Marine autopilot update - Raymarine Autohelm EV-100 - Carrickfergus - a SYSL Extra

[@RF-yh3qh]

Nice videos! straight and clear!

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

Thank you. In case you are interested, we have an Autopilot playlist where we look at other issues and features with the autopilot.

[@SVImpavidus]

Hi Ladies. The only thing you dont have in your system is the rudder position sensor. So the pilot does not have feed back as to how much rudder to apply for a given turn and it cant learn? Everything is communicating in NMEA through your backbone. I think what will happen is the way point on any given route will become the target and the pilot will steer for that. If there is wind tide etc affecting the boat the pilot will disregard that and head for the waypoint coordinates. Using the NMEA data from GPS and the fluxgate. You will find that there are a few settings in the pilot menu. I cannot remember where they are but they control the reaction time and the amount of steer the pilot applies to correct the course. With the rudder position sensor the pilot learns these but can still be set to a level that suits the sea state etc. Long time since we had the Raymarine pilot. but sure you will figure it all out. Sail Safe guys. Ant, Cid and the pooch crew.

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

We will try it out when we are allowed out. Until then it is a mystery ;-)

[@SVImpavidus]

@@SailingYachtSaltyLass I feel a Toya Wilcox song coming on........

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

You are showing your age :-D

[@patch12259]

@@SailingYachtSaltyLass i did wonder when you said it was a simply bearing only system on your last video, you will also find it will adjust your track to allow for tidal drift and wind direction. i have an older version and wouldn't do without.

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

Hi Jason - if nothing else, people's comments have helped us uncover stuff we did not know we had. We tried several things when we were out last year and none of them worked, but we were very happy letting Annie the Autopilot just hold a course and that is probably how we will continue to use her. Close in or in shallow waters, I would be worried about chart errors, crab pots or other boats whereas out at sea and under sail I would not like to go from close hauled to an over-pressed beam reach just because the autopilot changed course. It will be an area rich in experimentation.... ;-)

[@hideawaysailing9078]

I’m just starting to learn sailing very educational and informative videos ❤️👍

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

You picked a hell of a year to learn sailing - everywhere is closed!!!!! Hopefully, it will not be too long until everything opens up again. One good way to start is to join a local sailing club and volunteer as crew. They will soon teach you the basics.

[@hideawaysailing9078]

Sailing Yacht Salty Lass Thank you for responding ❤️ I bought 2 boats a year ago because I really liked these two and couldn’t decide which one . One is a Grampian 28 and other is Tanzer 26 so once I get out there I will pick one and sell the other . I’m leaning towards the tanzer 26 because I’m getting older in my 60s so the smaller boat is easier for me on my own . I wish I started this sailing in my 20s hopefully I’m not to old. Both Canadian built boats. I’m watching all your videos sometimes more than once getting lots of great info 👍 Thank you

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

@@hideawaysailing9078 - if there is anything else you need to know, get in touch. We are not yacht experts, but we do spend a lot of time aboard....

[@adminIP-cn9if]

Did you find a way to interface your BG plotter to the autopilot so it would follow a route?

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

Sort of.... We can set up a route in the B&G and we found a way to get the autopilot to use that route. But! (Yes there is a "but") The autopilot will _not_ make a change of course by itself unless we approve it. The P70 control unit starts beeping and pops a little message up with a Yes/No option. If we select "Yes" the autpilot changes course. Having experimented with this we have figured out why it behaves this way. We are a sailboat and we need to respect the wind. Making a course change automatically could gybe the sail and damage the rig so each change must be approved by the helmer. Also, what would happen if we were on deck or up forward when the course change happened? Once we figured that out we stopped trying to do it and I have now forgotten how we got the autopilot to follow the route. It is easier to make a course change when we need it because they do not usually happen all that often.

[@adminIP-cn9if]

@@SailingYachtSaltyLass that’s very useful thank you Bev. My old raymarine wheel pilot is about shot and can’t really justify the cost of a B&G system. We have a Moody 336 with 3G radar, 3x Tritons and V9 plotter. Love your videos btw

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

Thanks and good luck with the autopilot

[@sailingperegrine]

how many amps does this typically use in an hour under way?

