Raymarine tiller pilot---Problems

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VARNE

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My ST 1000 is unable to hold its' compass calibration----- getting progressively worse and now down to fractions of an hour. Even looses its bearings whilst in standby. Everything else seems to work O.K., although response times may be a little slow.
Is this just an electronic tuning job? Is the compass shot, or what?
I know these things can be somewhat expensive to repair and the unit is now 5 years old.Perhaps better off just replacing.
Grateful for any advice, or to hear from those with experience of similar problem.
 
I found it was cheaper to buy another secondhand spares or repair job and make one out of two - OK - mine was the earlier 1000 job to the ST.

The compass was simple to replace, I have still spare motors, worm gear, guide rods, etc. - the spares or repair one in fact turned out to be a full working one that had a broken wire and mounting pin broken out.

Total cost was cheaper than Raymarines pre-inspection fee !
 
I have an Autohelm 1000 ( or whatever the actual name was) that is much older than yours. Last season it started to play up, lose it's course, slow to react etc and I assumed it was down to age. Fortunately I checked the power getting through to the socket I plugged it into and found the voltage way down. A combination of corroded terminals in the plug and corrosion creeping along the cable brought it down to about 10v IIRC. New cable and new deck plug meant the tillerpilot works as well as it ever did, and probably better than since I bought the boat. 30 seconds with a multimeter saved me £200+!
 
Check tyhe plug contacts are not corrodeed....would suspect voltage drop, these tiller pilots do not like to lose volts.....most people make the mistake of running the supply cable in too light a guage.
 
Sadly I've become experienced at trying to sort problems with my tiller pilots.
My old 800 just died and when opened up it was very corroded.
My first ST2000 suddenly gave up when a wave hit it. Opening it up in a toilet in Bray, Aldernay, I gave the insides of the body and cable plug the hot air treatment from the hand drier for around an hour.
I put light oil on the moving parts but kept it clear of the rubber band and treated the electrics circuit with a damp repellant which I have on board.(Name escapes me.)
I greased the body seal and the rod where it entered the body seal and put a plug of grease up the top end of the short arm which attaches it to the side of the boat as there is no real seal here. It went on working and got me home when needed but I sent it to Raymarine with a lengthy letter as it was just still in Warranty.
They sent back, almost by return, a brand new unit. This went well for another season until it too got wet in a long passage, when I stupidly left it on the stern deck in a sea, whilst the wind vane did the hard work.
I opened this unit up and repeated the drying process this time in posher loos in Cowes and it worked for another season until last year. Confession!... I was alone, motoring quietly past an old grey warship moored upwater from Portsmouth against a gentle tide on a very calm day, doing no more than half a knot. I decided to quickly go to the heads to relieve myself leaving the tiller pilot to keep me parallel with the huge ship about a boat length away. Whilst in the heads the tiller pilot took a sudden turn to port and bang!!! One bent bow roller and a smart curve in my plough anchor and me in a heap on the sole!
After looking round in my embarassment to see if there were any onlookers,(there were none) and having surveyed the small amount of reshaped metal, I was relieved to find no other damage done.
I thought this may have happened due to me being close to this huge chunk of metal ship and the compass had gone daft, but it did this again and again during the day out at sea.
I dried it all out, cleaned up all the connections, checked the joints in the cabling back to the disribution board and it has worked ok since.
So I guess your problem could come down to poor/corroded connections which can cause high resistance and a volt drop or damp causing tracking accross the circuit boards which sends muddled messages to the unit. Dry it out, leave it open in the airing cupboard for a week, redo all the wiring connections and clean or renew the plug and socket and you may be ok. Best of luck.
 
Just a tip about the ST1000 and 800 units these can play up if you are near to them with any steel knives or mobile phones in your pockets at the same height as the TP, causing veering movements of the rudder. Agree the voltage drop causes problems too.
 
Mine 2000 got a little confused some time after being fixed by Raymarine. Turned out a bit of old rubber o'ring had got lodged in the compass. I assume the compass is a flux gate BUT it is mechanically gimballed and, since it is in the lowest part of the case, any bits of junk will end up down there. Worth checking - they're easy to dismantle.
 
They strongly advise you not to grease or lubricate arms etc. on the TP's - reason is it drags salt, grit in to the seal and makes it worse.
I have 2 TP's..... old AH 800 and AH1000. Both work as they should apart from the silly quirk on the socket. Good wriggle of plug when connecting see's to that. Should replace it really ...
I've had both get condensation inside and I've given them to my Laboratory Techn to fix. That and my wired remote (best thing ever that is ... I can sit up on cabin near mast and enjoy the view - still controlling). The best thing he did was to smear vaseline round the case seal where the orange rubber seal fits - but not on the arm.

My TP's have been left out in the rain, steered the boat for endless hours in horrible weather with salt spray etc. over them. Still going.
 
Ta very much for steering me in the right [and bleeding obvious ] direction.
Power socket fine, but then find a loose connection in plug. How easy it is to be intimidated by a seemingly complex piece of electronics ----- If the kettle doesn't work, what's the first thing you check---------.
Many thanks to all.
 
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