Rudder reference for raymarine

[Snore]

Originally Posted by Pete7

To those who are recommending fitting a rudder reference unit, do you have a EV100 on your boat? and have you tried it with and without a reference unit? What was the real difference in your experience?



Pete

I have the EV100 on my boat. Not scientific, but intrinsically felt it was more efficient.

On MY boat I can be OCD on trim. Knowing exactly how much rudder the AP is using to hold a course is another input for trimming.

As stated in my first post, since I back into my slip, knowing rudder angle at a glance is useful.

[Pete7]

I have the advantage of being able to see the top of the rudder shaft as it used to be tiller steered and the connecting block is still in place just in case we need to revert to tiller in a hurry.

Pete

[IdoraKeeper]

If you use a purpose built tiller pilot, the unit knows where the zero deflection point is based on arm extension. If you installed it correctly. Thus it doesn't need the rudder sensor. Below deck installations require the sensor as feedback to analogue rudder position to rate of heading change in order to compensate for sea state.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by IdoraKeeper

Below deck installations require the sensor as feedback to analogue rudder position to rate of heading change in order to compensate for sea state.

The EV100 is a wheel drive system (although there is a tiller version). During the very comprehensive set up routine it asks for these details so it doesn't need a rudder reference unit.

Pete

[Moontide]

The book for the 300 (book for 100 and 300) says rudder ref unit is required for this pilot. Ck ebay for sources. One guy is making them on a 3D printer.

I bet the guy who balanced his boat without ref unit didn't need the AP at all.

[Shaneesprit]

Hi and HELP

I had a ST2000+ terrible thing, gone through 2 of them bearing housing failed but the worst thing was the slightest wave and it would just give up beep and sit there and do nothing even though the situation was entirely recoverable.

Any how swore i would never buy anything from Raymarine again, then bought an EV100 Tiller pilot system ( I single hand a lot so either it can steer or i will have to sell the boat ) probably the least enjoyable sail i have ever had - so only had 2 trips this year, and i am sick of the EV100 already, cannot stand up ( ok can stand but it did catch me out and i nearly fell over ) in the boat because it constantly steers port to starboard, the moment i press Auto its full to port followed by full starboard, over and over.

I have tried to make it as dumb as possible by setting the Hardover to 1 sec,

any suggestions?

it does the same under power as under sail.
Note that i haven't updated the firmware yet - i wanted to get it working first.

On a positive note it can steer through along or with with a wave, so solved one problem and got loads more but if you cant go for a piss whats the point.

Tip - Take my own advice lol

[landonshaw]

I will check on my system and see what I can find. I have not found that to be a problem.


Dave



sv Aloisius

[ilCigno]

There must be something seriously wrong with your setup. I've an EVO-100 tiller pilot and have never experienced such problems. With or without rudder ref, although it steers noticeably better with a reference unit. I would recommend the following:
- do the software update first! Some known bugs have been corrected.
- check if there are no magnetic items near the EV-1. Your phone is a known issue if too nearby. The AP components themselves (ACU, P70 etc.) give no problems even very close to the EV-1.
- check if the rudder moves in the correct direction during the setup. By "does the rudder move to port" means "does the boat steer to port". This is rather confusing in the manual
- reset everything to default values and redo the initializing (dock setup) sequence.
- if the problem persists I would recommend to call Raymarine tech support. I don't know about the US, but here in Europe they are very reachable and helpful. Only call when on board besides your AP.

I use the EVO-100 a lot and I am very pleased with it's performance. It steers way better than the ST-2000+ I had before, especially at sea with serous waves. Even better after I mounted the rudder reference unit: less steering action, less Amps, better tracking.

[gamayun]

Check your connection from the rudder sensor to the rudder post. It might be slipping or loose. I was convinced it was the AP ram messing up when I had similar problems. Just a thought....

[Shaneesprit]

Thats good to hear, i don't care too much about exact direction just as long as it follows a direction fingers crossed.
might not know until next year now, as i have had a main sail issue, on my second outing.

[seandepagnier]

I made a reference using a 3d printer. It uses a hall sensor and accurate to 0.1 degrees. It cost under $20 to build this sensor and is contactless so will never wear out. Most potentiometers are rated to 10,000 cycles, and this isn't very long, a few months perhaps. You can get ones with millions of cycles but these cost more than a hall sensor.

the raymarine components are overpriced. They are charging 10x what it cost for the parts and this is extreme capitalism and greed. They don't share their design or code so you have no chance of fixing it, and for all you know, a hacker could find a backdoor and crash your boat when you least expect it.


Why support them when the free alternative cost about 1/10th as much and is intended to be and modified and repaired by the user, with more features and better performance?

A good autopilot does not need rudder feedback because the integration errors are an order of magnitude less than it has to correct for anyway. So at best the feedback could give 10% better performance which is barely possible to detect, maybe faster learning, but certainly is not a requirement.

[Shaneesprit]

No sensor fitted - i was wondering if that was really needed, dont fancy fitting one to the deck.

[ilCigno]

A rudder reference is not required, but is is highly preferable. But for most tiller steered boats it is not a simple job to connect such a sensor. I posted my 'rudder reference sensor' project on the Dutch Sailors' forum. Just use Google translate if you can't read Dutch

https://zeilersforum.nl/index.php/fo...-c888-il-cigno

[Shaneesprit]

I nearly went with the idea of reworking the ST2000+ I had made a start on having the bearing house made in Aluminium - instead of cheap Chinese plastic.
To be honest I just don’t have the time.

[ilCigno]

Any mechanical engineer could tell you that you can't simply replace plastic gears by metal gears. The forces on the contact points of the teeth are completely different with metal and if the size, shape and speed of the gears isn't exactly matched with the material used it will fail beyond doubt. Besides that the ST2000+ has only one sensor (the fluxgate compass) and very limited computer power to act upon. It is made for sheltered waters and relative lightweight boats. The EVO EV-1 has multiple sensors (3-axis digital accelerator sensor, 3-axis digital compass and 3-axis gyro digital angular rate sensor) and a much better steering computer. So I would recommend against returning to the 2000...