Autopilot malfunction question

[Whitelighter]

One issue we had on the delivery trip was the autopilot.

It is connected by seatalk to the RL80s and an electronic compass. All raymarine equipment shows a heading of 247 degrees regardless of where the boat is pointing, so I suspect the fluxgate is US.

However if you try to get the AP to change course by doing +/- from 247 nothing happens for a few minutes then it displays drive error and resets its self.

Could the fixed heading be causing that, or is the pump/rudder sensor also gone? The boat makes no effort to turn the boat when you change heading.

 

[spannerman]

You can check the rudder sensor on the autopilot display, it should show a rudder position bar at the bottom, it may have been deselected but its in the display menu. Have you checked the fuse in the course computer for the pump, if that is gone it would explain the lack of response and the error message. When you press+/- the course computer is expecting to see a heading change and if doesn't it will drop out
One other thing is check the pump doesn't have a separate switch/fuse to isolate it

 

[kashurst]

sounds like the pump is not getting power to me. You can run the pump on its own by connecting it +12 (or +24 depending) to check it out and see if it will turn the rudders. After your run across the bay its probably just a dodgy electrical connection between the pump and autopilot computer. It does sound like the electronic compass maybe stuck though.