Garmin GPS/Compass issues

[Hooligan]

I use a Garmin 5012 for navigation, autopilot etc etc. 2013 and apparently now a legacy system. All working fine last year. Return to boat and the boat icon is sideways ie the boat icon is crabbing. This causes havoc with the Autopilot. The GPS position of the boat is fine but as the boat crabs then i guess the North Heading is somehow not calibrated. Two questions if anyone knows the answer. First, what could be the causes? I assumed something metal near the compass reactor. Called Fairline and they said the reactor was in the panel above door to entrance of master cabin (Squadron 65) which would make any magnetic interference quite difficult although the toolbox which i stored in the foot space for the lower helm could interfere I guess. So I am wondering why this would just go like this. Second question is is there a way to do a fix that anyone knows ie recalibrate without a sea trial? I Googled and Garmin have work around for non legacy systems but no instructions for legacy systems. Called Garmin and tbf to them the guy who answered helped walked me through the GHC instructions to get to the Wizard that initiates the sea trial. But I was wondering whether anyone had had a similar issue with this era Garmin and whether I am missing something simple. Thanks.

 

[vas]

when I first setup my GPSMAP4008 system with GHC a/p controller, the digital compass thingy (you know the round ball one) was not behaving properly. Spent enough time going around in circles (pretty sure ppl on the coast would thing that I had some kind of problem...) nada. Would work on certain directions, would crab once you'd change direction over 90deg.
Since sea trial wouldn't complete, I bit the bullet and bought another compass ball. fitted it, sea trial completed successfully, all's fine.
Now, back to your issue, no there is no way to do a recalibration with the boat on the hard or moored, cannot be done.
First test would be to check the area as indeed a toolbox could cause havoc!
Then out for a sea trial. If it fails to complete following the compex turning about and running in a straight line and itself zig zagging, I'd check the ball placement, security and viscinity.
If you still cannot complete successfully the sea trial, I'd try and source a replacement compass.
Warning: if you have the round ball, you cannot go to the square box next version (and vice versa). I mean you could, but you also need to replace the long cable going back to the a/p pump and this is usually not an easy job...

V.

 

[Hooligan]

when I first setup my GPSMAP4008 system with GHC a/p controller, the digital compass thingy (you know the round ball one) was not behaving properly. Spent enough time going around in circles (pretty sure ppl on the coast would thing that I had some kind of problem...) nada. Would work on certain directions, would crab once you'd change direction over 90deg.
Since sea trial wouldn't complete, I bit the bullet and bought another compass ball. fitted it, sea trial completed successfully, all's fine.
Now, back to your issue, no there is no way to do a recalibration with the boat on the hard or moored, cannot be done.
First test would be to check the area as indeed a toolbox could cause havoc!
Then out for a sea trial. If it fails to complete following the compex turning about and running in a straight line and itself zig zagging, I'd check the ball placement, security and viscinity.
If you still cannot complete successfully the sea trial, I'd try and source a replacement compass.
Warning: if you have the round ball, you cannot go to the square box next version (and vice versa). I mean you could, but you also need to replace the long cable going back to the a/p pump and this is usually not an easy job...

V.

Thanks a lot for this. Sea trial it is I think and then fingers crossed. Quick question. If say it was a toolbox and I moved it or anything else, should i expect immediate return to normality or is it recalibration anyway? Funnily enough I mover things around and I managed to get to a situation where I got the direction line (you can ask the map to show a direction line that should normally run from the tip of the boat icon) going in the right direction but the boat still pointed the wrong way, so line effectively coming out side of boat icon. If I then did a Go To Waypoint it actually tracked the line but eventually got confused - along with me. Apologies if the explanation makes no sense! But something in there was working which really confused me.

 

[vas]

I'd expect immediate return to normality
Mind, I had such confusing conditions with my bad compass ball, touch wood not with the second one.

If it's easy to see the compass, check in case the ball mount (if you do have the ball) is still intact as it clips in a fairly fancy way with three ties that never seemed too robust to me tbh. If it seems OK, DONT move it round as it looses it's specs and a sea trial is a must afterwards...

good luck and let us know how it went!

V.