[DG] EV autopilot questions

[estrace]

On my sailing boat, I have an autopilot consisting of one EV1 compass, one ACU 100 actuator control unit, one p70s control head and one mechanical Q047 tiller actuator, all this interfaced with an Axiom MFD by Seatalk NG.
I installed all this as per Raymarine instructions and therefore I did not fit any rudder angle indicator.

The system works Ok and the performance is good, even under sail in rough conditions.

However, this system is open loop based and seems to work simply by timing the impulsions sent from the ACU to the actuator and does not have any ruder angle feedback. As I am very familiar with marine electronics because it used to be my job as chief engineer before retirement, I know for a fact that closed loop autopilots with rudder angle feed back generally have much better performance than open loop systems.
I also have an M81105 rudder angle transducer left over from a previous installation which I can easily install on my boat rudder and I noticed that the ACU100 has an imput for the rudder angle.

My question is therefore: will my autopilot perform really better with a rudder angle feedback and is it really worth the trouble of installing and wiring the M81105 rudder angle indicator ????

Please keep in mind that I am sometimes racing long distance and single handed so the best possible autopilot performance is required

Thanks in advance for your reply

Best regards

Serge

[Derek - Raymarine - Moderator]

Hi Serge,

Thank you for your enquiry.

The EV pilot works extremely well without a rudder reference unit, due to the performance of the EV sensor and the new control algorithms we use.

Having said that, a rudder reference unit will always improve performance - it will provide a very accurate position feedback of the rudder and will eliminate any issues of noisy back emf caused by worn motor brushes and electrical interference from other devices too.

Regards

[estrace]

Thanks Dereck,

As I already have the rudder angle indicator, I will install it and let you know the progress in performance under sail and in bad weather

Regards

Serge

[Derek - Raymarine - Moderator]

Thank you Serge,

regards