Day 284 A big step forward-sort of.

What you see in the photo is our Robertson Autopilot.  A great piece of engineering that will steer Zephyr with no work on our part--other than us sitting near by keeping watch.  You set up a course--the way you want the boat to go--push one button and with it drawing info from its compass, it will steer you nice and straight till you tell it to stop or change course.  Changing course is as simple as turning a small dial on the face of the autopilot.  It took us all the way South from Neah Bay at the West end of Juan de Fuca Straits to Newport, Oregon(back in September 07) and back(July 08).  So far without fail.

Reading the instruction manual, I found that it will take input from our Data Marine wind instrument and steer Zephyr by the angle of the wind and not the compass.  A few months ago, I had followed the autopilots manual as far as hooking up the Data Marine to the autopilot.  The autopilot could see some of the data but didn't understand what it was seeing so it was all over the place as to where the wind was coming from.  Not a good thing when you need that info to steer Zephyr.  Plus, it didn't get a reading as to how fast the wind was.  In short--it didn't understand the info it was getting.  

Yesterday, I gave their tech support a call at the instance of one of their reps I'd talked to at the Seattle Boat Show.  They could not have been nicer.  Given the fact that the autopilot dates back to 1995, I was amazed with all the information I got from them.  They checked their manuals and info sheets in their computers.  We talked back an forth for at least an hour.  We discussed the Data Marine system as well as the autopilot system and what junction boxes I had.  Marine electronics made a huge leap forward about 15 years ago when they came up with a new way for all electronics to communicate between each other no matter who made it.  It's called NMEA 0183.  Well, both the Data Marine as well as the Robertson Autopilot had the capability to talk to each other using this type of connection.  So I unhooked the 7 wires I had originally set up for the communication from both the Data Marine and the Robertson Autopilot and used two of the leads--no reason to string new wires while these were perfectly good--to make the necessary connections via NMEA 0183 terminals.  I turned on the autopilot and the wind gauge and VOILA, it worked perfectly.  Precise data was being transmitted to the autopilot.  Now we can steer Zephyr using the direction of the wind instead of by compass.  Using it in the wind mode while sailing, the DuoGen generator on the stern dragging behind the boat will make all the electricity it will take to maintain the autopilot.

Now here is the "sort of" section of the blog.  Where I had attached the two wire for the NMEA 0183 connection off the Data Marine, there were already two wires going into the autopilot junction box.  It ends up that these wires are from the Raytheon GPS that tells us where we are.  When I turn it on, it negates the info from Data Marine's wind instrument.  It takes it off line.  Even the instrument on deck that is made by Data Marine went off line.  With the GPS turned off, the both work fine.  I could run one but not both at the same time.  NUTS!!!  

This morning, I placed another call to the autopilot folks.  Again, they could not have been nicer.  They listened to my situation and told me of a company that makes just the gizmo I need.  It will take the information from both the GPS and the wind instrument and combine it into one stream to go into the autopilot.  Problem solved--at least it will be next Wednesday when the new gizmo shows up.  I figured there had to be more people that had had the same problem and that someone had come up with a solution.

Once this is all setup, and the new Hydrovane shows up(early April), we will have three ways to steer Zephyr.  The Robertson autopilot will work in both compass mode and wind mode.  The Hydrovane will steer us using the wind alone and not use any of our power.  Each has its benefits and its shortcomings.  Time will tell as to which one works best for us but it is great to have these options.  Life will be a lot nicer if we don't have to be at the wheel all the time Zephyr is moving through the water on her way to her next destination.

It's cloudy again today with intermittent Sun.  I put on the canvas that covers the cockpit enclosure windows.  It will keep them from discoloring in what Sun we do get and stop them from getting scratched.   

More projects to come.