Some post installation questions for Raymarine EV-100 tillerpilot owners

[fredrussell]

I installed one of these tiller pilots a month back now and would appreciate some input from any other users out there. My main question regards rudder hard-over time. The manual is a little bit vague (at least to me) so can you tell me what you have yours set to? If I set mine to anything below 5 seconds the ram moves very slowly when changing course. Set it upwards of 5 seconds and ram moves as I would expect it to. Am I right to say that what Raymarine mean by ‘hard over time’ is the time it takes ram to move tiller from one extreme to the other? I would have thought that with my hard over time set to, say, 4 seconds, the ram would move faster than when hard over time is set to 10 seconds. Is that right? If it matters, my boat is a Parker 31 - very responsive and light on the tiller. 3 tonnes displacement, though nearer to four with all the crap I’ve put on her.

Incidentally, I do have a rudder position sensor but haven’t fitted it yet as I have a transom hung rudder so it’s going to take some work to install it.

Next question. When I select auto tack the boat swings round as it should but then the ram reaches the end of its travel (on bump stops) and eventually switches controller to standby, this despite me setting max rudder angle so ram shouldn’t be able to bottom/top out on bump stops. I should state here that tiller pilot is NOT connected to a wind transducer - does this mean I can’t use auto-tack feature? My previous TP (St2000) just auto tacked through 100 degrees - can I assume that the EV100 will not do this?

To be fair, this EV100 is way, WAY better than the ST2000 it replaces, but I do find myself wishing Garmin would make a tillerpilot! I’ve emailed Raymarine using their user support contact feature on website, but heard nowt back in the two weeks since doing so. I’ll see if I can find some sort of technical type’s phone number on website, but I’d appreciate hearing other user’s experiences before doing so. Cheers.

 

[John_Silver]

Upgraded from an SPX-5 to an Evo 100 tiller pilot over the winter (on a Rassy 310, displacing 5t). Also finding it a complete revelation. On the passage down to La Rochelle, it was completely undaunted by the Biscay swell. Where the SPX would have reverted to standby.

Not sure on the auto-tack, because I haven’t used it.

On the rudder hard over time: I didn’t know it, so skipped the step (as advised in manual) at commissioning. But haven’t found a need to go back in and add one. (Which was the recommendation in the manual). The system seems to ‘learn’ how much input to give, according to sea state. Starting with small movements and working upward - unlike the ‘sawing’ of the the old SPX, or the ST2000 (which I had on my old Elan 31).

The Autopilot response level ( Menu - response level) is set to Cruising. Which suits Stargazer. But Performance might suit a lighter boat.

Hull type is set to Sail (as opposed to Sail slow turn).

Not connected to wind instruments.

May be worth going back into the setup wizard and seeing if the system will set itself up for you. We may just have been lucky, but it worked for us.

 

[Martin_J]

I think you're getting confused with what the hard over time does. Setting it to 5 seconds (instead of the default) will slow future movements because the course computer will expect the motor to be able to do the full tiller lock to lock in five seconds...

It's explained better here how you have to connect a 12v support direct to the motor and time the arm/tiller going through the full lock to lock movement.

[CA11] Hard over time question




I also understood that auto-tack is only available in wind mode, so yes, somehow you will need to give it connectivity to wind data.

 

[John_Silver]

I would say that, on top of its on-the- water- performance, the ability of the EV100 to self-commission is a real selling point.
Commissioning consisted of “yes-ing” through a series on menu prompts. Then backing off the berth and swinging round into the lock.Which allowed the compass to auto-calibrate. No sailing in circles or figures of 8. No fine tuning menu settings.

 

[Martin_J]

The manuals can be found at the Raymarine website.. It doesn't specifically say that auto tack will only work in wind vane mode.. but auto-tack is only described in the wind vane mode chapter. Suggestion is that it turns the boat to an equivalent wind angle but on the other tack.


Manuals found at...
User Manuals | Raymarine

But direct link to the wind vane page here...
Box

 

[FWB]

“Incidentally, I do have a rudder position sensor but haven’t fitted it yet as I have a transom hung rudder so it’s going to take some work to install it.”
This is how I’ve done it…

 

[Martin_J]

That sliding clip on the tiller is good!!

 

[fredrussell]

Thanks to all - very helpful.

Martin J - I was indeed getting confused by hard over time, cheers for clearing that up.

FWB - cheers for pics. Is the tape over the rudder sensor to waterproof it? I did wonder about an above decks position but wasn’t sure if it’s waterproof. I’ll start on it this weekend - probably a below decks mounting position linked to tiller by a Bowden cable or something of that nature.

 

[Martin_J]

Tbh... any erroneous/slack movement on a rudder reference could make things worse. There's a reason for the return spring in the rudder reference unit which will help to pull against any bowden cable.

It should however work quite well without. It does on many other tiller steered boats - but will be nice to know if there is a difference!