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

It's _maximum_ draw is 7A but in moderate conditions it uses a lot less. Once the sails are balanced the boat will practically hold a course without the auto-pilot and in those conditions it uses almost no power. Also, the solar panels mean that the power issues are even less of a concern

[@MichaelSanio]

Brilliant, thoroughly enjoy your candid discussion of complicated challenges of installing and configuring electronics on your boat. I have essentially the same configuration on my 2000 Hunter 340 - BandG Vulcan 7 and Raymarine EV1 ACU100 and P70, I noticed you have been able to direct your BandG Vulcan Chart Plotter to control the heading using the AutoPilot, can you share details on how you configured the system?

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

I will be honest, it has been so long (winter & lockdown) that I have forgotten the details, but I set up a route in the chartplotter and then selected Start Route and on the control head for the autopilot I selected "Track". We still have not tested it out as most of the time we are using the autopilot we are having it steer the boat in a straight line and we tend to handsteer for tacks and the like. Both the B&G and the P70 are plumbed in to the NMEA2000 backbone that we installed. Thanks for your kind words on the video. We always enjoy feedback.

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

I have just rewatched the video and everything we did is in the video except setting up a route in the chartplotter. If you have not set up routes before then you set up waypoints and the select "Routes" and add the waypoints to the route in the order you expect to reach them. Once we had the routes we simply started them as shown in the video and then pressed 'Track' on the autopilot and the magic happened 😄😄

[@MichaelSanio]

@@SailingYachtSaltyLass Thank you, I will try to set this up as soon as I have the chance to get on the boat, right now we are in the midst of our first snow storm here in Washington D.C.! Question for you, how do you update the firmware on your Raymarine components, do you use Series G uploaded to your BandG, there are two options?

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

The only Raymarine component that we could update would be the P70 control head or possibly the ACU but they are working fine so we have not tried to update them. As veterans of the I.T. industry we have seen more than our fair share of systems getting borked by updates so unless an update is required we tend not to do them. It is not like our autopilot will be surfing dodgy websites and downloading dubious stuff.... Our B&G has an update option. We just enabled the WiFi for the chartplotter and connected via a HotSpot and the chartplotter did the rest. The only thing you need to be aware of is that you need to have an empty 64G microSD in the empty slot (assuming your chart is in the other slot). The whole process is automatic. Our small Garmin chartplotter at the chart table simply required inserting an update SD chip downloaded from Garmin - insert the SD and switch on IIRC. Enjoy your snow. We have a Force 8 gale going at the moment - situation normal for this neck of the woods 😄😄

[@MichaelSanio]

@@SailingYachtSaltyLass Thank you, appreciate the guidance regarding updates, I'll take your wise counsel! Stay safe

[@JohnSherman2]

I guess your only weak link in chart plotter courses planned input then followed is--current accuracy of chart data presented (depths and rocks and obstructions) and unpredictable sea currents--when navigating close to land.

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

We never totally trust charts and we have become more aware of changes in the sea-surface and colour as a guide to danger

[@DarNico471]

Hello there ! Nice video… what is your B&G chart plotter ?a Vulcan ? How did you connect it to the Raymarine ap ?

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

Thank you for commenting and your kind words about the video 👍 The B&G is a Vulcan 9 and we simply connected it straight into the Raymarine SeatalkNG network. This is a version of NMEA2000 with specialised plugs, but you can purchase a cable with a DeviceNet connector at one end and a SeaTalkNG connector at the other end and that is what we did. After that we just fiddled with a few settings on the B&G and it all worked

[@PaulusPHM]

Cool find , so now al you need is Boris to agree for a sea trail.

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

That is exactly what we want to do. We now have AIS and we want to try that out in the wild. Now with this discovery, we should be able to single hand which is one of our goals. There is so much that we want to do, but at least we are safe and healthy. I like being healthy but I could of stayed at home, instead of running away to sea if I wanted to be safe.

[@noelioabrunhosa611]

thanks for the update. now i can order my autopilot. the b&g autopilot is three times the price. it should also be able to sail to wind.if all sensors are installed to network it will compensate for wind and tide direction.the b&g sailsteer is supposed to the best sailing software avaialable

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

The autopilot is a raymarine ev-1000 (or evo-100 - can't remember) but the chartplotter is B&G Vulcan 9

[@paulgorman8097]

