Raymarine Autohelm acts weird.

[Chips Ahoy!]

Hi Folks,

We have the Raymarine 6001 Series stuff. It has always behaved nicely.
Now (and since the beginnig of the season) it is weird. The compass reading has no correlation with the binnacle or gps. I did the recalibration dance...no better.

When I try the autopilot feature I either get a "No Data" error or she locks in on the heading even though the compass reading is rediculous.

I'm thinking that I am the evil-doer and have put a tool box near the flux gate compass. There is a black Raymarine gizmo attached to the bulkhead wall on the port side aft of the head. I moved everything...no better.

Two questions...is that the flux gate (I thought it was the NEMA thingy)?
Where is the flux gate compass on the vessel (Hull 232).

Thanks for any thoughts/wisdom/knowledge.
-george

[Tim April IV]

I found what I think is the flux gate compass on my installation - mounted under the counter in the aft cabin - It's in the port side cabinet, lower portion, and up on the underside of the counter.

My autohelm 5000+ was installed as part of commisioning, by a local service, and was not factory installed.

I also occasionally end up with the "no data" message - but I've been chalking it up to something going on with the output from my chartplotter.

Whenever I've had "odd" compass readings, I go down and take a look at what I've stored on that counter above what I think is the compass. Moving metal away from that area has cleared up the occasional compass issue for me.

Good Luck!

[Dave Granata]

George,
My autopilot was doing the same thing this year. I had a marine electronic company come down and check it out. What was happening is when it was in auto mode, it would for no reason drastically alter course. The heading never matched the compass and recalibration wouldn't work. This went on for a couple months and then it wouldn't work at all, it just said "seatalk failure" on the display.
The marine electronic company sent back the display and seatalk unit to raymarine. It just got reinstalled and now works well. They did not sent back the fluxgate compass.
On my boat (226) the fluxgate compass is located under the port rear locker/cabinet in the aft cabin.
Dave Granata

[Last Boat]

My Raymarine ST 6001 Smart Pilot let me down a lot this weekend. It would make unexpected hard turns, mostly to the left. It wouldn't hold the heading very long before it would creep away (30-90 degrees) left and right from original course. Large deviations between it's fluxgate compass and the mag compass. I got the "NO DATA" message several times. I have experienced some of these incidents since day one, I would power off the unit and it would recover. This is my first encounter with the immediate hard turns, this is harder to accept than the gradual off course situations . How easy is Raymarine to deal with?
Nelson Gainey
Last Boat
C350 #345

[Last Boat]

As I stated above, my Raymarine ST 6001 Smart Pilot would make unexpected hard turns, mostly to the left. It wouldn't hold the heading very long before it would creep away (30+degrees) left and right from original course. Large deviations between it's fluxgate compass and the mag compass. I got the "NO DATA" message several times. I have experienced some of these incidents since day one, I would power off the unit and it would recover most of the time. I removed the Fluxgate and Computer portion and mailed them to Raymarine last week and today I was told they have already repaired it and it was put in the mail yesterday. I am really impressed with the customer service they have rendered and how well they are supporting their products. I will let you know how well it works when I get the opportunity to re-install it.
Nelson Gainey
Last Boat
C350 #345

[Last Boat]

I re-installed the Raymarine 6001 AutoPilot this weekend and it now works GREAT! I wish I had sent it back to Raymarine when I first started having issues with it and not waited until I became frustrated with it. I am very pleased with the Raymarine experience and I encourage each of you to take actions earlier should you have issues with their hardware.
Nelson Gainey
Last Boat
C350 #345