Association Forum - Tiller pilot

Assn Members Area · Join

Home.

Association Forum

Ships Store

Cruising

Racing

Technical Tips

Photo Gallery - New

Boat Search - Updated

Manuals & Brochures

Swap Meet

Links

Officer Flag Line & Staff

Bylaws & Constitution

Members Area

Join the Association

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.

Association Forum

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Tiller pilot

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

hewebb
Admiral

Member Avatar

USA
761 Posts

Initially Posted - 08/17/2013 : 04:33:09

Are any of you guys familiar with a TP-100 tiller pilot? Not sure how long ago they were produced or how well they worked.

1988 WK/SR w/inboard diesel Joe Pool Lake
Hobie 18 Lake Worth

Life is not a dress rehearsal. You will not get another chance.

Edited by - on

awetmore
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1144 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2013 : 09:14:36

I think that is a Simrad, the current model is the TP10. I don't know much else about it.

Tiller pilots have a reputation for not being the most reliable items every made. They live a hard life with how they are exposed to the cockpit. I wouldn't buy a used one unless it was extremely cheap or you knew the seller and could trust them that it is fault free.

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Members Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2013 : 09:35:58

I'd agree with Alex, I bought a used Simrad TP-10 (?) from a guy who had used his to "cross the Pacific" to drive his auto-steering gear. There was no way to load test it while standing in his storage unit, but I hooked it up to power and the arm moved when I adjusted it. Took it home and played with it a bit more, and it stopped working completely. Discovered that it'd blown a fuse. Eh, no big deal, I'll just go get some more fuses. Turns out they're easily available in that particular size in the UK, but not so much here in the US. Finally found them at an electronics shop (after the owner dug through his secret stash of hard to find fuses) and bought half a dozen (all he had). Proceeded to blow all of them any time I tried to do anything with it beyond powering it up. $50 plus whatever the fuses cost down the tubes.

Bought a new Raymarine ST1000+ and haven't had any problems with it other than initially figuring out how to use it.

Edited by - on

awetmore
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1144 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2013 : 10:14:53

If buying new and you can swing the extra money I'd get the ST2000+ over the ST1000+. It uses a ball drive mechanism that is more robust and easier on the motor, which will likely allow it to last longer. The ST1000+ is rated to boats that weigh a lot more than a C-25, but there are a lot of reports of failures on boats in the upper half of it's rating range.

When I bought my ST2000+ the price difference was about $80, and it was somewhat of a no-brainer.

Edited by - on

TakeFive
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

2272 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2013 : 13:57:29

A quick question for all you guys with tiller pilots:

Can Raymarine tiller pilots interface with chartplotters and/or wind sensors to run in track and/or wind mode? This is a feature of my wheel pilot, so I just wonder if you can plug a pair of NMEA wires into the tiller pilot like with the wheel pilot.

FWIW, I have my wheel pilot connected to my Netbook (via wireless Bluetooth connection) so it can run in track mode, and I have succeeded at negotiating a 20+ mile preprogrammed course up my river under motor power. I don't do this often, but it's nice to know that the capability is there if I want it.

Edited by - on

awetmore
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

USA
1144 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2013 : 14:50:01

Yes, the ST2000+ talks NMEA 0183 and can listen to both wind sensors and interface with a chart plotter. The biggest difference between it and a Raymarine SPX-5 (the most common wheel pilot) is that it doesn't have as nice of an automatic calibration routine, so you need to experiment with it more to get the gain and response settings properly set.

I think the ST1000+ is missing the NMEA functionality, but it's been a while and I could be wrong.

It's nice having wind instruments with the auto pilot, you can have it follow wind shifts instead of just following a compass direction. It also changes the tack mode from "tack a preset number of degrees" to "tack to the same apparent wind angle on the other side of the wind".

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

Members Avatar

USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2013 : 19:57:21

The ST1000+ can follow NMEA sentences, but has some quirks. It can only follow instructions where the way point is 4 characters or less (it only reads the last four characters). I've got mine plumbed in, but have never actually used it to follow a course. It's something I keep meaning to do and just never have.

From the [url="https://www.google.com/search?q=raymarine+st1000%2B+tiller+pilot+manual&oq=raymarine+st1000%2B&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0l3j69i62l2.11292j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8"]manual[/url]: <blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">For the waypoint advance function to work, the last four characters of adjacent waypoint names must be different.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Edited by - delliottg on 08/17/2013 20:04:04

TakeFive
Master Marine Consultant

Members Avatar

2272 Posts

Response Posted - 08/17/2013 : 20:02:58

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by delliottg
 The ST1000+ can follow NMEA sentences, but has some quirks. It can only follow instructions where the way point is 4 characters or less. I've got mine plumbed in, but have never actually used it to follow a course. It's something I keep meaning to do and just never have.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Hmmm, interesting quirk. I've never noticed that, but I've never given names to my points along the route. I just let OpenCPN name them automatically, 001 002 003, etc. I do keep some named waypoints, but I don't use them in routes.

I'll have to give some route points custom names so I can test whether my ST4000+ has the same limitation.

Edited by - TakeFive on 08/18/2013 18:15:46

Topic

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Jump To:

Association Forum

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.