Autopilot seastate and gain

[ShipsWoofy]

Both seastate and gain on my simrad wheel pilot were set to auto, over the years I have found this unsatisfactory and often bemoaned the bzzzz bzzzzz bzzz all the live long day when annie it turned on.

The manual suggests in heavy weather the gain should be low and discusses seastate as a deadband, allowing greater error and thus less drain on the batteries etc.

Does any actually play with these settings beyond auto and can you suggest any hints for a pretty much set and forget with acceptable error that you have found works for you?

Hope this makes sense, I just want a quiet life, especially now since we have hopefully fixed the in mast cable slapping.

 

[snowleopard]

I can't help but I can tell you it's not just Simrad. My Raymarine is just the same, and the hydraulic pump makes a hell of a din. In flat water I can steer a straight course with a gentle nudge of the wheel every 30 secs. The autopilot steers this way and that, snaking all the time and over correcting. The only advice I could ever get from Raymarine was 'ask your installer'. Not much help as I put it in myself.

If you get any useful answers I'll be very interested.

 

[sailorman]

my Raytheon A/H 6000 with 12volt Ram is just fine ( 31 ft WL 7 ton fin keel IOR design ).
in the auto set-up in flat water hardly any movement & no noise from the Ram.
in moderate seas it does detect helm movement & adds "Standing Helm" i.e slight port or stbd helm as req.
the helm "Responce" can be altered to the extent that the helm moves on the slightest devation from the req course but @ the expence of pwr consumption.
it is now 9 1/2 yrs since i fitted it with no complaint from me or it

 

[flaming]

On the raymarine kit I use low numbers when motoring or sailing in light winds, medium numbers upwind in stronger conditions, and high numbers downwind or on a reach instronger winds.
When racing doublehanded the autopilot is on 9 when the kite is up, then it's nearly as good as me!

 

[ShipsWoofy]

[ QUOTE ]
On the raymarine kit I use low numbers when motoring or sailing in light winds, medium numbers upwind in stronger conditions, and high numbers downwind or on a reach instronger winds.
When racing doublehanded the autopilot is on 9 when the kite is up, then it's nearly as good as me!

[/ QUOTE ]So what you are saying, I am dreaming if I think I can use it as a one setting hit the tit when needed solution.

Fine, as long as I know, I will have to start playing with it and see if I can make it bearable.. Agree with snowL on the steering, maybe a cat thing but if I lock the clutch she will generally hold her own for ages, yet turn annie on and she disagrees and acts like a neurotic obsessive /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif she does hold a good course though.

Actually looking forward to sorting this out if at all possible, shows I should have consulted the manual much much sooner!

 

[machurley22]

This is very good question.

Mine is the most basic Navico of yesteryear and I have recently started to play with the settings which were previously set to auto seastate and gain 7. However, there are so many different combinations of settings and weather that understanding what affects what is a nearly impossible task.

What I need is a manual which says set x higher/lower when wind is lighter/stronger and y lower/higher when sea is bigger/smaller. It doesn't.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

I have just uploaded my copy of the simrad manual to one of my sites, this has a small section with a description of the settings available and how to use them, see what you think..

wp10manual.pdf

 

[ytd]

on our raymarine I use the same settings as flaming. Anything over 5 and the pilot operates most of the time. On 3 on a calm day it might go 60 secs without operating.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

Truly an amazing transformation occurred this weekend, after a little playing I have worked out what these things do. I just wish I had moved the settings off AUTO years ago (literally), now I am peeved at how much life I have probably taken from the motor/gears/belt etc by having the thing run so damned hard.

With no mast cables slapping, no bzzzz bzzz bzzzz it felt almost like a sailing boat, now the autopilot sort of donks a degree or two on the wheel when it needs to, rather than all the time.

Thank you all for my change of reasoning that the autopilot will require attention as conditions determine, for those that suggested similar qualms, get the book out, I am glad I finally did.