Tiller Pilot failure - any suggestions

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tillergirl

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It failed yesterday - while trying to survey the Spitway. Utter pain. Needed an extra pair of hands. It worked on Wednesday: yesterday it failed from the start. Tried hard to 'roger' the No 4 Quarters buoy. Alternated between turn gently to starboard or then excessive yawing and then gently to starboard. With the Nav disengaged, it no longer responds to the port and starboard buttons - a little, spasmodic response occasionally.

Its a Navico TP300 of about 25 years old - had one repair about 22 years again. I guess it will be obsolete. I am rather hoping it might just need some lubrication. Any suggestions...….
 
Well frankly I think you've been lucky to get 25 years out of it.
Not the answer you wanted I know.
The usual culprit is corrosion on the board inside due to moisture/salt and from the ones I've seen its often terminal. (oops)

I think I've been through four or maybe five units in that time but mostly due to mechanical issues.
The one I'm looking at currently is the https://pelagicautopilot.com/ as I've had a number of good reports.
 
Actually I am sanquine about it every new season. It is perhaps worth an internal look for something obviously corroded and then if nothing that can be done then replace. The Pelagic looks interesting - suspiciously likely to fit as a replacement. Lead time not great and delivery to the UK - cost I wonder? I like the look of it. It's competitive apart from the delivery.

The Navico was prone to oddities: like returning from a survey of the Ray Sand, I popped down below to visit the heads and it went hard to port! For the fun for the forum! :o

Tiller Pilot by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr
 
Hi Roger,

A common problem with tiller pilots that are supplied by a plug and socket in the cockpit is high resistance at this connection. This allows the autopilot enough volts to turn the electronics on, but as soon as the motor starts, drawing more current, the voltage drops and turns it all off, so the motor stops and it turns back on again in standby. Your symptoms don't sound like this, but worth a check that the plug / socket has good contact capable of delivering the motor current without significant volt drop. Measuring with a Volt meter in standby won't tell you anything, the motor must by actually driving the tiller to see the Volt drop.

Peter.
 
Thanks for the two additional comments: I think my plug is ok but I will check. It was re-fitted last year so in theory it should be still ok. As to the offer; thanks that's good. The next survey will be the SW Sunk which will be a little inconvenient timewise (early rise to see the sands at LW springs). Let me organise myself. The Spitway data looks to worth plotting following the datum reduction and quick review - as soon as the family weekend is over I shall draw it up. Nothing desperate as far as I've seen yet.
 
If your Navico stuff last more than a couple of years you did well. Most of the kit I had on my old Sadler self-destructed after a few years. Not that Autohelm is necessarily perfect. I had a tiller pilot that was advertised as 'your foul weather friend' which stopped working, which was said to be the result of 'water ingress'. They are supposed to be designed to work on boats, for goodness sake.
 
tillergirl said:
No sign of corrosion:

P1040263 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr

P1040264 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr

Wondering if it is a simple matter of the motor wearing out...…. Mechanically, it operated manually nice and fine and smooth. Electronics could have gone plit though of course.

Now is it worth a proper service investigation?
Click to expand...

Dunno so much, those jeans are looking a bit ropey :)
 
Can I point out that those are the best jeans I have! Well!!

Err. Having put it back together I went afloat and tried again. It worked fine! Can't explain. I don't think it was a power issue - hadn't touched it and the connectors were/are fine. But then I didn't touch anything internally. Perhaps it will fail again - rather like me, I fail intermittently. I tried the TP on TG in different conditions. The only time it failed was flat out under power coming back into the Questers with a nasty jollop of east wind giving a following 'sea'. TG having (as the Americans would describe) a barn door rudder, the gain on the TP couldn't (@ 6.5 kts) respond quickly enough and got confused. That's usual, not a 'fault'. Once I slowed down to 4 kts, it responded.

So I'll wait and see.
 
Some years ago my tiller pilot took one too many attempts to fly across the cabin in poor weather, and was poorly afterwards. I took it to a then local dealer who found a dry joint. Once found it was easy to repair. My radio suffered a similar fate but after the TP experience, managed to find and repair it myself.
 
I had a Raymarine tiller pilot conk out en route from Boulogne to Harwich - it just started steering all over the place. It was raining, but I'd used it and similar autohelms in all weathers for many years without problems (before reading on here that they don't like it). I put it below to dry, but tried it again after a few hours (I was effectively single-handing) and it was fine, and has continued to work without problems for several years since.

So, by all means keep an eye on it for now, but it might well not be on its last legs.
 
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