autohelm 800 continuous alarm

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patspost

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Folks,
I have an Autohelm 800 tiller pilot and when I connect it up it is on alarm continuously.
Has anybody got an idea of what might be wrong?, anybody still using these out there or have you repaired one in the past.
Tks
 
Do you have a manual? had one somewhere. Will try to track it down. Hopefully it has some fault finding in it.
Does the arm actuate when the dial is turned (assuming it is a dial turning one)?
Presume the + and - are the right way round. Not sure what happens if they are the wrong way round.
 
I do have the manual but it says very little about fault finding.
It can only connect the correct way due to the connector type, so that is ruled out.
When I press the + - to move the arm nothing happens.
I contacted some gut in a ratheon service centre and his advice was to chuck it, but I'd like to fix it, preferbly myself.
The fact that it comes on and makes a noise is sign of some life in it. Thanks for help so far.
I was wondering if maybe some component has a reputatuin for going faulty etc.
 
Mine took one too many dives across the floor of the boat and ended up with a dry joint on the PCB. Took it to somebody who used his meter for half an hour and re-soldered it.

Did have a similar problem to yours when the connector rusted. Would be worth opening the box up and checking that enough v are getting to the gubbins even if the next step is trying to find somebody who repairs these things.
 
use 800 as spare and 1000 as main ... both basically same ...

If you want manual - they are downloadable from Raymarine Discontinued manual section .... or if you have trouble finding it - pm me and I'll e-mail it to you.

Question ... is the arm partially extended or fully in / out ? If the TP is stalled - it will give alarm like that. Does it move in / out with pressing one button ?

Is battery supplying it with good charge ? Low battery can make it fail ... or maybe a poor cable supply meaning high resistance - so meter shows 12v etc. but amps supply is too weak ....
 
Continuous tone can be just a low voltage actually at the pilot, yes, your batteries might be fully charged, but if there is a bad conection or some corrossion somewhere then the can be the cause. Take the plug off and check the wires are shiny copper (not black or green) then connect straight across your battery, if the alarm still sounds then the processor is not running, if it wrks then problem sorted. If the cable is discoloured, replace, not cleaning is the only solution.
 
Tks for replies folks, the arm is fully in.
It might be the battery as it is reading 11.75 v, maybe not enough current to drive it, but I can't imagine it would take much!!.
I must connect up a 12v supply to ot and see if there is any movement from it.
Tks
 
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