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Chris

B&G h3000 Pilot Issues

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Good morning all,

Bear with me, as this backstory takes a little bit to get through. I have been dealing with a recurring problem (well, many, but thats a different story) with a B&G h3000 system and am getting very little help from Navico at this point, so I wanted to pick some brains here.

The system in question:
-new h3000 cpu
-new ACP1
-new GFD at nav station
-new GPD at helm
-new Halcyon2000 compass
-old B&G hydraulic drive
-old B&G handheld
-a few older B&G displays as repeaters
-new B&G analog wind instruments (app and mag app)

After months of going back and forth with Navico, the above is what I ended up installing after being told first that the customer's existing compass would work, then that his existing ACP1 would work, etc etc. Again, I'll save that rant for a different time.

After finally commissioning the system and sea trial setup (give or take 2 months ago) the system seemed to be working fine. Around a month ago, the customer came to me and described the following problem:

When the auto pilot is engaged, it takes the wheel and will hold a course. However, pressing either 1 degree or 10 degree buttons will not move the helm. The GPD reflects the button presses (i.e., if you press 10 degree button 4 times, the GPD will show a 'pilot course' of 40 degrees different from the heading, yet no wheel movement).

After this report, I sea trialled the boat again where I had no issues on compass, wind or nav - the pilot worked fine. I reported that to the customer and we chalked it up as either a hiccup or possibly operator error.

Then it happened again. Fortunately (?) for me, I was able to sea trial the boat with the customer and this time witness the phenomenon and it was exactly as he described it. (see above) If you put the GPD into 'power' mode, however, the 10 degree button and 1 degree button move the helm just fine while this is happening, so I can't see it being a drive issue.

During the trial, I reset the ACP1, re-did the dockside commissioning and re-did the sea-trial commissioning and the pilot once again worked. The strange thing is that it seemed to be adjusting BOTH rudder gain and boat lag in the wrong directions (adjusting rudder gain WAY up to near max, resulting in tiny tiny wheel movements and boat lag WAY down, resulting in overshoots in the vicinity of 30-40 degrees).

So, my question is, has anyone been having issues with the h3000 stuff as far as this goes? Navico has almost stopped responding to me altogether and I'm nearing my wits end. I have a hard time telling my customer that he may have to simply reset this brand new stuff on occasion, especially since he had a B&G system before this one that he loved and he is getting frustrated with the new system.

I appreciate any help anyone may be able to offer.

1 Reply

  • Hi Chris.

    I have read your fault description, with great interest.
    On my X-Yacht i have exactly the same problem with my b&g ACP1 pilot.
    - Also no course chance when pilot engaged..

    Did you or your client find a solution to fix this problem??

    Thanks

    Kind regards
    Martin
    Denmark