autopilot failure
 

I posted a question here last week about my autopilot failing and for some
strange reason, it never showed up on my Road Runner server, so tonight, I
looked on google groups and saw that I indeed had 3 replies...it STILL isn't
on the RR server.

First of all, thanks Tom, Jim and Karl for the replies. I will try
everything you suggested before I turn it over to the mechanics. Secondly,
Karl had the following reply:

Check the power, as noted.

These units come apart fairly easily; I have had to open mine up and
resolder a few of the connections as vibration causes them to go "cold" and
contact becomes intermittent.


I'm curious Karl, what part of the unit are you talking about opening up?
Do you mean the "control unit" or the "junction box"? I'm fairly handy with
a soldering iron, but since my boat is a 4 hour drive from my home and I
only get to go there every 3rd weekend, I want to be as prepared as possible
when I go back. Were the cold solder joints obvious or did you need to test
them with an ohm meter? Are there lots of them? Are they on a circuit
board?

Thanks again to all of you who responded and thanks in advance if you have
any additional info to add!

Gary

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 01:40:02 GMT, "Gary"
wrote:

I posted a question here last week about my autopilot failing and for some
strange reason, it never showed up on my Road Runner server, so tonight, I
looked on google groups and saw that I indeed had 3 replies...it STILL isn't
on the RR server.

First of all, thanks Tom, Jim and Karl for the replies. I will try
everything you suggested before I turn it over to the mechanics. Secondly,
Karl had the following reply:

Check the power, as noted.

These units come apart fairly easily; I have had to open mine up and
resolder a few of the connections as vibration causes them to go "cold" and
contact becomes intermittent.

I'm curious Karl, what part of the unit are you talking about opening up?
Do you mean the "control unit" or the "junction box"? I'm fairly handy with
a soldering iron, but since my boat is a 4 hour drive from my home and I
only get to go there every 3rd weekend, I want to be as prepared as possible
when I go back. Were the cold solder joints obvious or did you need to test
them with an ohm meter? Are there lots of them? Are they on a circuit
board?

Thanks again to all of you who responded and thanks in advance if you have
any additional info to add!

Normally, solder joints on cables and circuit boards are shiny or
nearly so. A "cold" joint will not be shiny and will have a dull
leaden appearance.

Circuit boards can be touchy about a bad joint - you need to see if
the solder has lifted off the pad or the pad has lifted off the board
or even if the solder had penetrated all the way through the pad when
it was soldered.

If you don't have a lot of experience looking at circuit boards, and
it would appear than you don't, then I'd just look at the cables, any
places where cables are soldered to the circuit board, clean the
connectors, make sure they are properly soldered if at all (some might
be crimped connectors), trace the wiring back to check for breaks, you
might want to use a VOM to check continuity if you can, do as much as
you can, then call the help if you are still stuck.

Good luck.

Take care.

Tom

"The beatings will stop when morale improves."
E. Teach, 1717