Are the Autohelm ST 4000 and the Raymarine ST4000+ compatible?
We are in Central America with a lightning cooked Autohelm ST 4000 control head. We obtained a Raymarine (who bought Autohelm) ST4000+ control head and installed it. Initial sea trial had it working but not so well - it wanders back and forth through about 30 degrees under power on flat water. I thought all we needed to do was reduce the gain but a tech at Raymarine told us the two heads aren't compatible and we'll never get it to work properly. Also, they don't support these systems anymore. I thought we were so close. Has anyone switched these two out before with any success?
Either way the drive is just two wires which reverses polarity as you know, can't see a reason why they won't work. Has the lightening also damaged the gyro compass or rudder reference unit?
Thanks for your replies. Sorry for the delay. We did the 2 circle compass calibration and adjusted (played with) all the calibration settings. Nothing worked. I think it's possible the compass was also damaged by lightning. In the end we hand steered the boatBelize to Tampa Bay - no fun whatsoever.