ST1000 Autohelm issue

[Gixer]

Hey,
Took my boat out for a shake down after the refit to find the autohelm dead.

I say dead but it powers up fine, display is fine, you can manually move the ram using the + and - but as soon as you press auto, nothing.

last time I used it, well over a year ago, it worked fine. I have rewired the 12v since then but as it powers up and the ram moves fine I’ve discounted that. It’s never got a soaking in the time I’ve had it either.

I haven’t tried recalibrating it but am not sure if that will help.

any ideas?

 

[ProDave]

Does it "beep" when you press auto?

One previous fault on mine (before it died completely) was a couple of the buttons stopped working, as in the buttons were not making an electrical contact when pressed.

 

[Gixer]

Hi, thanks for the quick response. Yes it beeps, says A on the display but the arm doesn’t move.

 

[LadyInBed]

Check connections to fluxgate compass.
It's that that detects any body rotation and feeds back correction to the motor.

 

[John the kiwi]

Have you /can you check the voltage at the plug while manually moving the ram? A bad joint or too small gauge wire in your new wiring could mean you can see 12 volts with no load

 

[Gixer]

Check connections to fluxgate compass.
It's that that detects any body rotation and feeds back correction to the motor.

Thanks, i'm guessing that would mean splitting the unit apart?

John the kiwi - I'm going to go down later this week to do some fault finding. I have used the correct gauge for the distance but haven't checked the voltage when the ram is moving. Thanks for that.

 

[Gixer]

I nearly pulled the trigger on a new autopilot last night then something hit me..

Only thing that was different last time I went out to previous times was I had my fuel gauge turned on. Recently I moved my fuel tank, the sender for the gauge is now pretty much directly under the autopilot. Now I don't know much about senders but I'm guessing this could be the problem.

What do you think?
I can't test until tomorrow but would be interest in your views.

 

[LadyInBed]

I once installed a remote speaker in a quarter locker under the AH, it took me a good half hour to work out why the AH had taken on a mind of its own