Crossed Helm Indicator!

RogerRat

RogerRat

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Having recently changed my boat to a Targa 40 on outdrives, which I openly admit to not being able to drive well enough in confined spaces like Sparkes marina, it was not helped by the fact that the rudder position indicator was fitted as original and indicated back to front!

When helm turned to port it indicated starboard! /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

This had bugged me since collecting the boat at the end of January and was a job that I had meaning to get round to since. In a tight space, with cross winds the extra moments taken to suss out which way to turn the wheel (still missing shafts) is forever! /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Any way, I know the answer now and have fixed it but I thought it may be interesting for others to guess what was wrong.

Clues:

The rudder indicator on the auto pilot is ok btw.

1. Swapping the wires on the guage end, No go.
2. Swapping the wires on the potentiometer, No go.
3. Turning the potentiometer 180 deg. (it is driven by a cable attached to a lever mounted centrally on the pots. spindle)
4. The pot. is mounted upside down on the underside of the rear quarter.

So what was wrong? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Bit PBOish this, must be one for Wiggo. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

A couple of you know already so you're banned from answering! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Don't think you've seen the last of that hiatus!
Autohelm's wheel pilot invites you to press +1 and -1 together to reduce the bandwidth.
OR turn the light on.
OR reverse sense by 180 degrees for the Southern Hemisphere.

Yes, have been identified going round in circles off Yarmouth in the dark . . .
 
[ QUOTE ]
Clues:

The rudder indicator on the auto pilot is ok btw.


[/ QUOTE ]

So nothing to do with the Auto helm!

C'mon you guys, had us all baffled for several weeks!
 
Roger - the pointy end of the boat goes forward - not the blunt end.
Maybe all is ok anyway. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif


Just remember your catamaran days.
Pointy bit forward - sticky thing up (oooops - no sticky thing!!)
 
I knew you'd be close Graham but not too practical to see the reading.

Enjoy your hard one! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Remember firm? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Well may sound silly, but here's how it worked...

[ QUOTE ]
Clues:

The rudder indicator on the auto pilot is ok btw.

1. Swapping the wires on the guage end, No go.
2. Swapping the wires on the potentiometer, No go.
3. Turning the potentiometer 180 deg. (it is driven by a cable attached to a lever mounted centrally on the pots. spindle)
4. The pot. is mounted upside down on the underside of the rear quarter.


[/ QUOTE ]

Clue No. 4 helps most. With the helm hard to Port the potentiometer was hard to Starboard and the only way to line up the activating arm with the flat on the spindle of the pot. was to turn the pot. upside down!

This meant either the spindle came out of the wrong side of the pot or the whole system was designed to be mounted on the floor of the enclosure not the ceiling!

The fix was to make a bracket that allowed me to mount it on the ceiling but facing upwards, so in effect turning the pot. upside down.

Here's the PBO bit. I went skip diving at the marina as it was Sunday morning. Having found a discarded commercial 'Stainless' toilet role holder, I hacked a strip from it with a jigsaw, 90mm x 360mm (quite critical) and formed it accurately in a vice to create a 'Top Hat' section to mount the potentiometer in the same position, upside down with the spindle remaining exactly the same distance from the activator arm. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Whole thing drove me nuts, but dead chuffed when it worked 100% /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Skip diving? Ye Gods, Roger, even I don't resort to that. Surely there must have been a marine engineering firm who could have fabricated such a bracket for only a couple of hundred quid or so? Consider yourself banished to PBO with immediate effect.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Surely there must have been a marine engineering firm who could have fabricated such a bracket for only a couple of hundred quid or so?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, there was, that's how I knew it was called a,"Top Hat" bracket. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

But on a Sunday morning, 'fabricator' prices go up at Sparkes to the extent that I would have to save up for a month!

Anyway, where do I find PBO? /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
No doubt they would but he usually finds the most rediculous tight corner for me to squirm into to carry out some miraculous job instead.

But my back was killing me from the last job, so skip diving was the less painful option! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Wait till you see what i've got lined up for you this week.
/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
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