Raymarine st 6001 Autopilot..no power

[mjohnh]

My TE 28 has a complete Raymarine package, including fish finder (wish that I could tell a fish from flotsam); radar; plotter,etc.....and an
ST 6001 Autopilot. I took delivery last August and all of the electronics worked well.

This year, the Autopilot will not power up. I tried to find a fuse. I opened the panel behind the head mirror and there is a fuse box with
6 fuses and they all appear to be intact. I am not certain if one of these is in the Autopilot circuit. The fish finder etc. all work as designed.

Tho only electrical work I had done over the winter was: the boat wired for down riggers, but this circuit has a separate fuse box going directly to battery. I also have the electronic flood light fixed. They sent it to the factory and it came back fixed. I am not an electrician.

I have a hard time believing that either the flood light fix or the down rigger wiring could have interrupted the power to the Autopilot, but..........

Does anyone have any ideas on a way to diagnose this? Is there a fuse that I have not found?

[catalina_mike]

Mine has a 5000 series one, and speed indicator and is wired to the electronics switch on the dash. This is the fuse it uses and was traced by looking in the panel behind the bathroom cupboard. The other electronics were upgraded i2005-6 and a new panel was added to the right of the helm and below the trim tab switches for the VHF, Radar, Sounder, GPS.

[mjohnh]

I am at a dead end. Any suggestions will be appreciated. I have been in email discussions with RayMarine....they suggested that I find the "course computer" and look for the power cord, presumably to check for a blown fuse. Both the autopilot and the fish finder, radar,etc work off of a toggle called "navigation equipment". No power problems to the fish finder, radar, etc, and I could not find a fuse serving just the autopilot. The only electrical work i had done over the winter was wiring for down riggers......I do not see how this could have affected the autopilot......Doe anyone have any suggestions???????

[catalina_mike]

Well the down riggers were probably ran to the battery like mine was. I removed all the spaghetti wiring that others had done and started clean! I have a heading sensor for both the Raymarine and Furno system. My Raymarine one is under the starboard cushion for the dinette. Lots of wires everywhere behind the cupboard in the head it would be easy to knock something around and disconnect something. Hope this leads you down the correct path!

[RobS]

"Find" the course computer? Is it's location unknown? You need to start there and check for voltage to the computer. There should be a cover that snaps off to access the terminals/connections to power, NMEA and the various AP components. Using a volt meter check the power at the connections to the terminal board. If you have 12V to the computer then it could be a spade fuse at the computer board that's blown or a problem with the controller (display head). If you do not have 12V there then you need to work backwards along the power cable until you find where the 12V stops/starts.

[mjohnh]

RobS....thanks for the reply. You make sense and I will work through it as you suggest.

[mjohnh]

Rob: I have checked all of the spade fuses and they appear to be intact. I suspect that the power to the computer was interrupted by the electrician that installed the down rigger wiring. I appreciate your input.

[mjohnh]

Rob: Bought a voltage meter. Shows no power TO the course computer if I use the v.m. correctly. Put the positive (red) on the red wire and used two or three places as a ground with the black......used the sink drain, etc.......no power to the course computer if there was a good ground. I am new to boating so I am not certain what is a good ground on a fiberglass boat sitting on a lake. Anyway, I think that I have isolated the problem and appreciate your advice.

[mjohnh]

New wrinkle on this one. The marina sent the electrician over to check this out (same guy that put in the down rigger wiring which occurred just before I noticed the auto pilot without power)...I was gone.....he called and said that the autopilot toggle was the one marked "engine hatch cover".......this was not consistent with my memory of how it worked last summer as I never put that toggle "on" while running..ever...and I had autopilot.........anyway, I tried the boat and it worked going out to the big lake; one the big lake; but, went out again within 2 hours.......i have yet to check the spade fuses etc, but this whole thing is weird..........does anyone have their autopilot on the "engine hatch" toggle?......My cynical self is worried that the electrician may have found that he interrupted the power when he put in the down rigger wiring and "fixed" it by breaking at the "engine hatch" toggle.........(my engine hatch is manual lift, for what that is worth).......

Thanks