Compass Heading

[tuberider]

after i spun my autopilot compass i adjusted it to read the heading on my stand alone dash compass. why is it when i change my direction the autopilot heading reading takes a while to catch up with my dash compass heading.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by tuberider

after i spun my autopilot compass i adjusted it to read the heading on my stand alone dash compass. why is it when i change my direction the autopilot heading reading takes a while to catch up with my dash compass heading.

That sounds very fishy. What brand and type is the autopilot?

cheers,
Nick.

[Paul Elliott]

Electronic (flux gate) compasses have a "damping" factor that you can often change. A high damping value will cause sluggish compass response, but a steadier reading. That's how it's supposed to work, since it's harder to read rapidly-changing digits than it is to read a rotating mechanical compass card.

Your compass could have a problem, but look for a damping or filtering option and play with that before you panic.

[tuberider]

i've spun lots of autopilots,usually raymarine, and they all do that. i just assumed that the time it takes the autopilot to tell the control head has to be slower then seeing it instantly on the mechanical spinning compass. especially with sea talk. maybe with the new ng cables and control head the response time would be faster.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by tuberider

i've spun lots of autopilots,usually raymarine, and they all do that. i just assumed that the time it takes the autopilot to tell the control head has to be slower then seeing it instantly on the mechanical spinning compass. especially with sea talk. maybe with the new ng cables and control head the response time would be faster.

I have never seen that but also never used Raymarine AP. If this s true, they will be slow to adapt to correct course. My Robertson gets heading input from the sensors 10 times every second!

cheers,
Nick.