Raymarine E120 Bearing vs Heading problem

H

hgugger

New Member
Mar 23, 2008
4
Indian Harbour Beach, FL
Boat Info
44 Sundancer 2007
Engines
twin Cummins QSC diesels
I normally do quite well with manuals and electronics, but I am lost on this one and need expert help:

I have an approximate 30degree constant difference between bearing and heading readout. It was annoying on the crossing back from the Bahamas, but it was making the ICW trip outright tricky, since the boat is moving kind of sideways which gets in the way of smooth steering when the channel gets narrow and you would like to line up the boat with the direction of the channel. Or, in other words when in H-up mode the course is 30degrees to the right. If I choose C-up the boat looks 30degrees to the left.

First I thought it might be a combination of wind, current and magnetic north effects on the gulf stream - nada.

Any insights?
Any comments are much appreciated!
Heiri
 
You probably need to re-align your compass for the autopilot. It is in the dealer setup area. Your manual will explain it.
 
As Jim said, check out the dealer setup menu options and compass calibration section. If you have been out in some rough seas, you may have bumped your dangling thingy in the Raymarine Fluxgate housing and it needs to be realigned. If you are going to keep using the crappy Raymarine fluxgate, you should become very familiar with the alignment steps.
 
LOL good luck with circles... I eneded up worse afterwards.....

The differential usually changes with direction... make sure no phones, keys electronics are near the dangly thing...


rob
 
I am having a similar issue. My autopilot is tied to my E120 and sometimes the autopilot shows my compass heading very close to my actual compass. Sometimes it's 30+/- degrees off. I have been trying to locate the fluxgate with the idea of replacing it or thinking I will find it mounted next to some electrical source. But even Sea Ray cannot tell me its location. If anyone knows where they put this thing on a 400 sedan (2001) that knowledge is worth gold...
 
Did you try and recalibrate it first?

I wouldn't put a Raymarine fluxgate back in as a replacement if it's bad. It's a piece of sh!t. Get a good KVH Autocomp 1000 and tie it into the Autopilot. I don't know what your Autopilot is but I assume it has an NMEA 0183 heading sensor input right next to the crappy fluxgate connection if its like mine. Just disconnect the fluxgate and hook in the Autocomp and your life will be much happier.

http://www.kvh.com/products/product.asp?id=58

It's a real plus if you can get the Raymarine fluxgate out so you can tie it to the back bumper of the car and drag it down the highway.
 
Rob

We should talk about this next time we see each other. Between Sal A. and Roger at CMI I finally got mine straightened out....and yes they had me doing circles, once with Sal on the phone.

Robski97 said:
LOL good luck with circles... I eneded up worse afterwards.....

The differential usually changes with direction... make sure no phones, keys electronics are near the dangly thing...


rob
Click to expand...
 
hgugger said:
I normally do quite well with manuals and electronics, but I am lost on this one and need expert help:

I have an approximate 30degree constant difference between bearing and heading readout. It was annoying on the crossing back from the Bahamas, but it was making the ICW trip outright tricky, since the boat is moving kind of sideways which gets in the way of smooth steering when the channel gets narrow and you would like to line up the boat with the direction of the channel. Or, in other words when in H-up mode the course is 30degrees to the right. If I choose C-up the boat looks 30degrees to the left.

First I thought it might be a combination of wind, current and magnetic north effects on the gulf stream - nada.

Any insights?
Any comments are much appreciated!
Heiri
Click to expand...

If you ever figure this out please post back as to what you found out. I have the same problem and I went to the boat today, read the manual got to realign compass on the c120 and that was as far as it would let me go.
Jack
 
Gremlins?

Sounds to me like the fluxgate install maybe off, if this issue has been constant and never functioned properly. These need to be installed on the centerline of the boat, and be properly oriented, second, no major pieces of iron or steel close by, and finally, you have to calibrate the compass correctly. And get this, if you disconnected the batteries and there is no alternate 12 supply attached you can loose settings, you may need to re calibtrate for best performance.

Finding this fluxgate puck can be a huge PITA as it is oftern burried someplace only a mongoose can get to. Do the calibrate thing first. If it refuses you then you'll have to find it and determine if the is a owner added chuck of iron close by or a 12 volt set of wires that are not twisted that sets up a magnetic field.

I'm curious as to where the compass puck is.

