I am having an intermittant, but serious problem with my ST7000
autopilot.

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.

I thought the 'manual' setting was to be able to override the steering
from auto in an emergency. This setting is 'off' now.

There seems to be no consistancy when it happens.

Not sure if this is an environmental issue, ie stray energy from
radar, etc from other boats, land based communications, etc. two times
it happened in the Cape Cod Canal, which has a lot of high power
stations. Was just a wild guess. But it has happened in open water as
well.

The electronics system on board has a NMEA fluxgate compass (not the
original), Lowance chartplotter/gps, AIS receiver, tridata
instruments, feeding into a Brookhouse multiplexer. Not overly
complicated. I also have a SPOT satellite messenger on board. Not sure
if that could cause issues.

But it is disconcerning that I lose total control at random times.

Overall it is working great, other than these random emergencies!

Any help would be great

It may not be the autopilot. I assume, because you declared no other reference, that reference is your fluxgate compass. You must
first determine if the problem is coming from the autopilot or the compass. The easiest way is to swap out the compass and see if
the problem returns. However, you should review the compass's location on the boat and make certain it isn't close to other
magnetic fields. Also it would be helpful, when this next occurs, to reverse your track and sail the identical path again to see
if you can reproduce the problem relative to the boats position and track. This problem is not uncommon and provides incentive to
use a Satellite Compass.
Steve

"Paul" wrote in message ...
I am having an intermittant, but serious problem with my ST7000
autopilot.

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.

I thought the 'manual' setting was to be able to override the steering
from auto in an emergency. This setting is 'off' now.

There seems to be no consistancy when it happens.

Not sure if this is an environmental issue, ie stray energy from
radar, etc from other boats, land based communications, etc. two times
it happened in the Cape Cod Canal, which has a lot of high power
stations. Was just a wild guess. But it has happened in open water as
well.

The electronics system on board has a NMEA fluxgate compass (not the
original), Lowance chartplotter/gps, AIS receiver, tridata
instruments, feeding into a Brookhouse multiplexer. Not overly
complicated. I also have a SPOT satellite messenger on board. Not sure
if that could cause issues.

But it is disconcerning that I lose total control at random times.

Overall it is working great, other than these random emergencies!

Any help would be great

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.

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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