Tiller pilot options

After all the replies a follow up…with the engine off, moving the tiller pilot closer and further away from the engine swings the tiller pilots compass by 30 degrees or more, with the tp in place and just turning the engine over it swings all over and when running it swings 20 to 40 degrees. It’s obviously the magnet used for the ignition. Engine off and under sail it performs fine.. What it needs is an optically triggered electronic ignition (possibly)

I might look at selling it and putting the funds towards the pcnautic unit.
 
chris-s said:
After all the replies a follow up…with the engine off, moving the tiller pilot closer and further away from the engine swings the tiller pilots compass by 30 degrees or more, with the tp in place and just turning the engine over it swings all over and when running it swings 20 to 40 degrees. It’s obviously the magnet used for the ignition. Engine off and under sail it performs fine.. What it needs is an optically triggered electronic ignition (possibly)

I might look at selling it and putting the funds towards the pcnautic unit.
Click to expand...
Isn't the very first answer you received simpler? Just fit a fluxgate compass, job done?
 
chris-s said:
I might look at selling it and putting the funds towards the pcnautic unit.
Click to expand...
We where out this weekend with ours and can say it does a good job. However it’s not a fit and forget, there are gain levels that need to be set.
We had one sail where we could not get it to steer straight, poor calibration on our side we think. Bank holiday weekend sailing in circles was never going to be easy.
The other concern for you might be the control unit and tiller arm have a maximum of 2m separation due to cable lengths,
 
onesea said:
The other concern for you might be the control unit and tiller arm have a maximum of 2m separation due to cable lengths,
Click to expand...
Simple job to solder in a longer cable. I only use my autopilot for direct steering & it is not connected to wind etc. because I do not want to ruin everything else when it goes wrong. So I have a +ve & -ve wire, to a 2 pin plug, 2.5 M long, instead of the original complicated multiwire, 1.2 m long one
 
Daydream believer said:
Simple job to solder in a longer cable. I only use my autopilot for direct steering & it is not connected to wind etc. because I do not want to ruin everything else when it goes wrong. So I have a +ve & -ve wire, to a 2 pin plug, 2.5 M long, instead of the original complicated multiwire, 1.2 m long one
Click to expand...
I think it’s more to do with losses in the cable, if you read the instructions on the PCNautec site they specified this. To the extent you can state the length of wire from tiller arm to deck gland and then deck gland to control head. He won’t go beyond 2m I asked,,
Although I suspect you should get enough separation.
 
KevinV said:
Isn't the very first answer you received simpler? Just fit a fluxgate compass, job done?
Click to expand...
No. It needs an additional instrument to get the compass data onto the seatalk network and even then it still uses the compass built into the unit as the main reference.
 
onesea said:
The other concern for you might be the control unit and tiller arm have a maximum of 2m separation due to cable lengths,
Click to expand...
That's bizarre.

I'm using the same actuator (Pelagic / Wx Hongba etc) with a Raymarine Smart Pilot and I'd guess the cable length must be about 5m in total.

I would assume that the control unit is just using relays or transistors to switch the 12v - 14v from the boat's battery through to the actuator. I don't believe that voltage drop should make much difference, but I'd just use thicker wires to be on the safe side.
 
onesea said:
I think it’s more to do with losses in the cable, if you read the instructions on the PCNautec site they specified this. To the extent you can state the length of wire from tiller arm to deck gland and then deck gland to control head. He won’t go beyond 2m I asked,,
Although I suspect you should get enough separation.
Click to expand...
Never occurred to me if that would be a problem with the raymarine version. However. I do know that voltage drop can be an issue. I did ensure that the volts at the pilot is above the minimum they suggest ( forget what was advised but I was well above)
 
I don't know why they would specify a maximum of 2m cable for their autopilot, when they supply basically the same ram for the Raymarine autopilot with 2m + 10m of cable to go between the socket and the ACU. The motor is controlled by applying power in one polarity or the other to get both directions, so the precise voltage at the motor isn't totally critical, but obviously a lower voltage drop is better. The cable they supply is 1mm^2, which would be marginal at the 12V 7A maximum specified for the ACU100 at that length. The PCNautic pilot specs give 5A consumption under 35kg load. In practice the average current for both will be far lower, and I doubt there are many boats that will require 12m separation between the socket and the motor controller. I don't see what the issue would be in extending beyond 2m if appropriate sized cable were used however - I think ours ended up at about 4m in total.
 
