Trying To Set Up My Autopilot

[Madwand]

Bought my boat about the beginning of May and it came with a Garmin 182c chart plotter and Raymarine 6002 wheel pilot or something like that connected with an X5 computer. This is a wheel control autopilot. During my transit from where I bought the boat, the autopilot motor failed and I sent it to Raymarine and they returned a new one for $300. The computer turned out to have a bad resistor as well which they finally replaced, after running me around for several months. So now it is 6 months later and I still am unable to get this thing to work. I just reinstalled the computer and was expecting to successfully calibrated and finally sail my boat.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...pse8ghujgn.jpg

So this is what I am having a problem with now. The step where it says I am supposed to make sure that the chartplotter is communicating to the autopilot display, the readings are showing dashes instead of numbers. So I have confirmed that I am supposed to have the chartplotter showing a waypoint in order for these numbers to appear. Since I have not been able to sail the boat since I bought it, I am not familiar with the chartplotter yet. I selected a wreck off of Ship Island in the Mississippi sound and thought that I had made it active but I don't know if it was or not. I think this is what I did.

Creating Waypoints Graphically - Garmin 182/182C Owner's Manual [Page 15]

So my question is, if I drive 2 hours to my boat tomorrow on my off day, and follow these directions, am I doing what is required of me in the first picture? Is this going to create the active Waypoint that the autopilot display is expecting to see?

I've been trying to hire a marine electrician for the past 5 months to do this because I don't know what I'm doing. So far, they have either lied to me that they would come, or they tell me they don't know how to work on Raymarine equipment. The only authorized repair place in the area of Gulfport is the same company who has lied to me 3 times that they were coming to fix it (Advance Marine) and the third time was after I spoke directly to the owner and explained to her what they had done.

I would love to be able to get this working so that I can finally calibrate the thing by driving in circles and then see my boat steering itself.

I am at the point now where I am going to have to sell the boat if I cannot get this fixed. This may sound trivial to some people, but imagine buying a car because it has air conditioning and then being told that you can roll the windows down because the air conditioning doesn't work.

I bought this boat because it had a working autopilot. I've got many other things to fix on it, but after dealing with this for 5 months I am so disheartened with it. I'd appreciate anyone who would be able to help me resolve this.

[fallingeggs]

I can feel your frustration! There are already a thousand things to check with these types of problems and it's only made worse because both products are out of date / not supported and by different companies. This is why many folks don't prescribe a whole lot of value to ten year old electronics when boat shopping.

1) Why are you trying to connect the autopilot to the chart plotter anyway? On a sailboat you don't often steer to a waypoint, it's generally by compass or wind. The autopilot should already have a flux compass. If you have 0183 wind, you should be able to connect it directly to the autopilot without the need for the chart plotter. What I'm trying to say is that the autopilot computer and controller should be able to work just fine without the chart plotter. Chart plotter integration can be nice, but should not be required. Try and get the autopilot to work without the chart plotter first. Heck, the autopilot's manual says the chart plotter connection is optional.

2) If you know what 0183 sentences the autopilot needs to pull from the chart plotter, you'll have to read the chart plotters manual to figure out how to output those sentences via 0183.

3) Check and double check all connections.

[Frankly]

The waypoint issue from the Garmin to the X-5 has nothing to do with basic AP operations. Go through the setup/ calibration procedure and see if it will hold a steady magnetic heading. After all that is working then you can see if the NEMA 0183 (standard speed) link is working which is how the waypoint info is transferred to the X-5 control and the 6001 display unit.

[Madwand]

Because I have to go through the steps in the picture that I posted to change those dashes to numbers in order to get to the calibration step. I can't proceed until that is done. I know that I'm not expecting to navigate from the autopilot, but the instructions say that a Waypoint has to be detected first.

[Madwand]

I believe that the point of that is to determine that there is, in fact, an nmea link.

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[fallingeggs]

I know I'm not there, but I'm not reading the manual as saying you have to do anything with the chart plotter or a waypoint.

On page 31 of the manual, you have steps 1 through 3. After step 3 do you get the "STANDBY screen display[ing] a live compass heading" on the computer?

If not, you have something wrong in the powering of the unit or the basic connections to the flux compass/computer.

If so, go to the bottom of page 32, "Checking autopilot operating sense" and step 1's engaging the wheel drive clutch. Then to page 33 and "Setting the vessel and drive type," etc.

I see zero need for messing with the chat plotter at all, including entering a waypoint. That step is only if you have connected the chat plotter to the autopilot.

[fallingeggs]

Originally Posted by Madwand

I believe that the point of that is to determine that there is, in fact, an nmea link.

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You are right on that point, but my point is that you don't need (or want) a NMEA 0183 link to your chart plotter. You don't care about cross track error (XTE), bearing to waypoint (BTW) or distance to way point (DTW) if you are sailing to the compass or wind. Don't plug your chat plotter into the autopilot and ignore this step.

[Madwand]

The chartplotter is connected to the autopilot. When I first started this Odyssey, months ago, there were numbers there instead of dashes.

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[Madwand]

Not trying to be argumentative, but I'm just trying to install it the way I got it and make it work.

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[fallingeggs]

Originally Posted by Madwand

The chartplotter is connected to the autopilot. When I first started this Odyssey, months ago, there were numbers there instead of dashes.

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I understand, but just because the person before you had it set up this way doesn't mean you have to. I feel that you are about to sell your boat because you can't get it to do something you don't need it to do! That would be silly.

I still vote you ignore this step for the time being and get the autopilot to function properly based on the compass or wind. Afterwards, and if you really want to pretend to be a powerboater by navigating to a waypoint, then figure out how to connect the chart plotter to the autopilot to get the XTE/BTW/DTW.

[fallingeggs]

Originally Posted by Madwand

Not trying to be argumentative, but I'm just trying to install it the way I got it and make it work.

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For what it is worth, I'd think you have a problem with a connection or the Garmin not out putting XTE/BTW/DTW to the 0183 port, but it's just a guess.

That or a user error in creating a waypoint

[StuM]

Half my working time is spent testing and debugging systems.

The first rule of troubleshooting: eliminate all unnecessary variables and test one component at a time.

First thing you need to establish is whether the autopilot is working. After that you can worry about the chartplotter and the NMEA interface.

IOW, do what the others have suggested, disconnect the chartplotter.

Test that the autopilot display the correct magnetic heading.
The take the boat out and test whether it can hold a heading.

Once you are satisfied with that, proceed to the next step of chartplotter integration.

[Madwand]

I understand what you are saying. I didn't realize that I could skip that step. I was just following the steps in the book. I don't know enough about this to know what I don't need to know. I'm pretty sure that everything functions properly, I think that the solution is simpler than I am expecting it to be. I'm headed to the boat now to try to get to The Dockside calibration. I was under the impression that I couldn't start that until I had the other part done.

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[fallingeggs]

Originally Posted by Madwand

I understand what you are saying. I didn't realize that I could skip that step. I was just following the steps in the book. I don't know enough about this to know what I don't need to know. I'm pretty sure that everything functions properly, I think that the solution is simpler than I am expecting it to be. I'm headed to the boat now to try to get to The Dockside calibration. I was under the impression that I couldn't start that until I had the other part done.

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Let us know how it goes!

[Madwand]

User error in creating a waypoint is the problem for that aspect of this. That's what my original post was about. When I thought I had created Waypoint, I didn't get a purple line like I was expecting. But now that I know that's not necessary, I will work on that later.

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