Auto pilot and compass

[deblen]

The SiTex SP80 came on the market late 1990s.
It is an excellent pilot,built to SiTex's specs. by Comnav Marine.
I was a dealer/installer for Comnav (& others for many yrs)
I recommend leaving the SiTex compass connected as is.
The SP80,when set up and adjusted per the book-and with all it's ancillary parts tight & properly adjusted-is capable of steering your boat +/- 1deg. in reasonable conditions,like any pilot. It is also capable of steering your boat as well as any other pilot in any conditions.
It supplies an output of it's compass in 0183 format for use by other eqpt-plotter,radar,etc.
https://www.si-tex.com/uploads/sitex..._80_Manual.pdf

The SP80 & Comnavs are one of the few pilots that can provide up to 20amps to pumpsets & other drives,without having to buy interface boxes.



I also recommend leaving the existing "plotter" compass to feed the plotter/radar.This gives you redundancy.
You can try feeding the pilot compass 0183 output to your plotter/radar/etc. if you want.I don't know how you would select/switch plotter compass from it's own to that of the pilot.I doubt if any gear will accept 2 or more compass inputs simultaneously,or why you would want that-but I don't know.


For those interested,the SiTex link has some interesting GPS/SAT compass info,as well as,some excellent autopilot & drive info
Cheers/Len
https://www.si-tex.com/product/sp-80...utopilotsystem

[nrx500]

I used a Garmin GPS Map 1242 XSV from the time it came out in 2017 and a Garmin GHP Reactor Mechanical/Retrofit/Solenoid Corepack with a Garmin course computer and a Garmin Class A hydraulic autopilot. Everything connects on my NMEA 2000 network and it works flawlessly. I can make a buoy 60 miles away my waypoint and the autopilot takes the boat to it. I've sailed into an inlet in fog and was never off by more that 5 feet left or right of the course to the waypoint I set in the middle of the inlet. Could the problem be that your Si-Tex autopilot is not compatible with your 1242 XSV?