Raymarine Fluxgate Compass installation

[Andydent2000]

My Fluxgate compass has been playing up for a while now so I have just bought another one. It comes with two graphite magnets that I assume must clip round the cable to stop interference? But I cannot fine any details of how and where they are to be used.

Can anyone help?

 

[maby]

My Fluxgate compass has been playing up for a while now so I have just bought another one. It comes with two graphite magnets that I assume must clip round the cable to stop interference? But I cannot fine any details of how and where they are to be used.

Can anyone help?

I would hope they are not magnets! They should be RF suppression beads that clip onto the cable - though I have to say that there were none included with the last Raymarine compass that I installed. If you have two, clip one round the cable at each end. Do it before you swing the compass in order to allow it to compensate for any deviation that the bead introduces, though I would hope that it would be minimal.

 

[Andydent2000]

Thanks maby.

Swing the compass? What's that?

 

[charles_reed]

Thanks maby.

Swing the compass? What's that?

You're supposed to go round in a big circle, pressing buttons to minimise local deviation. All in the book of instructions.
Of course, like most men, secure in the knowledge that you're an electromechanical genius, you feel that such books just confuse and are only for women and namby-pambys.
Trouble is, unless you sail in a fairly restricted area, it changes when you move sailing areas. I gave up when the St Mary's boat rushed out to find out what my problem might have been.

 

[Andydent2000]

Ah, THATS what it is called. I did that with the old compass. It nearly ran me aground. I had no idea how much sea room it needed and the Solent is far too busy to be turning erratically like that. Hey ho, have to wait for a trip to pool to spin the compass then.

Thanks all.

 

[prv]

Swing the compass? What's that?

Guess you've never swung your main steering compass either then

Pete

 

[maby]

The latest generation of Raymarines are a lot easier to set up - you just sail the boat for half an hour or so, making sure that you do at least one 360 degree turn along the way, and the course computer monitors how it handles and learns the configuration of the boat including the compass. It then continues to monitor all the time the boat is being steered manually and fine tunes itself. Our previous Raymarine autopilot was far more fiddly to get configured - including going round and round in a tight circle for several minutes so that it could get the deviation on the compass worked out.