“Navigate to” doesn’t work

[Boatagain]

When I chose a route, waypoint or destination on my 7612 and then press “navigate to” the window that should slide up asking if I want to engage autopilot doesn’t appear. This has been a recurring problem for the past several seasons, sometimes it works, but mostly it doesn’t. At the Pocket Yachts rendezvous two years ago a Garmin rep “fixed it” but the fix didn’t last. I remember he had a hard time with it, rapidly going though so many screens that I lost track. My software is up to date (I’ve re-installed it several times) and I have tried cutting power and trying again to no avail.

Anyone else have this problem or can provide any help?

Thanks!

 

[aculverwell]

This happens to me periodically. My solution is to completely turn off the power to the Garmin by turning off the main House Power switch, wait 5 minutes and turn everything back on. This has always solved this issue for me. Turning off power to the Garmin periodically is a reasonably common suggestion on this forum.

 

[Boatagain]

Thanks for your reply, but, as I said in my op, I’ve already tried that.

Guess this one’s a real stumper, huh? Anybody?

I’ll try Garmin customer support next.

 

[Karll]

Last weekend was my first time really out on my R29 with the same Garmin screen as you have. I tried making a route and the autopilot would not engage. When I went to “Where to go” and typed in a destination it would engage but the route went through several islands.

 

[pleeson]

Use the Guide To option to plot a course around obstacles otherwise the chart plotter will offer a straight line.

 

[Red Raven]

When I chose a route, waypoint or destination on my 7612 and then press “navigate to” the window that should slide up asking if I want to engage autopilot doesn’t appear. This has been a recurring problem for the past several seasons, sometimes it works, but mostly it doesn’t. At the Pocket Yachts rendezvous two years ago a Garmin rep “fixed it” but the fix didn’t last. I remember he had a hard time with it, rapidly going though so many screens that I lost track. My software is up to date (I’ve re-installed it several times) and I have tried cutting power and trying again to no avail.

Anyone else have this problem or can provide any help?

Thanks!

This has happened occasionally to me. When it does, I push the menu key on the AutoPilot display (not the chart-plotter) and then “Follow Route”. This assumes that you are getting the magenta colored route displayed on the chart-plotter. There are occasions, however, where even the “Follow Route” option does not appear on the autopilot display.. If this occurs then I stop the route and start over with a new one and that usually takes care of it.

Curt

 

[Boatagain]

Thanks Curt! I’ll give that a try!

I’ll be on the boat tomorrow morning and will call Garmin...unless Curt’s suggestion works. I’ll post what happens.

 

[1Harrison]

Check your keel offset and minimum depth settings and minimum Hight settings. If these settings are violated anywhere in the route, the system will not plot or follow the route. The system will not tell you the problem it just truncates the operation.

 

[Wee Venture]

When I chose a route, waypoint or destination on my 7612 and then press “navigate to” the window that should slide up asking if I want to engage autopilot doesn’t appear....

Anyone else have this problem or can provide any help?

Thanks!

I am currently experiencing what sounds like the same problem. And it has happened before. On mine (Garmin 7616) the unit will draw a magenta line just fine but, like you say, there is no prompt for engaging the autopilot. Likewise, on the autopilot pad, there is no option for gps steering, which is usually a way to engage - or re-engage - the “follow route” function. So I am left to follow the “magenta brick road” all by myself. (The autopilot works just fine in “heading hold.”)

I haven’t done much troubleshooting yet but I vaguely remember it could have to do with resetting the gps source. That would make sense since “follow route” requires gps but “heading hold” uses the internal fluxgate compass in the heading sensor according to my understanding. The gps source option might come up on the dockside Wizard or sea trial wizard, not sure. Maybe there is another way to access it. Sorry I’m not more help but if I figure it out before I see that someone else has, I’ll post what worked for me. And please let us know if you find the answer. Thanks.

