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Bruce in alaska Bruce in alaska is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Dec 2007
Posts: 153
Default Autohelm/Raymarine ST7000 autopilot problem - randomly goes hard port and locks the wheel

In article ,
Wayne.B wrote:

On Thu, 26 Aug 2010 17:50:23 +0200, "Steve Lusardi"
wrote:

At very random times, in either standby, auto, or track, the AP will
go nuts - wheel goes hard port all the way, and I can't override it,
and displays 'MANUAL' on the display! To fix it, I hit 'standby' to
regain control of the boat.


There is something in your description that I don't understand. You
say that: "In either standby, auto or track, the AP will go nuts -
wheel goes hard to port all the way". Does this mean that the problem
sometimes happens when you are in "standby", i.e., autopilot not
engaged? That would imply that your unit is coming out of standby
with no input from you, a very dangerous situation of course. If so,
I'd recommend turning off the AP circuit breaker until the issue is
resolved.

Have you contacted RayMarine technical support? That's where I'd
start.


Before going much farther, IF the unit does this in Standby, then I
would start looking for a intermittent SHORT in the Autopilot to
Steering Solenoid wiring. Sounds very much like a Sticky Jog Switch that
is wired in parallel with the AutoPilot Output Switching.

Just say'en... From a 45 Year Marine Electronics Tech...

--
Bruce in alaska
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