Thank you for your videos on the EV-100 installation. I'm just about to install one myself and I have a few questions. I'm very limited as to where I can fit the i70 on my boat and I note you have yours placed adjacent to your compass. My question is, does this have any effect on the compass calibration? 2nd question, would you have a part no or a link for that double back box you fitted? It seems Raymarine don't do a designated back box for the i70 which is ridiculous as it would fit all their instruments. I note your clever idea of using the standard ip rated box for the job. I may have to go that route as well. Open to ideas. tks Paul

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

Hi Paul, the i70 seems to have no effect on the boat's compass. All the parts used are on our website at www.saltylass.co.uk/marine-autopilot-installation And the two boxes we used were www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06ZY2XPG5/ and seamarknunn.com/acatalog/nasa-clipper-mounting-pod-8042.html

[@michaelburns2928]

Hi I have a similar boat where did you get the replacement panel for your instrument please

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

Hi Michael- which panel do you mean?

[@michaelburns2928]

Sailing Yacht Salty Lass The instrument panel where you have your chart plotter thank you

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

That was just a piece of black acrylic we bought and cut to shape with a jig-saw. You can buy the original panel from SVB in Germany, but if you are in the UK, there may be customs fees added these days. www.svb24.com/en/bavaria-instrument-panel-without-cut-out.html

[@evanofelipe]

I’ve come to your Channel as I’ve been asked by a friend to fit a RM Evolution EV100 wheel Auto pilot onto his Hallberg Rassey 312 and found your presentation very helpful. Thank you. Looking at the Comments, it’s nice to see that you have also taken the trouble to reply when questions are asked. There’s often a lot to be learnt from comments and your answers help to clarify the issues raised. The most glaring of which was your realisation that the Auto Pilot was actually capable of following Chart Plotter course, when you originally, only thought it maintained set a course. My question is on installing it, what did you think the ‘Seatalk’ and NMEA connections were for, if not to relay info from the connected instruments? As a result I have Subbed and intend to follow your test sail using the Chart Plotter course. I also agree with one commenter who rightly said that without a rudder sensor it’s impossible for Auto Pilot to cope with multiple way points.

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

Hello - thanks for the feedback and welcome aboard. We have found that the autopilot works very well without the rudder sensor and we still have not had a need to fit a sensor as a result. As to what we thought the NMEA cable was for, the P70 control head displays information such as SOG and depth and it needs the NMEA network to get that information and that is what we thought it was for. We have needed the "Follow a track" capability so rarely that we have only used it once in the last year. Mostly, we set the autopilot going and monitor it as the boat makes progress to its destination. The one time we did set it up was just out of sheer curiousity and not because we needed it. Being cruisers, our passages involve long stretches on a more or less constant bearing.

[@cjparr]

Nice to see you have different brands of kit working together. That of course should obviously possible, but I’m looking into installing an NMEA200 backbone and the same autopilot as yourself (that’s how I found your channel) and I’ve found different brands have different connectors (SeaTalk, Micro-C etc..). Did you have problems with adapter cables or connectors (or whatever)?

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

We bought the Raymarine Seatalk kit (Seatalk-NG is basically NMEA2000 with Raymarine plugs) and the Raymarine ST-1 to ST-NG converter (an extra £125). All the old ST60s and loggers and such plugged into the converter unit and then from there to the main network. All other devices we have purchased have different connectors but www.nmeashop.co.uk/ has cables with different ends that are raymarine on one end and the manufacturer on the other. I think that the critical component was the ST1 / ST-NG converter to let the old instruments talk to the new network. All the new instruments where just plugged straight in and they all worked with very little fiddling

[@clarkforbes2599]

Even my old Raymarine gear would follow a track and the new Evo is just as competent.

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

Indeed, but it does require you to confirm any changes which DOES make sense. The last thing you would want is a boat making unexpected gybes or tacks

[@clarkforbes2599]

Fair point, but if you set it to wind rather than compass you avoid those perils. Of course you do need to keep a watch on your course to ensure you’re not being blown on to the rocks! Very informative vids, BTW.

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

We do use the windvane function sometimes, but I was thinking more along the lines of it following a pre-programmed track in the chart plotter. And thank you for your kind words on the vids 👍

[@SailHosailing]

And if it were not for the boredom of lockdown, who knows if you would ever have made this very useful discovery. Great that your autopilot looks like it can steer your whole route for you - because if you keep sticking your arms through the spokes in the wheel there's a fair chance you're not going to be able to do any manual steering in the future ;)

[@SailingYachtSaltyLass]

:-) I might be worried if it spun at 3000 rpm... but It was going flat out in the video