Autohelm 3000 - Trouble Shooting?

[Chris]

I have an Autohelm 3000, which is malfunctioning. I have confirmed that the unit is getting power at the receptacle. The unit emits a soft buzzing tone when plugged in and power is supplied, but the power light remains off and it will not activate. Are there any user serviceable parts inside the control panel? Any way to trouble shoot the unit to try and get it functioning again. I am heading off for a 3 day sail at the end of the week and although it is not critical, I would like to get the Autohelm functioning for my 2 planned overnight sails. I am assuming the drive motor will operate correctly once the control unit is functioning. Any Autohelm dealer in my area has offered to ship the unit out for repairs, which usually run 3 – 5 weeks.

Thanks



chris.reinke@sac.com

[Brian W.]

Chris,

I wrote a reply, but somehow it didn't post; maybe I hit the wrong button.

Anyway, if I recall from speaking with Raymarine last year, there's not much in the way of troubleshooting the control unit.

Troubleshooting the drive is simple - just hook 12v to the connectors on the drive and it will spin. Reverse the connectors and it will spin the other direction.

There's really not much too the compass unit. Opening it up reveals a suprisingly simple mechanism - really just the magnet spinning on an axis.

Which leaves the control unit. You can check that there's 12v going to the unit. After that, if it doesn't power up, I believe the best course is to send it back to Raymarine. If I recall you can pay a small premium to put a "Rush" on it. I think ours took 2-3 weeks. And it was covered under warranty, which was a surprise as it wasn't that new.

Regards,

Brian W.

I have an Autohelm 3000, which is malfunctioning. I have confirmed that the unit is getting power at the receptacle. The unit emits a soft buzzing tone when plugged in and power is supplied, but the power light remains off and it will not activate. Are there any user serviceable parts inside the control panel? Any way to trouble shoot the unit to try and get it functioning again. I am heading off for a 3 day sail at the end of the week and although it is not critical, I would like to get the Autohelm functioning for my 2 planned overnight sails. I am assuming the drive motor will operate correctly once the control unit is functioning. Any Autohelm dealer in my area has offered to ship the unit out for repairs, which usually run 3 – 5 weeks.

Thanks

[Chris]

Well - I figured it out.

I realized I had not tried to use the Autopilot since the yard replaced my ignition switch when they had trouble with it while launching the boat this season. I did a bit of wire tracing and found that the ground terminal from the Autopilot had been attached to the engine temp sender terminal on the temp gauge. Once I removed it and attached it back to the grounded terminal the ignition switch it operated perfectly.

Thanks to everyone for your comments and assistance. Now I need to hunt down the yard mechanic and keel haul him.

I have an Autohelm 3000, which is malfunctioning. I have confirmed that the unit is getting power at the receptacle. The unit emits a soft buzzing tone when plugged in and power is supplied, but the power light remains off and it will not activate. Are there any user serviceable parts inside the control panel? Any way to trouble shoot the unit to try and get it functioning again. I am heading off for a 3 day sail at the end of the week and although it is not critical, I would like to get the Autohelm functioning for my 2 planned overnight sails. I am assuming the drive motor will operate correctly once the control unit is functioning. Any Autohelm dealer in my area has offered to ship the unit out for repairs, which usually run 3 – 5 weeks.

Thanks

[Warren Kaplan]

Well - I figured it out.

I realized I had not tried to use the Autopilot since the yard replaced my ignition switch when they had trouble with it while launching the boat this season. I did a bit of wire tracing and found that the ground terminal from the Autopilot had been attached to the engine temp sender terminal on the temp gauge. Once I removed it and attached it back to the grounded terminal the ignition switch it operated perfectly.

Thanks to everyone for your comments and assistance. Now I need to hunt down the yard mechanic and keel haul him.

Chris,
This sure was the week for "wire tracing". I finally got my mast lights to work after tracing wires. I found on one side of the plug at the mast base the green wire was the ground and the black wire was for the mast (steaming) light. On the other side of the plug the black was the ground and the green was for the mast light. Like you, I was going crazy until I traced the wires!

Warren Kaplan
Sine Qua Non
CD27
Oyster Bay Harbor, New York



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