Autopilot

[scobane]

I recently completed the Caribbean 1500 with 10 days of hand steering as my Raymarine E 120's autopilot failed. It would come back on momentarily at times and at one point even the chart plotter went out and we steered by compass. When it goes out, first Heading Not Available, then Fixed Postion Lost comes on the screen. The boat is currently docked in St Thomas. Any recommendations on a competent Marine Electronics technician there or Tortola? I tried one in Nanny Cay to no avail.

[sailorboy1]

Before you waste a bunch of money check power and ground connections and the seatalk connections as that is where the problem seem to be.

[ka4wja]

I hope the Cruiser's Forum moderators will move this thread to the Marine Electronics forum...

scobane,

In addition to what sailorboy posted (which I agree with)....have a look at this info here...




While you see a lot of boats there, and you'd think the islands would have plenty of marine electronics shops, unfortunately the plethora of charter boats (without much in the way of sophisticated electronics) in the Virgin Islands, means that there are few actual marine electronics experts that are affordable!

But, sobane, further down the road of unfortunates....until we know what autopilot you have, what is actually happening, what is actually being displayed on the autopilot control heads, how your system is wired, etc. etc., there is little that I can offer you in way of specifics...
But, be aware that if it is in fact the E-120 that is shutting off (???), then this was a problem with early software versions, so you may find just downloading new software (or buying a CF card with the new software from Raymarine), to be a quick fix...
But, I think there is another problem here....I just don't know what you have on-board, nor exactly what your problem is....

Originally Posted by scobane

I recently completed the Caribbean 1500 with 10 days of hand steering as my Raymarine E 120's autopilot failed. It would come back on momentarily at times and at one point even the chart plotter went out and we steered by compass. When it goes out, first Heading Not Available, then Fixed Postion Lost comes on the screen. The boat is currently docked in St Thomas. Any recommendations on a competent Marine Electronics technician there or Tortola? I tried one in Nanny Cay to no avail.

The E-120 is a MFD (Multi Function Display), not an autopilot....

Typical Raymarine autopilots of the same era of the E-120, would be an S3 or S3G....(or the smaller S2 or S2G)....and typically the autopilot control heads would be ST-6002+ or ST-7002+....

But, most importantly here is that what you describe happening is a bit confusing as the E-120 is the "chartplotter"....
And "heading not available" on the E-120 is completely understandable if the autopilot is off (non-functioning), as the heading sensor is usually connected directly to the autopilot core pak / course computer (i.e. the S3G)...
"heading not available" on the ST-6002+ or ST-7002+ would usually be "HDNG ERROR"....so, I'm assuming the "heading not available" is on the E-120???

"Fix Position Lost", is a bit of an odd error for the autopilot, as it usually means the GPS module/receiver has lost a fix or has lost power....
But, it is possible that someone wired the RayStar 125 GPS thru the autopilot??? And, when autopilot is non-functioning (or powered off) there is no GPS working???



I know this hasn't answered your question....so sorry about that....
But, I do hope you find some of this useful...

Fair winds...

John

[Sandero]

How many hours and under what conditions did the AP work properly... that is before this problem surfaced?

[GILow]

This all feels like a fault on the seatalk bus to me. Most of the Comms to things like GPS receiver, flux gate compass etc are on the bus.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[bstreep]

I'll second checking your power source. They hate low voltage and corroded connections.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, scobane.

Budget Marine gives give referrals for marine services in St Thomas.
➥ http://www.budgetmarine.com/Store.aspx?id=St.%20Thomas

[nigel1]

Originally Posted by ka4wja

I hope the Cruiser's Forum moderators will move this thread to the Marine Electronics forum...

We have now

[Sandero]

Let me give some advice about APs.

YOU are the skipper... you set the course.... which with an AP means entering the course to steer.

When you interface a GPS to an AP... you abdicate your responsibility to a very vulnerable electric system with multiple places for failure. KISS

You leave the GPS out of the steering. Use it as an adviser.

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by Sandero

Let me give some advice about APs.

YOU are the skipper... you set the course.... which with an AP means entering the course to steer.

When you interface a GPS to an AP... you abdicate your responsibility to a very vulnerable electric system with multiple places for failure. KISS

You leave the GPS out of the steering. Use it as an adviser.

Huh?

You believe that telling your AP to follow a track abdicates the skipper's responsibility???

You believe there are less failure modes for an AP when following the wind or a heading?

Please explain yourself.