulkhead at the foot of the aft berth) Debating on whether to re & re the flux gate.. nothing wrong with the old one.

The instruction set seems to be pretty complete, and I know from previous experience that the on-the-water setup is a bit time consuming, but hopefully all that goes well when the time comes.

From what I've seen so far this unit looks much better than the original ST4000.

 

[rikhall]

S1 rudder indicator installation

Hi all

Currently working on the boat to get ready to sail from Annapolis to Canada. Here is the "almost finished" mounting of the rudder indicator:

Autohelm Rudder indicator

Rik

 

[TSOJOURNER]

Wow -that's a lot of fabbing to make it come together. Making me wonder what I'm fixing to get into. Think this area must be the worst part. Once you get that the rest is tolerable. I'll found out next weekend when I get started... I'm sure I'll have a few questions.
Thisisus
Islander 32
Mobile AL

 

[brak]

Looks pretty complicated. On my boat there was a mount for an old rudder angle indicator (for a previous Simrad autopilot). Essentially it was small round aluminum base with two welded tabs to bolt onto one of the rear berth wood support beams (it's right under a berth). The link itself went directly to the rudder "tiller arm" (same arm connects to the hydraulic ram).

The new Raymarine indicator was slightly different so I had to drill a few holes in its base and also cut the arm down and reinstall the mounting ball. Still, the resulting construction is not so bad.

One thing I found useful is to remove the "return spring" from the indicator. For whatever reason Raymarine feels that the indicator needs to be hard on one side and difficult to move to the other It puts a lot of pressure on the flimsy plastic ball caps they provide (and results in the indicator losing it's center occasionally). All it is is a metal U shaped spring under the rotating arm - pull it out and it moves freely and easily in both directions, removing any additional strain on the link.

The old simrad indicator also had ball bearings inside, whereas the new Raymarine thing is just a plastic arm stuck directly on the axis of the potentiometer. 41 ohm left, 41 ohm right - all for a measly $300 MSRP

 

[TSOJOURNER]

The fluxgate compass does this need to be centerlined.....was thinking of mounting down low on one of the bilge dividers.....or better off on a bulkhead somewhere.....figured needs to stay away from metal and batteries.....the directions are clear as muddy water for the most part. Start playing with it this weekend to see what I can do. Wondering if the cabling will be way short....the corepack and a spot right below some drawers in the vberth in the center and low out of the way to put that. Wondering if it will make it to the back. Thanks
Thisisus
Islander 32
Mobile AL

 

[Faster]

The fluxgate compass does this need to be centerlined.....was thinking of mounting down low on one of the bilge dividers.....or better off on a bulkhead somewhere.....figured needs to stay away from metal and batteries.....the directions are clear as muddy water for the most part. Start playing with it this weekend to see what I can do. Wondering if the cabling will be way short....the corepack and a spot right below some drawers in the vberth in the center and low out of the way to put that. Wondering if it will make it to the back. Thanks
Thisisus
Islander 32
Mobile AL

The compass does not need to be on the centerline.. I've seen it installed and working in a compartment below a settee well to starboard. It does need to be vertically oriented. Also the computer/smart pilot can be mounted anywhere, as long as it too is vertical. Try to space things so that your flux gate reaches the smartpilot no problem, and the seatalk line from the controller reaches the smartpilot too. The rudder sensor cables and quite long as well so a central location for the smartpilot should enable a reasonable arrangement of all the rest.

 

[scottyt]

okay who wants to sell their new uninstalled s1 for 700, so they can upgrade to the x5. right now there is a 100 rebate on the x5, total cost for the change if some one did it would be 400 or so

 

[Faster]

S1 installation and calibration complete. Went well, no glitches and I'm pleased with the overall installation.

I have 20 or so feet of flux gate cable, and about the same amount of rudder sensor cable, as well as the original complete drive cable left over if anyone needs any of this. Yours for the asking....

 

[TSOJOURNER]

Well got it about half done I guess. The drive mounting on the wheel went easy enough and adding the pin went well. When putting the power cable onto the drive motor the plastic piece on the back of the drive just broke off...almost like that plastic casting was bad....trying to decide what to do on that...send it back I know how that will go....6 months from now may get another....have to think through and see if a way to glue it back on. Got the gyro mounted and most of the cables ran to the smart box. Mounted the keypad in the spot where I have a windspeed pad that does not work. Intend to come back later and add a bigger pod and mount everything on it. Naturally once you start redoing that I find a bunch of $%&*^ wiring from the PO, so took awhile to rethread everything through the pedestal. Now just have to get the power source to the brains and then tackle the infamous rudder indicator....scouted some spots while hanging upside down getting wires pulled. Directions that come with it, must be a bunch of idiots who never tried to follow them and install one.

Thisisus
Islander 32
Mobile AL