[CA] [CA11] Drive Stopped - EV-400

[watsala]

Hello,

I have a EV-400 on a 40 foot, 12 ton sailing vessel. It is connected to a fairly old (20 years or more) 1/4 HP 12v reversing motor made by Pacific Scientific, which via a belt drives the hydraulic arm on the steering quadrant. I also have the rudder reference sensor fitted.

This has been working very well for the past few years. The last 3 times I have been sailiing, I have been going along under autopilot and then without warning get the message "Drive Stopped".

After this message I can re-engage the autopilot but it is unable to drive the reversing motor and nothing happens - accordingly the autopilot again disengages after about 20 seconds with the same message.

This happens under both sail and under motor, in calm and rough sea state.

I have check the batteries and the house bank which is is powered off is at about 13.1 volts (but solar was going in at the time).

When I get back to the dock, or to anchor I have been able to resolve this issue by taking the cover off the ACU-400 and probing the power and motor terminals with my multi meter. Without fail - it will then begin to drive the motor again.

A phone call to RM tech support suggested a brown out might be the case, but I tried resetting the circuit breaker to the ACU-400 and i70s - but the problem remained.

The way I have been fixing it is taking the cover off and probing the terminals. On the most recent episode I re-seated the wires going into the terminals as well.

I am of a mind to splice in a terminal block at the motor end of the cable coming from the ACU-400 so I can easily probe the voltage at the motor too.

DO you have any other suggests please?

Thank you,

Watsala