[C320-list] EV-100 install on early 320

[Jeff Hare]

What I'll add to Graeme's post is that quite a few of us have done this project.  I got guidance from several others initially.

Mechanically, Installing the Evolution linear drive is not overly complicated. 

Some things that I really disliked when I installed our wheel pilot early on, was that I had to drill into the stainless pedestal tubes to snake the motor control wires up to the AP Control head. That was a serious pain in the a.  You'll also have to drill into the white pedestal tower itself which breaks into the Edson factory paint and can cause it to bubble in a few years.

The wheel pilot connector and weather boot that hooks to the motor is fragile and easily broken. Why they put such a crappy connector on such an exposed connection is beyond me. Removing the wheel becomes cumbersome and fragile (we used to remove the wheel a lot and hang it on the Edson rail mount to open up the cockpit). You'll have to mount the motor on the left side of the pedestal, which makes the handle flip UP to engage and down to disengage, which isn't in itself a problem, you get used to it. There's too much stuff going on with the right side of the engine pod to mount it the normal way. Whenever you power up the wheel pilot, it steers a few degrees to check the motor which means that you have to be careful not to have it engaged with the pedestal locked during power up.  The linear drive does not do this.

Getting it adjusted to steer properly was a challenge, but once calibrated, it was pretty good, but absolutely nothing comparable to the silent stable steering of the linear drive.  Engaging/disengaging is just a button press.  If it's in the budget, you'll never regret the Linear drive choice.  

I have a CAD drawing for the stainless steel backing plate that any machine shop can make easily (mine cost $93).  We have all the mechanical installation details nailed down, so that there shouldn't be any rocket science involved as long as you have someone that can fit in the aft locker to work.

One real benefit of the Linear Drive is safety.  It drives the rudder post directly, so takes a lot of the stress off the cables when it's running.  If you have a steering cable break or jump the gears, the linear drive can still be run manually to drive the boat any time you'd think you have to resort to the rather useless Emergency Tiller.

My $.02

-Jeff Hare
2001 #809 Woodbine II
 

-----Original Message-----
From: C320-list <c320-list-bounces at lists.catalina320.com> On Behalf Of Graeme Clark
Sent: Monday, November 23, 2020 12:02 PM
To: Catalina list <C320-List at Catalina320.com>
Subject: Re: [C320-list] EV-100 install on early 320

Peter

If you can afford it, go for the below deck ram. The improvement is worth it. Its not a huge amount more to buy but the installation will be more tricky and therefore costly if you have to pay someone to do it for you.

The network is NMEA2000 (well, raymarines version of it) so you don't have to ‘add’ anything. The way NMEA2000 works is you have a ‘backbone’ cable with spurs off it to the various components. The kit if bought complete comes with the necessary cabling. The control unit (“instrument”) is a standard size and will fit where your existing a/p control is on your instrument cluster.  I fitted both the heading sensor and the computer unit in the aft cabin hanging space as you describe.  I powered it with cables run from the electrical panel through the bilge ( under the liner) and directly into that hanging locker. It is dry and accessible and gives good performance.
Any existing Raymarine NMEA0183 instruments can be connected to the NMEA2000 backbone with a small converter module which Raymarine supply. Literally plug and play.Its called Seatalk to Seattle (NG) converter - but its basically 0183 to 2000!

The  only issue I had was my non raymarine GPS and plotter and for that I bought an Actisense NGW-1  NMEA0183-NMEA2000 converter. It is mounted next to the a/p computer and powered off the same source.

Wiring up the whole thing was a cinch in terms of what to plug in where but quite challenging in terms of routing the cabling.  I ended up removing the pedestal guard and - because of lack of space for the various individual thick cables, bought a multicore cable to replace the several individual instrument cables (i think it had about 12 or 16 cores from memory) and made the necessary connections at each end so that there was then space left for the new cable to the a/p control.  This I then threaded through the steering assembly in the aft cabin into the stern locker area across towards the starboard side and then through a drilled  hole to route the cables along behind the wood strip at the top of the aft cabin where the cables for the reading lights also run, into the hanging locker to the computer and heading sensor.

Some people have mounted the electronics in the stern locker area. On my boat I keep as much electrical and electronic stuff out of that area s i can. it always seems to be damp. But that is a matter of personal choice of course.

If you buy the kit it comes with a rudder position sensor (well, the ram version did!). The cable routing I describe makes it very easy to connect this onto the network and its well worth it in terms of improved performance.

Hope this helps

Regards

Graeme Clark
#366, 1996


> On 23 Nov 2020, at 16:42, nibj <nibj at mac.com> wrote:
> 
> Pardon me for rehashing an old subject.  We have an early (1995 I think) C320 with Perkins engine and associated instrument panel on the old style Edson pedestal/steering guard setup. Our boat has next to no electronics (just VHF and FloatHub, no chart plotter, just an ancient Garmin GPS).
> 
> We want to install an autopilot (likely an EV-100 wheel pilot) for use in the Chesapeake Bay and maybe ICW (nothing too strenuous, maybe round Delmarva but that is only one day at sea).  
> 
> I have looked at the posts on this subject and may have missed the information:
> 
> 1) Will it fit or will we have to modify the instrument cluster?
> 2) Reading posts, it seems that a good place for the controller and compass etc is in the small hanging locker in the aft “stateroom”. Is that the consensus?
> 3) Where do you put the control panel?  I seem to recall a fancy Scanstrut install that looked good but can’t find it now.
> 4) I guess I should install an NMEA-2000 network.  I am thinking of wind and AIS later.
> 
> Does anyone have a copy of the Mainsheet article mentioned in some of the posts?  I tried to find it but it seems that Catalina’s mainsheet page is under construction?
> 
> Any help would be very much appreciated.
> 
> Best
> Peter
> Tangled #226