Raymarine S1000 settings

C

Chubby Bunny

New member
For those of you who are pleased with the operation of your Raymarine s1000 autopilots, am wondering if you could tell me the following settings for your unit:

Rudder Gain?
Counter Rudder?
Response?
Auto Trim?
Rudder Deadband?
Hardware/Software Version?

My new unit will hold a course ("Auto" mode) and follow the fishing patterns quite well but jerks to port every time it accepts a new waypoint on a route fed from a Garmin 545s. I have already turned off the NMEA routing sentences not needed by the s1000.
 
Mine does the same thing, but I haven't really played with it to figure it out. I figured I'd just wait until the SBS and ask a factory rep about it.
 
I just got back from a trip on the ICW between Charleston and Georgetown SC. It would track a course straight enough, but sometimes when adjusting heading to starboard, it would just keep turning right and I had to take it offline. I tried half a dozen times to run the "Autolearn" process but on step 3 it always veered off to the right and the autolearn process would fail.

Boats now on the trailer. Will fool around with it when I have it back in the water. Meantime I will be lurking to see if someone has the solution.
 
What helped me the most to keep from swerving when engaging in auto learn, and setting on a auto course, or even to a way point was to make sure boat was held directly on course desired for at least 5 seconds before engaging auto pilot. Since I've made a concentrated effort to do this I seldom have this problem anymore. One thing that may also effect this is higher then needed settings of rudder gain and response. Main thing is not to be in the process of turning when engaging the autopilot for any reason. It seems to have no problem in doing course changes on a route going from way point to way point when given the OK command. Though I burned up the first pump trying to practice doing routes that were involving to much course change. The pilot would get locked into a continued turn and the pump wouldn't shut off. Hopefully the later software has corrected this. They did replace the pump under warranty.

Jay
 
We have an S1000 and it basically works "out of the box" with no adjustment or self learning necessary. BUT there is one thing I have learned that might help:-

We are running with an E120 and using a fluxgate compass for heading. The E120 is in course up mode which means that it is constantly re-drawing the display. IF you put the cursor on your desired waypoint and hit "go to" at the same moment as it re-draws you can find yourself going someplace else, particularly if you were changing heading at the time.
So I tend to agree with Jay in that you need to get things stabilized before telling it to take over.

Not sure if this happens in North-up mode but I suspect it would be less likely since the bearing to desired waypoint would remain nearly the same even if the screen was re-drawing.

Probably all depends on where the S1000 gets its info and I will leave that to the true nerds.

That being said, I was "anti" any form of autopilot on this kind of boat but I now have to admit that if used properly it can take the pain out of constant arm windings and leaves me more time to look for the numerous arborial torpedoes that lie in wait for us in the PNW and to enjoy the scenery. I do not need anything more sophisticated and I certainly do not depend on it to get me anywhere.

One phenomenon you will notice is that if you hold a constant course in open water, other boaters on manual steering will gravitate towards a collision course with you and I believe that is human nature and not just the attractive lines of the CD (or anything else on your boat) :roll:

Merv
 
I, also, use my S1000 out of the box with factory pre-sets.
I keep my chart in the north up mode.
I notice that when you set to follow a course--- you had better be on course, or it will turn sharp to port in order to find the course.
What I do is set my waypoint, then set the AP to follow waypoint and re-new waypoint a few seconds before I tell it to follow course.
I've noticed that the faster I'm traveling when I initiate the AP, the more it tends to search.
 
Hi folks, wanted to close-out this topic. Since my original post, I engaged Raymarine customer support, who initally blamed the GPS manufacturer (Garmin), then had me send the unit back to Raymarine. Raymarine declared nothing wrong with it and sent it back. I've re-intsalled it and wanted to note my findings -

What the Raymarine s1000 Does Well:
Follow a heading well, even in chop or cross-wind.
Execute its "fishing patterns" like a cloverleaf, figure eight, etc. well.
Steer precisely to port or starboard using the buttons on the remote.
Disengage almost instantly when "standby" is engaged, which is critical for dodging water-borne obstacles.

What the s1000 Does OK:
Find and follow a distant (>5nm) waypoint after the first nautical mile or few minutes, where it will wander to the left, usually a couple hundred feet off course and then get within 20ft of the course line over the second nautical mile.

What the s1000 Does Poorly:
Accept new bearings on a route, especially if the leg length is short. Upon accepting the new bearing, the helm veers wildly to port and may never get back on course.

Overall:
For its $1,000 price (less online), the s1000 effectively steers the boat in a straight line. Since the gyroscope-based autopilots seem to start at double the price, only the buyer can decide if the extra money is worth the option to actually make a proper turn on a new leg of a route.
 
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