Raymarine Autopilot dropping to standby

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I think a lot of AP problems are that people don't balance/adjust their sails. It isn't really the AP's fault if it has a hard time holding course when it takes more than 5-10 degrees to do so. If you have a hard time steering you should expect the AP will also.

So maybe when the seas and winds get strong you should pull over and spend the night in a Denny's parking In rough conditions it is tiring and tough to steer a boat even when the sails are balanced. The AP has to be up to the job.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Paul L

So maybe when the seas and winds get strong you should pull over and spend the night in a Denny's parking In rough conditions it is tiring and tough to steer a boat even when the sails are balanced. The AP has to be up to the job.

Ridiculous comment! Maybe you should just learn to balance your sails and maybe your Raymarine AP will steer your boat without tripping! Then again maybe I've got the only RM AP that does works

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

Ridiculous comment! Maybe you should just learn to balance your sails and maybe your Raymarine AP will steer your boat without tripping! Then again maybe I've got the only RM AP that does works

Sailorboy,
I'm trying to learn to balance my sails. So far the longest I've used my AP continuously is 21 days straight. It didn't take any flyers on that passage, but then it's non-Ray. You put a lot of faith in sail balancing. Once you are down to a second reef and a staysail how do you think you will balance your sails so the 3-4m waves don't swing the boat around?

[sailorboy1]

I'm not interested in this word game with you. Others can get get their RM AP to maintain their course, if you couldn't it was you, simple as that!

[sy_gilana]

Now-Now children. No name calling. The AP has done 5 transatlantics with zero problems, and a lot of other sailing in-between. Yes, the sails are balanced, why would they not be? I trim my sails to a state where the wheel can be left alone for a minute or two in calm or say 20 seconds in rough stuff. This AP has worked perfectly well for hours in 70+ knot winds on the beam, for days in following seas in gale conditions. So, I trust it, I just need to find the new little gremlin, that only started when I "Upgraded" the control head to a 6002.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

I'm not interested in this word game with you. Others can get get their RM AP to maintain their course, if you couldn't it was you, simple as that!

Sure some have. Mine would work for days at a time. Just read the number of different people who posted the same problems on this thread alone. It speaks to the design.

[CAELESTIS]

My RM S3G would cut out with no pattern. Then I switched all of the electronics to B&G and now it no longer cuts out. Perhaps it was an issue with the RM RL70C? For clarification, I still have the RM S3G AP and it works better now than when I had the flicker and flash chartplotters . . .

[Miker1944]

My 6002 just started that behavior last winter after 9 years and 40,000 miles of working flawlessly. After review with my Ray Marine guru, we decided to start with the easy stuff first. Checked wiring and connections, no problems found. It was jumping to standby even when we were motoring with plenty of electricity available. My guru said to change the display, that he had found this to be the culprit more often than not. Changed to another display (used), and have not had the problem again in 8 months and about 4,000 miles. Hope this helps. Good Luck.

[bstreep]

I will chime in with a "voltage drop" suggestion as well. Raymarine instruments don't seem to be fond of low voltage. Even with our new ones.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[hoppy]

I thought my problem had gone away, but yesterday my AP switch to standby mode. I heard beeping from my MFD and a window had popped up on it, but before I could see the message the AP had shut down.

In my case it was not power related as I was motoring.

I suspect that there are two potential problems, low power and software glitches, I have the later I think.

[Snore]

Hoppy you can have low power even with the engine on!

Undersized wiring or corroded connections can reduce the cause resistance that causes voltage drops when there are power demands.

As I originally posted --- I only had issue when the AP was working.

Cheers


Sent from my iPhone- please forgive autocorrect errors.

[Wind Shadow]

Hoppy, Turn you autopilot on at anchor and as the boat swings go listen to the linear drive unit as it corrects. If it is making noise the magnets came loose on your motor. This happened to mine and it would trip my breaker and shut down the autopilot. Failure in the Lineare Drive unit will shut down the autopilot. I've also learned from other people that the worm gear in the drive unit can also cause shut down if it's malfunctioning.