Fitting a tiller pilot

[david_e]

Am picking up a Raymarine 2000 plus and fitting it this week-end. Have glanced through the extremely lengthy instructions on line, but any tips that will speed up the process or things to be wary off would be gratefully received.

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[boatless]

David

Don't make the usual mistake of ignoring the availability of extension pieces for the rod. If you use these you can place the 'boat end' socket where nobody has to sit on a silly bracket or teak block....

<hr width=100% size=1>my opinion is complete rubbish, probably.

 

[perlonious]

not sure how your one works but when i fitted my 4000+ tiller....i skiped the bit on setting up the fluxgate compass ie.......3 360 deg turns taking 3 mins per turn in flat water ...no wind.....etc etc etc ......and just set it off a good hand bearing compass instead.......worked well last season with no probs at all

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[steve28]

i found using cable for trailerboards is very usefull if you intend on connecting the nmea or the seatalk interfaces as well as the power, the cable has enough cores and is the correct diameter so it can be routed all in one.

Also i would advise against connecting into a switch panel and just putting a fuse in line, there is nothing worse than a member of crew turning off the wrong switch and before you know it you miles off course.



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[Aja]

Took us ages when we bought Rebel to understand that the autohelm was routed through the 'stereo' switch on the panel. Oh that did cause a lot of laughs!

Regards

Donald

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[AlexL]

I have had a couple of issues,
1. do not fit a cockpit speaker near to the autohelm!
2. out dist board has trip switches, and the autohelm has taken out the trip once after fighting bags of weather helm. I have also know this to happen to others, however ours is fitted to the same trip as all the instruments, log, GPS, wind etc, so just as the trip finally gave up and the boat rounded up into the wind all the instruments went out.. doh! So I would wire it into its own switch or at least one that won't do too much damage if it trips!

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[david_e]

Thanks all, will print off and take with me.

Alex, how near is near, 'cause I already have a cockpit speaker which will be about 1m away.

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[steve28]

most of the marine types of speakers are magneticaly shielded, check by holding a screwdriver on the back

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[AlexL]

probably between 1/2 a metre and a metre. The cockpit speaker was fairly low down, kind of below and slightly aft of the tiller pilot position. The problem only manefested itself when going roughly north and the tiller pilot would 'hunt' and then put the helm hard over and go into "sulk mode". I removed the speaker and the problem has gone.

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[Glyka]

Just get a bearing compass, place is where Autohelm's compass is going to be and check if there is any change.
I had to remove my boat's external speakers. after an extensive search for non-magnetic ones (I always checked them with a bearing compass).

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[anabel]

Most speakers have a strong magnetic field around them. Even those that are supposed to be shielded can be detected with a hand bearing compass. Have as much seperation between tiller pilot compass & speaker as possible - at least a meter plus. Usually the bigger the speaker, the bigger the magnet & hence the bigger the magnetic field. It is also possible that the speaker will only effect the tiller pilot on certain headings. Reading some of the posts I get the impression that a lot of boats have a lot of gadgets (!) connected to each switch on the panel. This is not wise. A blown fuse can take down too many instruments. Most small craft have switch panels with just 6 switches which was fine 30 years ago when we had very little electronics on boats - cabin lights, navigation lights and an echosounder. That was the limit ! This is no longer the case and so we need more switches. Get a second switch panel & fit it above or below the existing one.

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[Niander]

hi i have Raymarine 1000
i did the 3 turn no wind etc etc...expecting it to work but it vears off course
but thinking about it its about 1 foot above the steel outboard petrol tank in the locker
...is this the cause maybe???!!!

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[david_e]

Thanks Steve

Got the box of tricks and after numerous return trips to the shop to get this and that opened up the switch panel to find lots of wires to all sorts of places, unfortunately I had forgotten my multimeter so no progress there. Other than the battery there is nowhere else and Raymarine suggest the circuit board with a fuse in line.

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[paulrossall]

Re:Cable Size

Instructions for my ST2000 Autopilot state cable length up to 2.5m (8ft) should be 1.5mmsq and up to 4m (13ft) needs 2.5mmsq. I think trailor board wire does come in 2 sizes but thought the thickest size was only 1mmsq.(I know the white cable, if that is the return, is larger).
When the autohelp is really having to work hard I want to make sure it is getting maximum volts so I would always put in a large power supply. I use 2.5mmsq and a seperate wire for the sea talk/data connection. I also understood sea talk etc should go through a shielded cable.
Have I been doing a belt and braces job when it was not really necessary?
Paul

<hr width=100% size=1>" there is nothing-absolutely nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats".

 

[paulrossall]

Re:Cable Size

Does the cable size matter?

<hr width=100% size=1>" there is nothing-absolutely nothing-half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats".

 

[david_e]

Re:Cable Size

Apparantly it does, they stress to go bigger rather than smaller. Have now fitted mine and so far it works a treat. Have never had this kind of gadget before and so have been really chuffed by just the basic features. Will get round to fitting the remote control at some point and then get it linked to the instruments.

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