jason -and the arguenauts
Well-Known Member
my new to me boat has a simrad / roberston 300 autopilot coupled to a simrad hydraulic linear actuator (under deck) dating from the mid 90s. it is poorly but I am puzzled which bit to look at first. advice is needed.
symptoms: when switched from standby to auto the pilot either stays where it is or goes hard over to the rudder limit (loud clunk) with the message " fail - actuator"
however the actuator is working. whats more the sensor which tells the control head where the rudder is also works OK - you can see the little ticks appearing on the screen as you move the wheel.
I confess that the problem occurred once at sea this weekend, hard on the wind. I steered manually thereafter into port and then got out the manual. scanning through the system set up stages I got to one that is labelled "rudder test" so I ran that test. same result - hard over, loud clang and "fail- actuator" or sometimes "fail - current" which means current overload. when I checked back at the rudder movement limits in the system they had been reverted toi nil by the rudder test so I re-input them as 30 degrees - the original setting. the control head has a rudder limit of 20 degrees so the movement should never get near the physical rudder limits which it clearly is doing.
any ideas as to the problem or more interesting the cure. simrad suggest a master reset
symptoms: when switched from standby to auto the pilot either stays where it is or goes hard over to the rudder limit (loud clunk) with the message " fail - actuator"
however the actuator is working. whats more the sensor which tells the control head where the rudder is also works OK - you can see the little ticks appearing on the screen as you move the wheel.
I confess that the problem occurred once at sea this weekend, hard on the wind. I steered manually thereafter into port and then got out the manual. scanning through the system set up stages I got to one that is labelled "rudder test" so I ran that test. same result - hard over, loud clang and "fail- actuator" or sometimes "fail - current" which means current overload. when I checked back at the rudder movement limits in the system they had been reverted toi nil by the rudder test so I re-input them as 30 degrees - the original setting. the control head has a rudder limit of 20 degrees so the movement should never get near the physical rudder limits which it clearly is doing.
any ideas as to the problem or more interesting the cure. simrad suggest a master reset
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