Raymarine sport pilot plus Help

[rob.s.uk]

Sorry if this has already been covered if it has could someone link the post.

I have a raymarine sport pilot plus on my boat. It's coupled with the flux gate compass and rudder transducer. The problem I've got is it doesn't seem to work properly. When it's set it seems to over steer or the steering wheel rocks from side to side. I did read in the manual that it might need calibrating if the compass is moved which it has because it's from a different boat (second hand). Anyone had this problem. I did read there rubbish anyone know why or is it because of what I've described. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[duped]

You should definitely swing the compass as detailed in the manual. Before that, make sure you have the compass mounted LOW and in the center of the boat. Also make sure no ferrous objects are nearby. This includes little things you wouldn't normally give second thought to like a bilge pump. I had my compass mounted near a small forward bilge pump in my first boat and it was giving me 10 degrees of deviation.

Overshooting the course sounds like you have the response set too high, but to be honest, my experience with that variant of sport pilot has not been good. If you get a control head for it, you can calibrate it a little better. ST6000, 6001, 6002 are some of the cheaper and easier to find ones. They allow you to adjust rudder gain and a few other things to tweak the unit out. Whether or not it's worth it, I would probably lean towards no, just because the age of the unit and lack of parts/support if it fails, or never works in the first place.

 

[Bondo]

You should definitely swing the compass as detailed in the manual.

Ayuh,.... I've had to start from scratch every year with my sport pilot, as far as reorienting it, 'n boatin' in slow circles to reset it,....

 

[rob.s.uk]

I will give resetting it a go see if that sorts it out. I do have a bilge pump about 12 inches form the compass the wheelhouse floor separates them. Would the pump always affect the compass or just when it's running?. I don't really have anywhere else to mount the compass limited on space.

 

[duped]

The pump would affect it all the time, not just when running. But 12" is more distance than I initially had so you may be okay. Try the calibration, at the end it beeps back how much compass deviation you have. The lower the better.