On a personal note, after purchase mine was always off by about 30 degrees and I simply relied on GOPTO cursor in autopilot mode as it doesn't care about mag heading in that method. When I changed out Batteries I took a few hours to mortor to flat water and due the calibration exercise. The unit has been spot on ever since and the fluxgate is a 2001 vintage.

On a previous boat the addition of a Survivor Watermaker sent my Fluxgate into orbit, both the steel in the case and the sloppy 12 wireing caused havoc with the FG compass. Solution was to move the fluxgate and re run the Watermake 12 supply with proper twisting of the wire.
 
Sure thing, Rob. Did you go in this weekend? This weather SUCKS!!!!! It's going to be a late spring for me, maybe end of April or early May before I'm in.

Robski97 said:
Guess ur coming for a boat ride Bri.... As gary said the compass is a POS


Rob
Click to expand...
 
Also besides the obvious which is to recalibrate the flux capacitor...make sure that you are consistently displaying either a 'true' or 'magnetic' heading throughout all of your equipment. I have had the auto set to true and the plotter set to magnetic before by accident - probably obvious but I thought I would point it out.
 
Chad,
Do you have to be underway to recalibrate the compass?
As I said earlier the manual was very vague. When I prompted to the realign, the button where it said realign was very light and by depressing this it did nothing.
Thus my question does the boat have to be moving to realign.
Thanks for the good reply.
Jack
 
Hi Jack, Yes, the basic calibration scheme is to take the boat to a flat quiet place that can accomodate a continous wide turn of about 500 ft. diameter circle. You enter the calibration program as instructed in the manual. Typical manuver is to commence the calibration program in the system, then bring the boat slowly up to the best North heading you can determine, the system with then provide you with onscreen instructions to begin turning in a 360 swing. It will ask you to turn more quickly or slow down as it "swings" the FG through the cardinals. It will continure to ask you to turn sometimes three complete circles and if you have performed the swing correctly it will tell you to get a beer. If you botched it, it will tell you to start over.

I suppose it could be done by spinning the boat on its ropes from a dock, but why, just go boating.
 
Asureyez said:
Hi Jack, Yes, the basic calibration scheme is to take the boat to a flat quiet place that can accomodate a continous wide turn of about 500 ft. diameter circle. You enter the calibration program as instructed in the manual. Typical manuver is to commence the calibration program in the system, then bring the boat slowly up to the best North heading you can determine, the system with then provide you with onscreen instructions to begin turning in a 360 swing. It will ask you to turn more quickly or slow down as it "swings" the FG through the cardinals. It will continure to ask you to turn sometimes three complete circles and if you have performed the swing correctly it will tell you to get a beer. If you botched it, it will tell you to start over.

I suppose it could be done by spinning the boat on its ropes from a dock, but why, just go boating.
Click to expand...

Thanks Chad.
I like you have been able to deal with the 30 degree thing as my auto pilot does not care that the little boat on the chart plotter is not going straight. I thought if was easy I'd fix it.
I think I'll just have the beer instead.
Jack
 
The calibration with turning circles is not just about spinning the boat. You have to have a constant angular velocity for it to be accurate. That's why you do it 3 times and it does an average. If your rate of turn is all over the map, your calibration is worthless. I learned this when trying to turn circles on a flat calm river but with a 2 knot current. Because of the current, I couldn't get a good calibration because of the angular velocity changed from going with the current to going against the current....
 
earthmover17 said:
I think I'll have another beer.
Gary I don't remember the other compass you recomended but do you have to do circles with that one also?
Jack
Click to expand...

Yes... You have to do circles.

http://www.kvh.com/products/product.asp?id=58

The link to the manual is on that page (they ship the damn thing in a card board crappy box with no instructions... but it's a great product.. The Raymarine fluxgate comes in a great looking cardboard box with instructions but is a crappy product)
 
Last edited:
Come on Jack, swinging one's compass in circles is the "salty" thing to do ... you'll certainly impress all the other kids! :)
 
Asureyez said:
Come on Jack, swinging one's compass in circles is the "salty" thing to do ... you'll certainly impress all the other kids! :)
Click to expand...

I'm just worried I'll spill my beer. I'm not very savy with electronic things but this seems truly a pain the a$$.
The conditions would have to be perfect.
I think I'll have another beer.
Jack
 
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