Bruce, The previous owner had a Robertson Autopilot installed on my boat with an Octopus hydraulic drive. The Robertson only worked intermittently and shipping it out to get serviced turned into a gigantic waste of money (one more year of use). So, I started shopping replacements.
I went with the Raymarine system, which will connect effortlessly to your hydraulic drive’s 4 wires. Everything is clearly labelled and even if you wire it backwards, the setup mode on the Raymarine p70 will correct that internally. I did my first real test a few weeks ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl_2lh8JhyI <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl_2lh8JhyI> Works incredibly well. I can’t recommend the Raymarine system enough. I still have to connect it to my Raymarine e95 MFD to round out the system, but high temperatures last weekend made the prospect of running another network cable down my binnacle prohibitive (I’d be a puddle in the cockpit), but that is the next step. All the best, Edd Edd M. Schillay Starship Enterprise C&C 37+ | Sail No: NCC-1701-B City Island, NY Starship Enterprise's Captain's Log <http://enterpriseb.blogspot.com/> Enterprise’s YouTube Channel — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOgsTCs2akqxThptvm_Zxyw <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOgsTCs2akqxThptvm_Zxyw> > On Jun 12, 2017, at 9:17 PM, Bruce Whitmore via CnC-List > <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > > Hello all, > > I think I'm going to succumb and replace our Navico PH8000 autopilot. It is > outdated to the point there are no replacement parts, the display on the > wired controller is faded, and I just can't seem to get it to cooperate. Oh > well, something had to substantially exceed the budget for upgrades... I've > been pretty lucky so far thanks to many of you! > > So, I have a couple questions: > > 1). The hydraulic ram works well, with no leaks. I would just as soon not > retrofit a different one. Is this reasonable and possible? > > 2). We have Raymarine instrumentation throughout the boat, including a C90 > MFD at the helm. Does this drive the decision to go with Raymarine for the > autopilot as well? > > 3). What is your favorite (and least favorite) autopilot and why? > > Interestingly, I'm having a hard time finding an authoritative, recent review > on autopilots. Does anyone know of a link to a good review> As a side note, > I'm just finding the C90 difficult to learn. I had been used to Garmin, and > just found it so intuitive, that the Raymarine is like trying to learn > another language. > > Thanks for the help! > > Bruce Whitmore > 1994 C&C 37/40+, "Astralis" > Madiera Beach, FL > (847) 404-5092 (mobile) > bwhitm...@sbcglobal.net > _______________________________________________ > > This list is supported by the generous donations of our members. If you wish > to make a contribution to offset our costs, please go to: > https://www.paypal.me/stumurray > > All Contributions are greatly appreciated!
_______________________________________________ This list is supported by the generous donations of our members. If you wish to make a contribution to offset our costs, please go to: https://www.paypal.me/stumurray All Contributions are greatly appreciated!
