Dave, Interested why you feel the current unit needs to be replaced. We put the ray system you have on Perception our 33-ll 3 years ago when we upgraded our electronics so far it’s performed as well as the Navico wheel pilot it replaced, and as Dennis has said they work well! With our short season I could not justify the expense and effort to put in the octopus unit, which I really wanted to use.
Used the saved funds towards the rest of the electronics upgrade. Paul ________________________________ From: CnC-List <cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com> on behalf of Dave S via CnC-List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Sent: Saturday, October 12, 2019 11:13:56 AM To: C&c Stus List <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> Cc: Dave S <syerd...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Stus-List Raymarine to octopus drive upgrade - UPDATE Had an exchange (after some effort) with the folks at octopus drives and here’s the result: The boat is a 1985 C&c 33 mkii, and it displaces around 10,000 lbs. it is currently fitted with a 2015 Raymarine ev100 wheelpilot system. This system includes a control unit - the acu-100 - which can provide 7A of current to a drive unit. the acu-100 has provision for a rudder position sensor, but one is not currently installed. It does not have electrical connections for a clutch. I am not happy with the wheel drive for a variety of reasons and would like to install a below-deck linear drive. Unfortunately, Most larger and especially hydraulic drives require more than the 7A current available from the ev-100, meaning I would have to upgrade to a larger unit (acu) in addition to acquiring the drive itself and hardware. It appears however that the octopus RS drive is designed more or less for this sort of application, though I do have some questions and have been unable to find consistent application information. -Is this drive compatible with the Raymarine system described above? No it is not, I believe the EV100 does not have a solenoid/clutch output.. though the 7A max is no problem the EV200 would be the minimum requirement -how does the clutch engage/disengage electrically? Would assume 12v either engages or disengages the clutch, and this could be accomplished with a switch if necessary. Engaged and disengaged by the ECU Is it even necessary given the “joggle the wheel” clutch disengagement feature of the RS drive? (You could have the clutch engaged by the motor voltage, then disengage manually in the absence of that voltage, if I understand correctly) It still requires a joggle of the wheel to disengage the pin activated by the solenoid - is this the drive your experts would recommend for this application? Is there a better option? This is the preferred drive for smaller displacement sailboats due to its lower amp draw and less wheel resistance compared to the hydraulic linear drives -Any other advice? Upgrade to a EV200 or any other pilot with clutch/solenoid output
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