S1 Autopilot

[Talisman]

I have had problems with my Raymarine ST4000 Autopilot for some time. I have an opportunity to get a Raymarine S1 at a good price and I am wondering what the experience is of others with this Autopilot.

I also understand from Raymarine that the installation should not be difficult since the fluxgate compass the wheel drive and the rudder position device are the same. Let me know if anyone has installed it and had good or bad experience with the installation.

Enrique
Talisman, '98 MK2 Hull #1673
Sailing out of Essex, CT

[billta]

Talisman,

I installed my S1 last year. I reported on it in the old forum. Open the old forum, go to the "sharing advice on maintainence" thread, scroll down and you will see my entries. The hardest part was installing the rudder sensor. Otherwise it was a fairly normal installation. If you already have the equipment indicated it should be fairly simple for you. Also, there are many entries in the old forum about the S-1's. Just search for them. There are pictures that I took too. You may have to install Adobe Flash Player if you don't have already so you will be able to view them.
My old Autohelm 4000 was the pits. You will enjoy the S-1.

Bill

[LCBrandt]

Much of what I wrote in my Installing a Below Deck Autopilot article now published at http://www.c36ia.com/node/1335 is applicable to a wheel-mounted autopilot. Of special interest may be the method I used of mounting the rudder position sensor, which is well documented in the article.

[Rob Kyles]

Hi. We had no room in our lazarette, so we did a bit of cutting and installed thus:

http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt70/rob_k99/Projects/th_DSCF4372.jpg (http://s598.photobucket.com/albums/tt70/rob_k99/Projects/?action=view&current=DSCF4372.jpg)
http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt70/rob_k99/Projects/th_DSCF4373.jpg (http://s598.photobucket.com/albums/tt70/rob_k99/Projects/?action=view&current=DSCF4373.jpg)
http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt70/rob_k99/Projects/th_DSCF4375.jpg (http://s598.photobucket.com/albums/tt70/rob_k99/Projects/?action=view&current=DSCF4375.jpg)

You won't regret doing this install, the autopilot is great!

[stu jackson c34]

You may be interested in this: http://forums.catalina.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?t=105830

Scroll up to the start from page one, read both pages.

[Elliott S. Milstein]

I just started calibrating my newly installed S-1 autopilot. Does anyone have advice on settings for Gain and any other settings for it? The calibration of the unit has been straightforward so far but I am interested in the experiences of others in the boat-specific settings.

Thank you,
Elliott
Collaboration #1469
MkII 1995
Port Annapolis Marina