bitbaltic
Well-Known Member
Evening chaps
A couple of weeks ago we brought our boat from Cardiff to Swansea for the summer. We motored up intending to use the autopilot- a simrad TP20- but had a couple of problems. The first was that it wouldn't sail to a waypoint, this was due to an NMEA comms issue I have now fixed. Anyhow we fell back to using the pilot in compass mode (steering to a heading via the internal flux gate-no NMEA involved), something we have not really done before and I was surprised how badly it performed.
When asked to hold a compass course the pilot would do so typically for about ten minutes before it returned to standby mode and the ram would stop moving/adjusting to stay on track. No alarms or anything else, just the steady-lit LED indicator starting to flash as it entered standby mode. The time before failure varied, anywhere from loosing the plot within 45 seconds of being set on course to 45 minutes. This problem meant that we spent much of the trip attending to the AP, not ideal.
Referring to the manual I can think of three possible issues:
1. We were motoring on a long-ish trip so (contrary to my normal practice) I had the alternator charging the leisure battery throughout. The engine was running at a constant 2000 revs but could voltage spikes have induced this behaviour?
2. The manual refers to a calibration routine for the flux gate which we have never performed. Could it be that the pilot needs calibrating?
3. Given the legendary unreliability of tiller pilots could it simply be FUBARed??
Thoughts on the above or any alternatives would be most welcome. As of tonight the thing is correctly following NMEA waypoints again so if the internal compass is knacked it's not a huge issue especially as there are not really funds to replace it right now... But I would like to get to the bottom of the problem.
Cheers
A couple of weeks ago we brought our boat from Cardiff to Swansea for the summer. We motored up intending to use the autopilot- a simrad TP20- but had a couple of problems. The first was that it wouldn't sail to a waypoint, this was due to an NMEA comms issue I have now fixed. Anyhow we fell back to using the pilot in compass mode (steering to a heading via the internal flux gate-no NMEA involved), something we have not really done before and I was surprised how badly it performed.
When asked to hold a compass course the pilot would do so typically for about ten minutes before it returned to standby mode and the ram would stop moving/adjusting to stay on track. No alarms or anything else, just the steady-lit LED indicator starting to flash as it entered standby mode. The time before failure varied, anywhere from loosing the plot within 45 seconds of being set on course to 45 minutes. This problem meant that we spent much of the trip attending to the AP, not ideal.
Referring to the manual I can think of three possible issues:
1. We were motoring on a long-ish trip so (contrary to my normal practice) I had the alternator charging the leisure battery throughout. The engine was running at a constant 2000 revs but could voltage spikes have induced this behaviour?
2. The manual refers to a calibration routine for the flux gate which we have never performed. Could it be that the pilot needs calibrating?
3. Given the legendary unreliability of tiller pilots could it simply be FUBARed??
Thoughts on the above or any alternatives would be most welcome. As of tonight the thing is correctly following NMEA waypoints again so if the internal compass is knacked it's not a huge issue especially as there are not really funds to replace it right now... But I would like to get to the bottom of the problem.
Cheers
