Autopilot Scorecard
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| Date | Problem | Solution |
 Simrad AP12RIn Service: 14-Mar-2003 |
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| Jan 1, 2006 | The overheated circuits that caused our earlier problems have finally given up the ghost. While travelling out to the Lower 9 Mile Bank off San Diego on New Years Day, the unit dropped out of Auto mode, and refused to go back in. When we stopped the motor and cycled power to the AP, we could hear a continuous high-pitched alarm. Once home, we pulled the cover to the drive unit, and the diagnostic LED was dead, even though the unit was receiving a constant 13.4 volts. |
The drive unit was returned to Simrad for repair. They were able to reproduce the problem, and replaced a circuit board. Cost was $458. Unit was reinstalled 2/12/06, appeared to hold a course successfully. |
| July 8, 2004 | The autopilot began swinging the boat into a strong right turn for no apparent reason. This happened later in the day. The problem occured on each subsequent long trip, always toward the afternoon |
After several calls to Simrad tech support, the
conclusion reached was that there were a couple of transistors getting
overheated by my practice of leaving the AP on NAV all the time, even when the
boat was not making steerage (for example, drifting while fishing).
This would cause the AP to hunt constantly, and drive the wheel to extreme settings. This apparently causes the steering unit to overheat. The recommendation was to take the AP out of NAV mode while drifting or not making steerage. They recommended returning the head unit for repair, as the transistors may have been damaged. Haven't done that yet, waiting to see if we have correctly identified the root cause of the problem. |
