Garmin troubles

[pricelowe]

I wanted to post this to warn folks that when Garmin warns you on login not to rely on it they mean it.

We were returning home from Desolation Sound via the Malaspina Strait and was approaching the south end of Texada Island passing Anderson Bay Provincial Park. We were on "Auto-Pilot" and following a hazard free course home to Schooner Cove.

Another trawler was passing us on the starboard side heading toward safe anchoring at Anderson Bay. Suddenly the auto-pilot malfunctioned and placed the icon of our boat onto Texada Island itself resulting in the Auto-pilot to make a hard starboard turn in the direction of the other trawler and Texada Island.

I took control of the boat in "Standby" and righted the course. The skipper of the other trawler must have been scratching his head wondering what the heck I was doing.

The only way the system would reset was to hard boot "power off and on" both the garmin and auto-pilot. It then wanted to re-calibrate which I was in no position to do at the time because of other vessel traffic so I declined. At least the boat icon was in the water this time.

Lesson for me is you can never rely on the garmin system or auto-pilot to do as it was designed to do. It is critical you rely on up-to-date charts and your own seamanship and control.

 

[Red Raven]

Yeah, I can't count the times the auto-pilot has done some weird things including near 180 degree turns. Usually this happens to me when I am starting a new route or re-engaging a route after standby adjustments to avoid other boats, crab pots, or logs. I've never had your situation where it actually moved the boat on the screen suddenly without input though. Good thing to be prepared for!

Based on my experience I never engage or re-engage the auto-pilot on a route when anywhere near hazards, especially other boats. I always have the fear that it will steer me into another boat before I can take control. Your situation is much worse as you were not making any changes at the time. Scary!

On a related weird auto-pilot note. Since the Garmin has the channel markers included on the charts I would think the auto-pilot "Guide To" route software would know enough to route the boat on the correct side of the marker or at least avoid the marker as a hazard. I have run into many examples where the "Guide To" route either runs well inside the channel marker on a rocky point or worse runs right through the marker! Why wouldn't the software consider the known marker a hazard? In all these cases the marker was right where the Garmin said it would be so it is not an accuracy issue.

 

[bill46]

Our first multi day cruise the Garmin went stupid, shutting down after a few minutes.
Seagate recommended removing power from autopilot when it could not find compass. Worked.
Found dead problem to be flybridge display locked up that I thought was off.
Now it set to NOT power on automatically as it lower helm one.
We found the safest way to rely on Garmin suite is to shut off house power for a minute when powering up engine and thrusters. Seems cold reset makes everything behave for weeks. Much easier than going behind offending unit.
Another note software update was painless, just a little slow.
I have also found a couple of funky Autopilot guide to areas where it wants to cut corners behind markers shown on screen, polished the prop on one that looked deep on chart. I believe the markers are more reliable than some of Garmin's depths. Even worse is it wants to go through a mooring field south of St. Augustine.

Found it will go straight across channel when engaged until it is where it wants to be. Now I wait until I am a few feet of track before re-engaging.
Another caution is when engaging do not tell it to circle or zigzag! not sure those functions have value.
Overall it is a great powerful system with lots of information if chart chips ar bought.

Always maintain a sharp lookout. And keep a paper chart handy. Some friends keep Active Captain running on tablet.

happy cruising
Bill & Pat

 

[Scuffy]

We navigate using Coastal Explorer on a laptop. I use the auto pilot strictly as a point the boat at where we want to go once I have the boat icon on the laptop running on course and engage and disengage the auto pilot as needed. I use the Garmin 7212 nav screen to compare our location with the Coastal Explorer chart running on the laptop. The 7212 is used to provide depth, radar, fuel usage, time. I'll pick my own route thank you Mr.Garman.
I would always make sure you have all of your software updates up to date.

 

[NorthernFocus]

We navigate using Coastal Explorer on a laptop. I use the auto pilot strictly as a point the boat at where we want to go ... I'll pick my own route thank you...

Ditto. And never leave the helm unattended.

 

[bradcarolR29S]

For those of you whose autopilots seem erratic when engaging a new course, your Garmin is likely set to use the closest waypoint as a reference instead of the boats current position. This is the default setting and changing this setting to "boat" will correct the problem. I found this out when the Garmin tech updated my software at the rendezvous last month and I mentioned the problem to him. He went through a myriad of different screens, showed me the box that said waypoint, changed it to boat and the problem is gone. That is until the system is reset and it reverts back to the default setting, and I have no clue how to get back to that page!

 

[Red Raven]

Don't get me wrong. I love our Garmin Auto Pilot! It's just that like all SW programs the algorithm may surprise you and thus you need to learn it's behavior. I agree, never leave the helm unattended, no matter what system you use!

I began using our boat with only using "Heading Hold" or the "Route To" options. "Guide To" seemed like giving too much control to the Auto-Pilot which included route sections I did not feel comfortable with. I now, however, have come to rely on "Guide To", a lot. The key for me was the presets. I use a minimum depth of 15 feet and the "Farthest" setting from shore and set only a general deep water route. These settings often result in a an "unable the calculate safe route" message which is my signal to create a new end point where I can take a manual helm through the more shallow areas. The "Route To" option gives me full control of the route but I feel it is actually less safe. It relies on the the route designer (me) to use extreme care when creating the route to insure every heading and turn is safe, often requiring the route designer to zoom in to great detail to ensure safe passage. I have found this can only be done effectively at slow speed speeds or the night before when the touch panel is not bouncing around. I don't always have the patience to build such a route with a lot of preplanning when "Guide To" will get you 90% there in just a moment while under way. I'm fine with navigating manually 10% of the route that that I don't trust the the computer to do. In fact, it is an enjoyable break in some of the open water routes.

With "Guide to" engaged with my preferred settings over the long open stretches I can focus only on surface obstacles (other boats, logs, crab pots etc.) and not spend any mental effort on direction or depth. I find this really helps to stay alert and safe over longer passages and yet gives me full control in the critical shallower areas wher I need to be more aware of ALL navigation parameters. Just need to be aware of the few Garmin "Quirks" (like routes around channel markers!) that can arise within the deep water "Guide To" settings and stay alert for them.

I will also look into BradCarolR29S (we see you often in La Conner!) helpful feedback on the reference setting.