Dead CPT Autopilot- use drive with Raymarine x10?

[Matt Johnson]

My back-up CPT autopilot seems to have a bad circuit in the compass and now continuously tries to turn to port. It looks like the circuits can be replaced if you have the skill (which I don't), but I will most likely just trash the unit unless I can find an electronics person in Guatemala that works for cheap.

Question I have is about the drive unit. If I was at sea and my linear drive failed, could this wheel drive be feed the output from the Raymarine X10 and function? The linear drive is just getting 12v reversed one way or the other to push the arm out, and it seems the same power would also rotate the wheel of the CPT. Any flaws with this logic?

Thanks,

Matt

[donradcliffe]

Contact CPT Autopilot Inc.

[brianb00]

yes it will most likely work. You might have to adjust the response setting on the X10 to account for what might be a difference in gain between the x10 and the cpt, this is very dependent on motor gearing as well as the electronics design, but it is worth a try. I believe the X10 has circuits that detect motor load, so if the motor for the CPT was a little to big the X10 will just indicated a MOTOR STALL on occasion. I routinely have gone in the other direction and drive various tiller motor and hydraulic AP steering systems with my own electronics with great success. My guess is the motor on the CPT, which is a window winder motor from the auto industry, is similar in electrical load to the X10's motor. You may have to reverse the motor wiring to get the feedback going in the correct direction.

Brian