Huttoft
Well-Known Member
My Simrad WP 30 autopilot has not worked satisfactorily since I bought the boat last September. The immediate problem was the drive belt, which was so old it was cracked, had stretched and was slipping. I replaced the belt and upgraded the clutch with the manufacturers authorised replacements. I believe this renewal of parts to have been carried out totally successfully.
However this didn’t fully cure the pilot. Instead it would temporarily hold a course, for a minute or few at best, and then gradually increase its over reaction until it completely lost the plot and gave up. I have tried all the makers’ suggestions and also tried every combination of settings to “Gain”, “Wheel to wheel lock” and “Seastate”. No success. The last effort I made was to reset the fluxgate compass. This involved the boat turning in circles whilst in very calm conditions. This seemed to go through OK, with all indications from the pilot looking to be correct, until a final indication from the pilot was received to say that the resetting of compass was unsuccessful. After much head scratching I now consider that my problem may be that the pilot’s compass is being affected by being too close to an external magnetic source.
There are 13/15 kg gas bottles in cockpit lockers on either side of the wheel pedestal. The pedestal is fitted with the autopilot. I have measured the distance from the pilot’s fluxgate compass to the nearest part of the nearest bottle (its shoulder) to be approx 0.55m. I have checked the bottles and found them to have magnetic qualities -. i.e. a magnet will “stick” to them when applied. My next effort will involve removing the suspect bottles and retrying the resetting process, but this won’t be possible for me to do for a week or two.
Now for my questions: Has any other ‘forumite’ had similar experiences? Do you think I’m on the right track? If I am, could I overcome the magnetic effect by rigging up faraday cages around the bottles – by, for instance, wrapping them in non-magnetic material such as aluminium foil? This would be ideal, so that I can leave the bottles in their designated lockers. I will be trying my ideas as soon as I can, but in the meantime I could be a happier bunny if someone out there can give me any hope for the future.
However this didn’t fully cure the pilot. Instead it would temporarily hold a course, for a minute or few at best, and then gradually increase its over reaction until it completely lost the plot and gave up. I have tried all the makers’ suggestions and also tried every combination of settings to “Gain”, “Wheel to wheel lock” and “Seastate”. No success. The last effort I made was to reset the fluxgate compass. This involved the boat turning in circles whilst in very calm conditions. This seemed to go through OK, with all indications from the pilot looking to be correct, until a final indication from the pilot was received to say that the resetting of compass was unsuccessful. After much head scratching I now consider that my problem may be that the pilot’s compass is being affected by being too close to an external magnetic source.
There are 13/15 kg gas bottles in cockpit lockers on either side of the wheel pedestal. The pedestal is fitted with the autopilot. I have measured the distance from the pilot’s fluxgate compass to the nearest part of the nearest bottle (its shoulder) to be approx 0.55m. I have checked the bottles and found them to have magnetic qualities -. i.e. a magnet will “stick” to them when applied. My next effort will involve removing the suspect bottles and retrying the resetting process, but this won’t be possible for me to do for a week or two.
Now for my questions: Has any other ‘forumite’ had similar experiences? Do you think I’m on the right track? If I am, could I overcome the magnetic effect by rigging up faraday cages around the bottles – by, for instance, wrapping them in non-magnetic material such as aluminium foil? This would be ideal, so that I can leave the bottles in their designated lockers. I will be trying my ideas as soon as I can, but in the meantime I could be a happier bunny if someone out there can give me any hope for the future.
