Autohelm 2000

[ronniewood]

The compass is malfunctioning on our autohelm so would like to disable the compass function and fit a simple push button control on an extended cable for steering from shelter in mucky weather. Anybody tried it and know how to rig this up?.

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[Piers]

Try calling Dave Wellcome of Raymarine - an engineering guru on Autohelm. 02392 693 611 extension 1614.

<hr width=100% size=1>Piers du Pré
http://www.dupre.co.uk

 

[cameronke]

Hi Ronniewood
I would be very interested as to how you get on with this enquiry. i have an interest in creating a small wrist mounted remote control and base station for my autohelm so that I could make strearing adjustments from anywhere on board whilst solo. Raytheon do a small remote control but it is cable connected. i would like to replicate this with a wireless connection.
Best Regards
Cameron

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[Guest]

Is the Autohelm the old Autohelm 2000 with a separate control box or the one with the controls on the rod?

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[ronniewood]

To arcturus - It's the old style with a seperate control unit which we mount in the cockpit.

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[Guest]

You have several options.
1. Throw away old unit. Mount a two pin socket in the cockpit and connect the plug onto the lead of the ram. The wire is two core. To make the ram extend you apply +12v. To make the ram retract you supply the 12v in reverse direction. Hence you can connect the electrical socket to a rocker switch in the cabin that supplies 12V one way and reversed polarity the other.
2. Alternative is to buy an ST4000 control unit. This offers all the advantages of still having an Autohelm. Make sure you buy the upgrade kit as the control unit no longer has a built in fluxgate compass. The kit comes with a separate flusgate compass.
N.B. the Ram of the old ST2000 has a small electric motor of very high quality that is no longer available. The motor in the new Rams is larger and will not fit. I mention this because if your ram is aging as well then it is cheaper to buy both ram and control unit at the same time.

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