[CA] [CA11] Autopilot turns hard to port

[Marc Winckers]

I have a Raymarine MFD set up with the SPX Smart Pilot Control Pack, and a P70R autopilot control head. We are experiencing intermittent problems, the most concerning of which is a failure, where the autopilot while in Track Mode, will all of a sudden turn hard to port. This has happened twice. I can’t remember exactly what the error message was on the P70r but it was something like: “Pilot Head lost signal” or “pilot head disengaged” – something like that. Then we can go into standby mode and manually steer our boat, but the rudder angle indicator would continue to show that it was hard to starboard. By powering down the electronics, (I powered everything down – pump, autopilot, MFDs), and then powering up again a couple of minutes later, everything return to normal.

I need some help trouble shooting this problem and would appreciate your help.