Mahe 36: Raymarine E80 boat icon glitch

[Rufduck]

Hi all, Just completed a fun three week trip 700nm in around the San Juans, Canadian Gulf islands and the greater Desolation Sound areas. Learned a lot and great time...BUT every once in a while our trusty Smart Pilot decides to go hareing off in a wrong direction. Like 90 degrees. Embarrassing if Linda's asleep and I'm on the head. Worse in a narrow channel.
Happened the last time, the last thirty miles of the trip.
In the past, I've shut everything down and then powered up all electronics and it seemed to solve it. This time no joy.
I noticed for the first time that the ship icon on the E80 display is merrily jerking around in circles as though it's getting bogus heading data from something.
Anyone ever heard of something like this?
My first thought is a loose screw, no pun intended, but have no clue where I might start looking. It's apparently a complete system with everything talking to everything else.
Cheers, Martyn

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by Rufduck

Hi all, Just completed a fun three week trip 700nm in around the San Juans, Canadian Gulf islands and the greater Desolation Sound areas. Learned a lot and great time...BUT every once in a while our trusty Smart Pilot decides to go hareing off in a wrong direction. Like 90 degrees. Embarrassing if Linda's asleep and I'm on the head. Worse in a narrow channel.
Happened the last time, the last thirty miles of the trip.
In the past, I've shut everything down and then powered up all electronics and it seemed to solve it. This time no joy.
I noticed for the first time that the ship icon on the E80 display is merrily jerking around in circles as though it's getting bogus heading data from something.
Anyone ever heard of something like this?
My first thought is a loose screw, no pun intended, but have no clue where I might start looking. It's apparently a complete system with everything talking to everything else.
Cheers, Martyn

Maybe your compass sensor broke lose and it's rolling around on the floor? Or maybe its just no longer oriented horizontally but vertically, giving erratic direction.
Maybe a bad connection from sensor to autopilot computer?
The sensor could be located anywhere depending on who did the install. Just trace the wire from the autopilot course computer to the compass.
It I remember correctly ours was located inside the aft crossbeam, reachable from the port engine compartment.

[Rufduck]

Thanks for the hints. Today it's working fine. Gerrr. Will poke head into strange places. Cheers,