 

[FWB]

FWB - cheers for pics. Is the tape over the rudder sensor to waterproof it? I did wonder about an above decks position but wasn’t sure if it’s waterproof. I’ll start on it this weekend - probably a below decks mounting position linked to tiller by a Bowden cable or something of that nature.

Yes to keep the water out! Has worked well for years.
Be aware that the Rudder Ref Unit can sometimes fail… there was a post on how to repair but I get error 404 when I try to load it. Basically the spring breaks a pin and the internal bits no longer follow the arm. That said the last time I repaired one was was quite a few years ago.

 

[shaneesprit]

I installed one of these tiller pilots a month back now and would appreciate some input from any other users out there. My main question regards rudder hard-over time. The manual is a little bit vague (at least to me) so can you tell me what you have yours set to? If I set mine to anything below 5 seconds the ram moves very slowly when changing course. Set it upwards of 5 seconds and ram moves as I would expect it to. Am I right to say that what Raymarine mean by ‘hard over time’ is the time it takes ram to move tiller from one extreme to the other? I would have thought that with my hard over time set to, say, 4 seconds, the ram would move faster than when hard over time is set to 10 seconds. Is that right? If it matters, my boat is a Parker 31 - very responsive and light on the tiller. 3 tonnes displacement, though nearer to four with all the crap I’ve put on her.

Incidentally, I do have a rudder position sensor but haven’t fitted it yet as I have a transom hung rudder so it’s going to take some work to install it.

Next question. When I select auto tack the boat swings round as it should but then the ram reaches the end of its travel (on bump stops) and eventually switches controller to standby, this despite me setting max rudder angle so ram shouldn’t be able to bottom/top out on bump stops. I should state here that tiller pilot is NOT connected to a wind transducer - does this mean I can’t use auto-tack feature? My previous TP (St2000) just auto tacked through 100 degrees - can I assume that the EV100 will not do this?

To be fair, this EV100 is way, WAY better than the ST2000 it replaces, but I do find myself wishing Garmin would make a tillerpilot! I’ve emailed Raymarine using their user support contact feature on website, but heard nowt back in the two weeks since doing so. I’ll see if I can find some sort of technical type’s phone number on website, but I’d appreciate hearing other user’s experiences before doing so. Cheers.

Hi have you solved your problems, given all the problems I have had.
Firstly The time is 2 Seconds, because this is how long the tiller takes - it’s pointless as the pilot cannot have a different value.
The Rudder angle also a ridiculous question from RM - because if you install the manual- this is fixed and cannot be changed and it’s only 12’
Rudder Ref - pointless on this tiller pilot - it has a 2 second fixed travel time, so it should always know where it is (not sure if the RM software engineers have used this but the should of)
Unfortunately the EV100 tiller pilot doesn’t use the ST2000 mounting points.
The EV100 has significantly less travel than a ST2000 so the rudder angle and ability to Tack is far worse than the ST2000.
EV100 is far better quality than the ST2000, which is great because my boat was eating ST2000.
The EV100 tiller pilot cable is too short - very annoying- I am just deciding if to take it apart and change the wiring or extend it.
Need to do this as the wiring plug on the EV100 is really poor quality and I need to replace it, because I am so annoyed at cleaning the socket pins.

The biggest issue with the EV100 is an easy fix - You MUST update the software using a RM MFD - if you have not done this, I wouldn’t recommend using it until you do.

Shane

 

[Pete7]

Tbh... any erroneous/slack movement on a rudder reference could make things worse. There's a reason for the return spring in the rudder reference unit which will help to pull against any bowden cable.

It should however work quite well without. It does on many other tiller steered boats - but will be nice to know if there is a difference!

Acknowledging that this is a 6 month old thread, yes we noticed a big difference after fitting the rudder reference unit. This is for the wheel pilot version on a 31 foot yacht. There are a couple of other points to be aware of. The gyro flying saucer needs to be mounted in the middle of the yacht and low down ideally. We initially had it under the cockpit coamings but moved it to under the heads sink. 3m forward and 1m lower. Also one of the few areas that doesn't have lots of steel and wiring.

Prior to fitting the RRU and sailing down wind, the waves would pick up the stern, the yacht tilt and change direction. The Evo 100 would then steer the yacht back on course. With the RRU the Evo 100 would act much earlier and maintain the course, so the pilot needed to do less steering.

The sugar scoop impeeds into the stern so working out how to mount the RRU was a bit tricky. The solution on the rudder shaft was a 1.5" steel split collar off e bay, a piece of u shaped aluminium channel from me shed and a morning bench fitting them together. The bracket for the RRU was some pieces of ply with epoxy and glass cloth.

The final change is to carry out the updates to the system, P70 head, gyro and ACU all have had updates. There have been quite a few since we installed it in 2017. We have a RM plotter its easy, but Hudson Marine said they could do it for South Coast yachts if necessary.