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 Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums
 General Sailing Forum
 Strange Raymarine Autopilot Behavior		  New Topic  Topic Locked
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Scott Shephard
Deckhand

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USA
22 Posts
Initially Posted - 06/09/2013 :  04:02:32  Show Profile  Visit Scott Shephard's Homepage
I own a 2003 250 WK, which has a Johnson 9.9 outboard and a Raymarine autopilot. I have a two battery bank (hooked up in parallel). The batteries are brand new, high end gel batteries.

On my shakedown cruise (under outboard power) with fully charged batteries and the outboard charging cable attached to the battery bank, I got a LOWBATT warning on my autopilot. I would occasionally get this warning in previous years but chalked it up to the obvious - low batteries.

But this year my batteries were fully charged. So here's my question:

Is it possible to get a battery warning from the Raymarine autopilot if it is getting TOO MUCH voltage? (The manual says the warning comes from low voltage and says nothing about too much.)

To test my theory, I ran the motor at medium speed, turned on the autopilot, and turned on most of the electrical items I have on the boat (running lights, cabin lights, GPS/Chart plotter, etc.) I kept track of what my simple cigarette lighter voltmeter was reading. Before turning other things on besides the autopilot, it was reading around 13.4 volts. After turning stuff on, 12.4 or so.

Bottom line: in my single test, under these conditions, the autopilot worked for the hour I used it without giving me the LOWBATT warning.

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced a similar problem and if anyone here knows if my earlier question is a possibility: can you run too much current to the Raymarine autopilot? Or are there other factors/variables I'm not aware of?
Edited by - on

Sloop Smitten
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1181 Posts
Response Posted - 06/10/2013 :  14:14:27  Show Profile
I know i get a "low voltage" warning on my fish finder if it is on and I start the engine using its starter motor. The momentary drop in voltage activates the warning and it stays on the screen until I cancel it. Could it possibly be the warning initiates when you start your outboard?
Edited by - Sloop Smitten on 06/10/2013 14:15:04
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TakeFive
Master Marine Consultant

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2272 Posts
Response Posted - 06/11/2013 :  14:44:54  Show Profile
This is a well known issue with the Raymarine control heads. Apparently there is a part inside that fails. Raymarine won't fix legacy hardware, but there's a guy in Colorado who has the parts and will do the fix.
[url="http://www.sailnet.com/forums/electronics/76571-autohelm-4000-fixed-yea.html"]Click here[/url] for a thread on Sailnet that describes it. There are other threads too - they pop up every few months - but I can' find them right now.
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TakeFive
Master Marine Consultant

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2272 Posts
Response Posted - 07/09/2013 :  05:36:42  Show Profile
I just ran across another thread that covers repairing of old Raymarine autpilots ([url="http://www.sailnet.com/forums/electronics/72279-autohelm-st4000-wheel-pilot.html"]click here[/url]). The person's ebay ID is [url="http://myworld.ebay.com/kodiakjack99/"]kodiakjack99[/url].
Edited by - TakeFive on 07/09/2013 05:41:15
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Stu Jackson C34
Admiral

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844 Posts
Response Posted - 07/11/2013 :  12:23:39  Show Profile
Here's a link to a link

Autohelm Repair Source

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,7283.0.html
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Notice: The advice given on this site is based upon individual or quoted experience, yours may differ.
The Officers, Staff and members of this site only provide information based upon the concept that anyone utilizing this information does so at their own risk and holds harmless all contributors to this site.