[C320-list] Wheel pilot and Crazy Ivans

[Larry & Melissa]

Hi Alan,

I'm not certain if these were the same symptoms that you have had with your autopilot but on mine I had the following:

1. The autopilot would work perfectly while under motor.
2. The autopilot would work well under sail except when the batteries had been drained or when there was a large load on the system like the refrigerator. In this situation, when the refrig compressor would kick on or the battery capacity was low enough, the autopilot would without warning revert to standby mode (and generally change the boat heading by some 45 degrees or so).

I found this link on Raymarines website which convinced me my problem was related to the power supply to the control head.

http://tinyurl.com/67uh5a9

Sure enough, when I opened up the NavPod, I found that the principal source of power for the autopilot was the high-gauge, low current carrying wiring that also powered the depthsounder and speedo. There was no dedicated wire of sufficient gauge for the autopilot. I ran a 12-guage (if I recall correctly) duplex wire directly from the circuit panel parallel to the other wires up through the binnacle and to the autopilot. Since I have done that I've not had the issue with reverting to standby mode.

Larry
Easy Going, #609