Raymarine Autopilot losing calibration settings

alisdair4

alisdair4

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 Jan 2004
Messages
690
Location
Isle of Bute
midnightdrifter.net
We havre a Raymarine Smartpiot 6002 (S1) which has been a source of some frustration and expense since we bought the boat last Autumn. On advice from fellow forumites, I have replaced the faulty fluxgate compass and moved it further away from the engine.

The new compass appears to work (passes the Raymarine functional check). We ran through the compass calibration (Compass Swing and then Compass alignment part of the sea trial. All seems to be OK and the machine whirs away merrily. After 10-15 minutes, the autopilot seems to forget the compass alignment and thus the ships' compass can display 120 while the autopilot panelvdisplays (and steers to) 70.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received - a new computer is not going to be cheap!
 
I had a similar problem with the autopilot heading using the same setup due to a loop in the NMEA data. The loop also caused a problem with the Go To Waypoint function on the Raymarine chartplotter.

If your system uses both Seatalk and NMEA and has any equipment added before you bought the boat such as an AIS unit you might have something similar.

There is another thread running currently: http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?483393-Raymarine-C80-Wont-acknowledge-quot-Stop-Goto-quot

Richard
 
Thanks Richard - an interesting thread! I have added an AIS ( a NASA one) which uses NMEA, and the instruments are on Seatalk 1 . So I will have a play around with that tomorrow when we're under way.
 
If your instrument head is the type where there are numerous connections on the back using small spade terminals, I would take great care to ensure that all the contacts are clean. The currents involved are very small and it doesn't take much of a poor connection to make the device throw a wobbly.
 
We have the ST60 autopilot which very occasionally throws a wobbly and exhibits exactly the same symptoms as the original post. This only happens whilst under engine, though, and stopping and switching off the engine, and then restarting, seems somehow to reset the system so that the compass and autopilot display agree again. No AIS involvement in our case, but Garmin plotter interfaced with Seatalk.

Jan
 
I have an SPX5 that previously had an ST6002+ pilot head. It too would occasionally lose its calibration settings.

I've since upgraded the head to a p70s, and with it and the SPX5 both on SeatalkNG, the problem hasn't reoccurred. Of course, it may in the future, but who knows? Touch wood.
 
Latest on this is that , if I turn off the plotter and then align the compass, it seems to hold the setting. As soon as I turn the plotter on, it injects a huge compass error. So, far example, the Raymarine head will display 120 deg while the plotter is on 240. However, turning the plotter off doesn't remove the error - it stays until the Raymarine is re-calibrated. Even if the Raymarine is turned off and on again, it retains the error until the compass is re-aligned.
-
Curiously, the autopilot itself seems to work - although it is disconcerting to have the panel read 120, when the ships' compass is on 240!

This all suggests a NMEA loop as mentioned earlier in the thread.
 
I had an error with my Ray Marine system where my boat wasn’t pointing in the right direction on the chart display, it was pointing 90° to the direction of travel and the autopilot failed when you tried to go to a point on the chart, the boat would go off at at least 100° the wrong direction - the other issue I had was that I kept getting an a AIS alarm every now and again.

The fix turned out to be quite simple, I haven’t updated the software for over two years and when I connected my chart plotter to my phone, I had an update for every piece of Ray Marine kit I have so I downloaded them all and hey presto! it’s solve the problem

before you do any fixes, see if your software needs updating
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top