Raymarine ST4000 autopliot

Cantata

Cantata

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Raymarine ST4000 autopilot misbehaving

I have a ST4000 working through a tiller. It's maybe 12 years old, the instrument head had a new circuit board about 6 years ago (Raymarine standard repair if there's anything much wrong in one of their instruments, it seems) and has worked perfectly well until recently.
It started basically not working, the boat would suddenly veer right off course. Noticed that the compass readings were erratic, so I decided to re-calibrate it which I did yesterday - went through the procedure which all worked as per the manual, stored the new deviation and the compass bearings looked pretty solid and matched the magnetic compass, near enough. Tried it out immediately afterwards, and it appeared to work OK although perhaps a bit more fidgety that before.
Tried to use it today on passage in zero wind, and it went bananas again, basically it seemed to know the course it should follow but it was over-correcting all the time so we proceeded in a wild zig-zag.
The gain setting is as it always was. The compass readings looked OK.
I suspected a poor connection but they all appear to be good and clean.
I wonder if anyone else has experienced this and knows the answer! Otherwise it might be back to Raymarine and their eye-watering service charges.
 
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Ah, thanks, I'd been out sailing for a week and I don't usually have time to plough through all the new posts when I get back. I'll try those resistance tests.
 
Cantata said:
I have a ST4000 working through a tiller. It's maybe 12 years old, the instrument head had a new circuit board about 6 years ago (Raymarine standard repair if there's anything much wrong in one of their instruments, it seems) and has worked perfectly well until recently.
It started basically not working, the boat would suddenly veer right off course. Noticed that the compass readings were erratic, so I decided to re-calibrate it which I did yesterday - went through the procedure which all worked as per the manual, stored the new deviation and the compass bearings looked pretty solid and matched the magnetic compass, near enough. Tried it out immediately afterwards, and it appeared to work OK although perhaps a bit more fidgety that before.
Tried to use it today on passage in zero wind, and it went bananas again, basically it seemed to know the course it should follow but it was over-correcting all the time so we proceeded in a wild zig-zag.
The gain setting is as it always was. The compass readings looked OK.
I suspected a poor connection but they all appear to be good and clean.
I wonder if anyone else has experienced this and knows the answer! Otherwise it might be back to Raymarine and their eye-watering service charges.
Click to expand...

had a situation on my mobo, but it probably isn't the same - mentioned in case there's a link.

you can set the speed in it, or it can get the speed from the paddle wheel. Mine did the latter. It does big inputs at low speed an small at high.

I came down a flat soouthampton water at 20 knots SOG. Paddle wheel weeded up so reading zero speed through water. Ignored that, mental note to clear it sometime.

Got to a wave off calshot and the wheel hurled right over to one side - thinking the speed was zero.........

I think the only relevant part of the anecdote is that it can be any part of the seatalk system that mucks up the autopliot.
 
Elessar said:
had a situation on my mobo, but it probably isn't the same - mentioned in case there's a link.

you can set the speed in it, or it can get the speed from the paddle wheel. Mine did the latter. It does big inputs at low speed an small at high.

I came down a flat soouthampton water at 20 knots SOG. Paddle wheel weeded up so reading zero speed through water. Ignored that, mental note to clear it sometime.

Got to a wave off calshot and the wheel hurled right over to one side - thinking the speed was zero.........

I think the only relevant part of the anecdote is that it can be any part of the seatalk system that mucks up the autopliot.
Click to expand...

Hi Mark, was that with E3 or E4?

Had been having some teething problems with our ST4000+, tried re calibrating but without much joy so called in a Raymarine tech. His opinion was that it was jiggered so managed to get a second hand unit from eBay. Works fine at speed but still jinks about at 8knts
 
that was with E3. Is the speed reading OK?

speed never worked on E4 the vanes have fallen off the paddlewheel and it's still on the list......

never had a problem with E3 except when the log was fouled as described. There are lots of settings though, have you tried a factory reset?

in particular there are 2 settings for reaction, one of which saves amps for saily boats but is slow to react, you need the fast reactions especially at displacement speed.
 
Elessar said:
that was with E3. Is the speed reading OK?

speed never worked on E4 the vanes have fallen off the paddlewheel and it's still on the list......

never had a problem with E3 except when the log was fouled as described. There are lots of settings though, have you tried a factory reset?

in particular there are 2 settings for reaction, one of which saves amps for saily boats but is slow to react, you need the fast reactions especially at displacement speed.
Click to expand...

Hi Mark,

Speed is fine so paddle wheel must be ok? Still have the old unit so may try a factory re set as suggested!
 
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