Squirrelly autopilot

[dbsea]

The auto guidance on my c30-cb acts very strangely. The boat seems unsteady and “rolly-Polly” is the best way to describe the steering behavior. I might be on a straight away track up the sound and it doesn’t want to hold a steady straight line, and rolls side to side some. Heading hold does it less but still does it. Most steady with manual control. Thoughts?

 

[CaspersCruiser]

If your autopilot is a Garmin product, there are “Dockside” and “Seatrial” Wizards that can be run and, if the Wizards are successfully completed, that may wash out the oscillations being experienced. The documentation for your autopilot system should provide information about how to get your autopilot into the dealer mode to access the Wizards.

 

[Mr. Ed]

I'll take a stab at this. My R31S was the same. If the autopilot is trying to keep you on a track, it doesn't look at the destination or compass heading, but it looks at your position over the imaginary line it has drawn from where you were to where you want to go. Every time you're off that imaginary line by a few feet/yards, it will try to get you back on track by turning back to the original line. It has nothing to do with compass heading, and everything to do with keeping you on the imaginary line.

I believe the reason for that might be to keep you away from obstacles, but a prudent mariner would not be using the autopilot in a situation where that would matter. And it was extremely annoying to the point that I chose not to use it. Perhaps there is some setting to tweak the amount of correction that the autopilot uses, but I never found it.

Hope this helps!

 

[dbsea]

If your autopilot is a Garmin product, there are “Dockside” and “Seatrial” Wizards that can be run and, if the Wizards are successfully completed, that may wash out the oscillations being experienced. The documentation for your autopilot system should provide information about how to get your autopilot into the dealer mode to access the Wizards.

Thanks. Just discovered these in the manual. Will do it next time I use the boat. Hopefully it helps.

 

[it4llc]

If your autopilot is a Garmin product, there are “Dockside” and “Seatrial” Wizards that can be run and, if the Wizards are successfully completed, that may wash out the oscillations being experienced. The documentation for your autopilot system should provide information about how to get your autopilot into the dealer mode to access the Wizards.

I'll second this. My boat would follow the track like it had a bit too much to drink, going up to 15-20' off course in either direction, until I ran the calibration wizard on it. Once that was done, it tracked a lot straighter.

 

[SJI Sailor]

We have not experienced this although we also do not use autopilot to follow a route as such. Instead, we plot a route and then manually control the AP heading to more or less follow it in parallel. That give more control and spacing that we prefer. (In airplane navigation, that is sometimes jokingly called "slop" -- strategic lateral offset positioning).

 

[dbsea]

Good to know on all of the above. Trying to use the auto guidance has given me several “wtf” moments. I’m sure I’ve gotten strange looks from nearby boaters wondering if I had one too many. I will stick to heading hold. 🙂

 

[CruisingElvinRay]

We use auto guidance all the time. Did it 90% from Thunderbolt, GA to Beaufort, SC last week.


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[CaspersCruiser]

…… we plot a route and then manually control the AP heading to more or less follow it in parallel. That give more control and spacing that we prefer. (In airplane navigation, that is sometimes jokingly called "slop" -- strategic lateral offset positioning).

That’s how I use the autopilot in my boat. Keeps me in the loop as wind or current changes the heading required to track the course.

Trivia for those interested: SLOP = Strategic Lateral Offset Procedure. Airplanes using SLOP offset one mile left or right of cleared route on long overwater flights out of radar coverage. With today’s extreme navigation accuracy, airplanes flying on the same route have a very high probability of coming together in case of an altitude error. TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) should catch such a collision potential, but SLOP is another layer of protection.

Here’s a picture from over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean before SLOP became standard procedure. We were flying the same route as the airplane in the photo and we were about 20 knots faster. We flew right up his contrail.