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spencerdd

Hi Tom,
Unfortunately, my boat is laid up on the hard for the winter and I won't be able to do any sea trials until May at the earliest. However, I'll answer the questions you have posed.

I am in Autopilot mode, not wind vane or tracking to a waypoint.

I have my binnacle compass and GPS which provides heading (or COG in the case of the GPS). Neither are connected to the SPX. They both agree that I fall off course.

I rarely pay much attention to the heading on the ST6002 display coming from the autopilot unless I have the autopilot engaged. However, if the numbers were jumping, I'm certain that I would notice it. Once I'm back in the water, I'll try the slow circle and observe the ST6002 reading to see that it is smooth.

I don't have a video, however, I do have pictures attached with description below.

As I've been thinking this through, the problem I have now is very similar to the warranty problem I had in August 2013 during the first season I had the SPX. I returned it to the Raymarine repair centre near Toronto with a detailed description and pictures showing what was happening. At the time, Raymarine agreed that it was a fault and repaired (or replaced... I couldn't tell) the ST6002.

I've attached a couple of pictures I took to assist troubleshooting in 2013. These pictures are a good representation of the situation I have now.

You will see in Pic 1 that the virtual rudder indicator is showing the wheel to be hard over to port and a set course of 5 deg mag. You can also see the wheel is centred. (The wrap part way down the visible spoke is approx neutral rudder position). You can see the binnacle compass showing our heading to be approx 30 deg mag. Zooming in on the chartplotter, you can see our COG is 20 deg true which aligns well with 30 deg mag on the binnacle compass.

In Pic 2 taken seconds later, you can see the Stb Off Course warning is activated.

Throughout the event, the wheel was making tiny corrections as per normal operation, however, the vessel continued to fall off course. Once the virtual rudder indicator showed hard over, the wheel stopped making tiny adjustments.

Hopefully this is useful information.