Autopilot fix or replace, who to go to?

[claymore]

Prophet of doom speaking....we had a Vetus autopilot for about 10 years which was terrible for going off on one. Nothing we did could sort it.
Boatshow - Greenham Marine - £2.5k lighter - Raymarine
Perfick.
I replaced all the hydraulic pipes, lowered the fluxgate down to the centreline of the boat, re-wired everything and fitted a new sensor on the top of the rudder as well as replacing the pump.
For a man like yourself, who can walk on water Roberto - I believe its hands in pockets time.

[Shuggy]

Not wanting to start a spat but I have had several autopilots. Two that I dealt with (ST2000 tiller and ST4000 wheel) didn't have a rudder or ram position feedback. The 4000 suggested that a rudder position sensor would improve performance. The 2000 had limit switches to stop the motor at extreme travel. I replaced the 4000 with something more modern that insisted on having a rudder position sensor.

Not much help though I'm afraid.
Derek

Hmmm - OK. But there must be something that tells the controller where the ram is? If not, forgive me - I'm just guessing

[cpedw]

But there must be something that tells the controller where the ram is?

I'm not a control engineer but my limited understanding is that the most basic operation goes:

1 Measure the size and direction of the error.
2 Make a suitable change to the ram position.
3 Repeat

To do that, the current position of the ram doesn't matter, it's just a question of how much change to make - how long and which direction to run the motor. Of course it all goes bad when it reaches the end of its travel.

Derek

[voyager35]

I had a mobile raymarine engineer call out to our boat at lhinne marine a couple of years ago. I contacted him through a marine company in north connal which I cant remember the name of but the invoice came from Boat Electrics in Troon tel 01292315355

[pagoda]

But there must be something that tells the controller where the ram is?

I'm not a control engineer but my limited understanding is that the most basic operation goes:

1 Measure the size and direction of the error.
2 Make a suitable change to the ram position.
3 Repeat

To do that, the current position of the ram doesn't matter, it's just a question of how much change to make - how long and which direction to run the motor. Of course it all goes bad when it reaches the end of its travel.

Derek

Agreed. However there is something to be said for investigating the Options menus for calibrating Auto -helms for your own specific boat. Even with Raymarine there are a fair number of calibration options. Check them out thoroughly?

[aquaplane]

The current old Autohelm doesn't have a rudder position sensor.

But the man says it's not supported and he can't get parts.

The replacement needs a rudder position sensor. I don't know it it's a % pos[sup]n[/sup] sensor or an index sensor just to tell when it's central.

I have to say that the original control method is more in tune with my experience in process control where pid controllers predominate.

[aquaplane]

For a man like yourself, who can walk on water Roberto - I believe its hands in pockets time.

I thought that I demonstrated I couldn't in fact walk on water? I must admit that I haven't tried again in the several epoch since our first collision (meeting sounds so banal ) so maybe I now can.

I can't fix my autopilot though, I have tried.

[Shuggy]

Ah well - looks like I was wrong. Never mind, I wouldn't trust me either

[Sandgrounder]

Boat Electrics and Electronics Ltd are also based at Kip and they deal with Raymarine. I've recently had a quote for a Raymarine Wheelpilot

[aquaplane]

So you have a boat in the North now Simon? I knew that you were in the market but didn't recollect that you had bitten the bullet and bought.

[aquaplane]

I just re-found this thread and realise I didn't feed back what happened.

I went to BEE and they did a good job for quite a bit of cash. But I now have a working autopilot with a remote I can keep in my pocket. Infact BEE came to me, or Seminole, in Tarbert so I had to pay for a couple of nights digs and a shitload of travel.

Anyway, all the Autopilot bits (about £1600), and a new iCom radio with command mike, and fitting, came to £3000 ish, it may have been £3500. But it all works so who cares what it cost.

I came looking at this because I'm now replacing the Stowe speed and distance log, Seafarer 600 depth and Garmin 120 GPS with new Speed/Depth/Wind instruments and a plotter. I'll be keeping the paper charts. Just thought, I had better write down all my waypoints of the Garmin 'coz they are all written on the paper charts and they are in the right places.

[wully]

Mah wee boatie has Autohelm instruments, even older that ST50’s...

The autopilot is similar vintage. It all still works so will be left as is - until it dies..

Then it will be a Raymarine set up, eye wateringly expensive as that will be..I’m near greetin’ at the prospect.