John

 

[Boatagain]

I spent almost two hours on the phone with Garmin yesterday and the problem is still not solved. The tech was very helpful and tried his best, but alas, no joy. We tried opening the menu on the Autopilot screen, but no “Follow Route“ would come up. We checked keel offset, minimum depth and maximum height settings...all were fine. John’s problem sounds identical to mine but resetting the gps source did not help.

The tech finally put me on a 10 minute hold to do some “research”. When he came back on his suggestion was to re-install the latest software (v19.10) and to do another sea trial. Ugh. He made a vague reference that the “north” calibration of the autopilot direction module (do not have a ball, it is solid state on my boat) may not be in sync with the boat’s compass, which is something that’s addressed during the sea trial. Interestingly, we discovered that my software was v19.00 when the latest, released some time ago, is 19.10. It’s interesting because I just downloaded what I thought was the latest through Active Captain a week ago! The tech said he’s going to report that anomaly. The tech’s final comment was “I’m not saying this will definitely work...”.

My plan now is to download 19.10 to an SD card at home and then re-install on the boat. I’ll follow that with another run at the sea trial wizard. Won’t be able to do that until next weekend. I’ll keep y’all posted. And thanks for all your suggestions.

UPDATE: Talk about confusion! I just went on the Garmin site to download the software update for the 7612 and it shows v19.00/4.40 as the latest...not 19.10. Sigh.

Frustrated.

 

[Shano]

I have had this happen maybe 5 times on our autopilot. I do not get the “engage autopilot” prompt coming up. What I have had to do is to reset to factory default settings. This may get it working. Another method I have used is to go into “dealer” mode and go thru the dock wizard and sea trial wizard. I, like some of you, need to do this again! I have just been using heading hold the last 40 hours or so. There is so much junk in the water this year I am constantly having to use the shadow steering and then re-engage the course so it really doesn’t make that much difference on the water between using heading hold and running a course. In my situation my heading line is off by about 20 degrees so I need to go then the sea trail wizard again anyway - now I just need a low wind, low current day....

 

[Shano]

As a follow up I did do the “reset to factory default values” and the AP is now working perfectly. The heading line has also been adjusted and is perfectly aligned with my actual boat heading. Not sure why this works but Dave at Port Boathouse gave me this tip a few years back and it fixes the AP system on our boat. Not sure why it reverts back to not working properly after a while. Last time it worked properly for approx 100 hours.

 

[Wee Venture]

Thank you Shano! The “Follow Route” function still does not work on my AP. I’m pretty sure it stopped working when I downloaded and installed an update. So I will try resetting. (Dave at Port Boathouse is a great guy. My wife and I met him at the Seattle Boat Show 3-1/2 years ago and he was largely responsible for our decision to buy our R-31CB.)

One question: When I “reset to factory default values,” do I lose everything? All my tracks, routes, waypoints, vessel information, etc.? If so, I’ll try to figure out how to save that information before resetting. Thanks again for sharing the solution.

John

 

[hulla]

We finally felt brave enough to go for our first little trip 24 nm trip each way on our new R31S from Genoa Bay BC to Port Browning on North Pender BC via the Navy Channel for two nights and returned yesterday.

On the way out, we built an autoroute and I was able to get the autopilot to navigate for us the whole way. I did have to put it into standby and hand steer around debris and to give way to other vessels a few times. Apart from one time when I was too far off the autoroute course, I was able to re-engage in the "navigate to" mode and everything was fine.

On the way back, I built the same route and when I tried to engage the autopilot, the "navigate to" option was not available so I had to go down one level in automation and use it in "heading" mode instead. As there was a reported ransomware attack on Garmin yesterday, I did not want to take the risk of trying to rebuild the autoroute while underway to see if it would solve the problem.

I do have one question, is there a maximum time between building the route and using the autopilot to follow the autoroute? I built the route quite a while before we actually left as I was worried about the ransomware attack. It was a good lesson in why it is necessary to carry paper charts too.

 

[Wee Venture]

I do have one question, is there a maximum time between building the route and using the autopilot to follow the autoroute? I built the route quite a while before we actually left as I was worried about the ransomware attack. It was a good lesson in why it is necessary to carry paper charts too.

