Adjusting Heading alignment ST6001

[drbridge]

A couple of years ago my E12122 auto pilot Computer had a problem and I had to have it repaired.
When I reinstalled it I went through the compass calibration procedure running the boat in circles and all that. The auto pilot has worked well since, with the exception that the heading alignment has been off by about 5 to 7 degrees ever since. the chart plotter shows the course correctly and the boat follows the course, but it always shows the boat slightly turned to starboard. I am not sure if this effects the performance of the auto pilot, but it always bugs me and I would like to fix it.
My manual say "After completing the initial compass calibration, you can make further adjustments to the alignment without having to swing the compass again".
The manual does not go on to say how to do this with out swinging the compass again. I have a hard time finding a day where the water conditions, currents and wind conditions are suitable for swinging the compass. It would be great if I could figure out how to fine tune the heading alignment with out having to swing the compass. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Doug

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Doug,

As you have suggested, the relatively smaller heading error reported should not affect the autopilot's performance, but may affect other heading dependent features such as you have reported. The detailed procedure for aligning the compass heading is specified on page 30 within the section titled "Aligning the compass heading" of the SmartPilot Commissioning Guide.

[drbridge]

Hi Chuck
I thought I would report back on this issue just in case someone else might have the same problem.

Last week we took a trip out to the San Juan islands and it was great weather, so I had good opportunities during slack tides to do the compass calibrations. I did the circles again and adjusted the heading, but when I was done the results were the same with heading being off by 5 to 20 degrees. After studying the situation further I discovered that my course on ground was set to true North. Since the heading as far as I can see Must be set to magnetic north as it gets it's signal from the fluxgate compass, I switched the course on ground to magnetic north. At that Point I needed to align the heading again. I found that I could align the heading without doing the circles over. The manual had stated that this could be done, but did not specify how. I found by trial and error that when you go through the compass calibration mode all you have to do is keep pressing "display" rather than the "+1" that puts you in to doing the circles and you can skip directly to "align the compass". Once I had both course on ground and heading set to magnetic they aligned very nicely and now the system is working perfect. The new Ray Star 130 GPS that I installed is also working very nicely and I am happy to have the complete system working as it should.

Thanks again for your help.

Doug

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

You're welcome.