chris-s said:
After all the replies a follow up…with the engine off, moving the tiller pilot closer and further away from the engine swings the tiller pilots compass by 30 degrees or more, with the tp in place and just turning the engine over it swings all over and when running it swings 20 to 40 degrees. It’s obviously the magnet used for the ignition. Engine off and under sail it performs fine.. What it needs is an optically triggered electronic ignition (possibly)

I might look at selling it and putting the funds towards the pcnautic unit.
Click to expand...

Why not just mount it on the the other side of the cockpit so it's away from the engine??
 
Fantasie 19 said:
Why not just mount it on the the other side of the cockpit so it's away from the engine??
Click to expand...

Suggested and appears rejected a while back ....

What I don't understand is that many other boats of similar setup use TP without problem ... why has this boat got a problem.

But the description of when engine running / not running has some interesting 'turns' in it. I have a sneaky feeling that all is not right with the engine ...... ?? I've had TP's close to OBd's on other boats and running or not - TP has worked OK ...
Does this OB'd have an AC lighting lead coming from it back to a rectifier or ??
 
Just to add to my previous ..... I had a Snap 23 where I cut and created an OBD well in cockpit ... basically I got fed up humping a Merc 7.5 Saildrive OBD on/off the transom bracket. The well was dead centre and wow what a difference in maneuvering the boat !

Anyway ... I was going to fit an Autohelm 800 to the boat and I jury rigged it ... that engine even though very close to the AH800 - never caused the AH800 to fail .. yes it had an initial compass jump when started - but all I did was to press STBY, which kept tiller / boat straight .. start engine ... settle engine speed and press RUN to reset AH800 ....

I sold the boat before actually fitting fully ... but the point is - it worked fine.

Makes me question OP's setup.

For anyone interested ... that AH800 is still working today and is my back-up to its sister AH1000 on present boat. All I've done is replace the 2 pin power plug and the 4 pin data connection ... on both as the original AH connectors fell apart - so old !!

8ImAOPzl.jpg


Now where's that Z075 unit ????? Must drag that out and see if I can get it working .....
 
Last edited:
Refueler said:
Just to add to my previous ..... I had a Snap 23 where I cut and created an OBD well in cockpit ... basically I got fed up humping a Merc 7.5 Saildrive OBD on/off the transom bracket. The well was dead centre and wow what a difference in maneuvering the boat !

Anyway ... I was going to fit an Autohelm 800 to the boat and I jury rigged it ... that engine even though very close to the AH800 - never caused the AH800 to fail .. yes it had an initial compass jump when started - but all I did was to press STBY, which kept tiller / boat straight .. start engine ... settle engine speed and press RUN to reset AH800 ....

I sold the boat before actually fitting fully ... but the point is - it worked fine.

Makes me question OP's setup.

For anyone interested ... that AH800 is still working today and is my back-up to its sister AH1000 on present boat. All I've done is replace the 2 pin power plug and the 4 pin data connection ... on both as the original AH connectors fell apart - so old !!

8ImAOPzl.jpg


Now where's that Z075 unit ????? Must drag that out and see if I can get it working .....
Click to expand...

What would you like to question?
 

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Chris-S, sorry if you’ve already answered this previously, but have you done the calibration routine as detailed in manual? (ie going round in circles and so on).
 
fredrussell said:
Chris-S, sorry if you’ve already answered this previously, but have you done the calibration routine as detailed in manual? (ie going round in circles and so on).
Click to expand...

Oh yes, multiple times!

Under sail, it's fine tho the bearing displayed is always off because of the ignition magnet, but that doesn't really matter. It's when the engine is rotating, either running or just turning it over by hand that the moving magnet just confuses the heck out of it as you can see in this video clip...

Sensor interference 1
 
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