Congratulations on your first cruise!

There is no maximum time that I am aware of, as long as you tap “start navigation” after building the route. (Do not tap “engage autopilot” if you are not ready to go.) I have built a route in the evening, tapped “start navigation” to see the distance of the route, and then turned the chartplotter off. The next morning when I turn the chartplotter on again it is still there ready to go.

You can also give the route a name and save it in the chartplotter to use it at any time in the future if you wish.

Happy cruising!

John

 

[Shano]

Thank you Shano! The “Follow Route” function still does not work on my AP. I’m pretty sure it stopped working when I downloaded and installed an update. So I will try resetting. (Dave at Port Boathouse is a great guy. My wife and I met him at the Seattle Boat Show 3-1/2 years ago and he was largely responsible for our decision to buy our R-31CB.)

One question: When I “reset to factory default values,” do I lose everything? All my tracks, routes, waypoints, vessel information, etc.? If so, I’ll try to figure out how to save that information before resetting. Thanks again for sharing the solution.

John

I didn’t lose any data at all, all waypoints etc still there. There are a few questions that you have to go through after pressing the scary “reset to factory values” choice. I took the simple or quick method, it gives you a choice, and then you follow the guide along choosing “English” etc. That is all there is too it.

 

[hulla]

Congratulations on your first cruise!

There is no maximum time that I am aware of, as long as you tap “start navigation” after building the route. (Do not tap “engage autopilot” if you are not ready to go.) I have built a route in the evening, tapped “start navigation” to see the distance of the route, and then turned the chartplotter off. The next morning when I turn the chartplotter on again it is still there ready to go.

Happy cruising!

John

I know Garmin much better in the aviation world than in the nautical world. I think that you have identified my error.

There were big time gaps between "build the autoroute", "start navigation" and "engage autopilot".

Our first trip was about 50 nm in total over 3 days to one destination. For most you you that is quite boring. For us, it was very exciting.

We look forward to stretching our legs going forward.

 

[Wee Venture]

Sounds like a great trip! For me, being on our boat is never boring. Even if we’re just sitting at the dock. Literally!

One more thought about routes disappearing. There is a little red navigation icon in the top left of your screen when a route is active. On our chartplotter, if you touch that little icon (e.g., accidentally or out of curiosity) the entire route disappears, with no warning or “undo” feature. That was annoying the first time it happened.

Edit: Rereading your earlier post, it sounds like your route (magenta line) was on the chart but the “follow route” function was not available. If so, this sounds like a different problem. If the magenta line is still there, no matter how long it has been since it was made, then I believe you should be able to engage the autopilot to follow the route if things are working properly.

John

 

[Scuba Too]

It may be a power issue. When I first got my boat the auto guidance worked great. Then I had to occasionally cycle the power. After awhile cycling the power didn’t work. It was during this last phase that my Fusion radio partially failed (the Sirius channels came through the speakers and chart plotter but I couldn’t use the controls on the radio). I swapped it out under warranty and found out during that process that the only power going to the NMEA bus was from the radio - which Fusion states it’s not spec’d for (they have the power out feature just for one of their remotes). BTW I found this out as my autopilots wouldn’t power up. It may because I have two (one on CB) which overloaded the new radio. I added a power cable from the DC block on the CB to the NMEA bus (fortunately as it’s really hard to get to at the helm) and it’s working well, though I occasionally still have to cycle power. To me it’s a bit strange to power from the radio as it’s pretty inexpensive to add a power cable. Note that other items on the NMEA (e.g. chartplotters and radio) have independent power and do not get power from the NMEA bus - just exchange data through it).

 

[NautiTug]

Sorry a new thread as I missed this one. But add me to the list of having the latest garmin software and auto guidance actual autopilot navigation disappearing. I reset to factory defualts and turned off power to the garmin and neither worked. I agree with some others that this is def a garmin software issue.

Does anyone know if its possible to downgrade the garmin software to a prevous version? based on what I have seen on other sites the answer seems no. I will call garmin at some point this week.