Hard Over Time Clarification

[mswanicke]

I have a 34 ft. sailboat with Edson 6 spoke steering. The hard stops are much greater than 30 degrees to port or starboard. After reading this FAQ, my understanding is (for my boat) hard over time is simply the time it takes the motor to drive the wheel 30 degrees.

Here is the section of the FAQ I read.
1) While dockside, rotate the wheel or move the tiller to move the rudder fully to port
2) Command the autopilot into AUTO mode
3) Press the autopilot control head's +10 button three times or rotate the autopilot control head's steering knob clockwise to command a turn of approximately thirty degrees.
4) Count the number of seconds that elapse from the time that Step 3) was initiated and the time that the wheel or tiller has fully shifted the rudder to starboard.

[Ron - Raymarine - Moderator]

The easiest way to measure the actual hard over time accurately, (default is 10 seconds) would be to center the wheel. Physically remove the motor leads from the ACU-100 and put them directly to 12Vdc. The motor should then drive the rudder all the way to one side. After that, reverse the motor leads on the 12Vdc source and record the time it takes to go stop to stop. That would be the hard over time.