Autohelm 800 - problems

[Judders]

I have had trouble with my Autohelm 800 and today got around to opening it up. The arm had gone to it's fullest extent but then would not move back. One could feel and hear the motor working. My intitial thought was a lack of voltage as I was aware that the ship's battery required replacement, but the new battery hadn't fixed it so I bought it home for a play.

Having now opened it up, it appears that the arm had simply gone so far along the archamedes (sic) screw that moves it that it had lost contact with the end. Has anyone else had that trouble with this model and did that fix it?

 

[europe172]

I had problems with mine, looked at the circuit board witch was covered with green corrosion, sprayed it with contact cleaner, wiped it carefully with cleaning rag and its been alright since, it seems that they get damp over time and the board starts to short which can cause may faults, hope this helps

 

[Refueler]

Nope ... my 800 which is my back-up machine to my AH 1000 (same machine !! but slightly quicker on stroke) makes strange grinding noises as it works ! But works fine.

The AH1000 did short it's board coming across Baltic in 2007 ... my lab electronics guy couldn't fix it as it was the PIC on the board as he reckoned. I bought a second-hand one with broken case and used that to replace parts. I still have the arm and motor etc. ready for any mishap.

One of the mods my guy made was to smear all joints, except the one where arm passes through the gasket ring, with vaseline to make better seal. Once he did that ... magic.

Do you need any part for yours or did you manage to fix it ?

 

[Judders]

[ QUOTE ]

Do you need any part for yours or did you manage to fix it ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not sure. I guess I shall find out this weekend when I get back to the boat and plug it in. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[charles_reed]

I think you'll find there should be a stop to prevent that happening. Looks as though it's gone missing.
Phone up Raymarine on 02392 693611 IN THE AFTERNOON and speak with Jayne, in Customer Service, and she'll put you through to one of the technicians.

I gave up using all-in-one Autopilots in 1992, they always fail by water ingress into the keypad, requiring a new PCB.
Mind you I sail single-handed about 3000-4000 miles a year so the original 4000ST I have gets its fair share of abuse. The 2 actuators get a service every 2nd year, usually needing new brushes and sometimes a new leadscrew.

 

[morgandlm]

I have the exact same model and experienced this problem when the electronics failed. In summary the drive just kept running until the unit jammed at the end. I found Raymarine staff very helpful and got the thing fixed for about £35 (in 2005). It's still working well. If the unit seems fairly sound, a repair is probably a good option. They are good machines although as others have said they don't like getting too wet. I protect mine with cling film in rain or when shipping water into the cockpit like on Saturday last.

By the way it's not an Archimedes screw (which was a sort of pump) but just a screw or perhaps a drive screw.
Morgan