Raymarine Wheel Pilot Problems

[gardnsailor]

My autopilot has, the last 2 years, seemingly lost its way from time to time. By that, I mean the heading per the flux gate compass, as displayed on the ST60+ display, will become wildly inaccurate. At times, the problem has resolved itself. At other times I've 'solved' the problem by recalibrating the fg compass. But yesterday I was unable to recalibrate the compass. I continually got the message "too fast" when the fg compass heading, as displayed on the ST60+) hit 140 and 345 degrees regardless of the rate of turn. There have been no electrical modifications that explain this nor have any potentially magnetic objects been placed near the fg compass. Any thoughts?

[Capn Dan]

What model of autopilot do you have?

You can test the fluxgate per this link:

https://raymarine.custhelp.com/app/a...etail/a_id/134

[gardnsailor]

The unit is an S1 model (2006 or so). Thanks for the link.

[Capn Dan]

On certain S1 computers, there was a manufacturing glitch and one of the capacitors was put in upside down. Guess what -- It makes the compass go wookie. You can send it to Raymarine and they should repair or do it yourself if you are good at soldering. I will dig out the info and send it to you so you can check and see if that may be the cause.