Auto pilot opinions

Hi all... stumbled across this topic... good timing. So just bought a new 27 foot Hewescraft Alaskan... twin 200HP Yamaha, and 25 HP Kicker. Has the Seastar steering. (hydraulic)... I have bought all my electronics, installing 3 Garmin GPSMAP942 MFD's, Garmin Radar, back up camera, external GPS antenna, Fusion Radio and doubled up on the transducers in the event one fails or tear one off on a log or kelp bed.... was thinking of the autopilot while I was at it... the Garmin set up that appears to work is 5700 bucks... ouch... but I am not sold 100% on having it. One question... if I have a route that is logged with the popcorn trails, like a circle or odd shaped oval in a certain bay or around an island... can the autopilot then retrace and track that route once I have driven it once? Or will the system only do point a-point b and preset patterns as it seems to have? Anyone who has the newest set up could chime in.. that would be great. I know it would be great while putting out the lines and retrieving them if I have unexperienced boaters with me... but 5700.... not sure? Thanks in advance for all the upcoming comments.
 
ronj said:
Hi all... stumbled across this topic... good timing. So just bought a new 27 foot Hewescraft Alaskan... twin 200HP Yamaha, and 25 HP Kicker. Has the Seastar steering. (hydraulic)... I have bought all my electronics, installing 3 Garmin GPSMAP942 MFD's, Garmin Radar, back up camera, external GPS antenna, Fusion Radio and doubled up on the transducers in the event one fails or tear one off on a log or kelp bed.... was thinking of the autopilot while I was at it... the Garmin set up that appears to work is 5700 bucks... ouch... but I am not sold 100% on having it. One question... if I have a route that is logged with the popcorn trails, like a circle or odd shaped oval in a certain bay or around an island... can the autopilot then retrace and track that route once I have driven it once? Or will the system only do point a-point b and preset patterns as it seems to have? Anyone who has the newest set up could chime in.. that would be great. I know it would be great while putting out the lines and retrieving them if I have unexperienced boaters with me... but 5700.... not sure? Thanks in advance for all the upcoming comments.
Click to expand...
I have the Reactor 40 Autopilot (w/ remote) along with a 7610xsv, 24” Fantom Radome, and two transducers. Also have the Garmin AIS VHF radio. The autopilot leverages the chartplotter capability to navigate between waypoints. You can choose to create a path on the plotter between a series of waypoints and select to have the autopilot engaged to take you there. Or you can use the auto guidance feature and your chartplotter will calculate a navigable path to your intended destination. The autopilot will automatically prompt you if you would like to have it engaged to follow the path ... so you can choose to manually navigate if you prefer. When using the autopilot, you can always intervene when necessary along the way. And Garmin is careful to remind you that someone must always be navigating at the helm ready to take control if necessary. The autopilot will not avoid crab/prawn traps, logs, boats, or other undocumented navigation hazards.

The autopilot kit comes with a Shadow Drive which seems fairly unique to the Garmin system compared to others. It will sense if the wheel is turned and will disengage the autopilot temporarily. Once you let go of the wheel, the autopilot re-engages. The downside is this adds complexity to the hydraulic line installation. In my case, I preferred to minimize my hydraulic cables so completed the install without the Shadow Drive. You can still grab the wheel and turn to avoid unanticipated objects. The only difference is that when you let go of the wheel, the autopilot will return to the previous course you were on. With the Shadow Drive in place, my understanding is the Autopilot will re-engage on the new heading that the boat is on. I’m not sure how that plays out if it is navigating the boat to a specific destination along a configured path. For my purposes, that particular feature didn’t seem worth the extra installation complexity. But you will hear from others that have the Shadow Drive installed and are very pleased with it.

One comment on the cost ... it’s worth it and is very comparable to the cost of other autopilot brands when you compare equivalent capability and final installation cost. Raymarine proprietary cabling and their outdated legacy remote control bring the cost of their ‘fully installed’ autopilot very close to that of the Garmin. The difference is, Garmin provides you everything you need to complete the installation including cables of reasonable lengths (6’ each) when you purchase the kit. Raymarine gives you a few extremely short cables (18”) that almost certainly will not be long enough forcing you to buy replacements at proprietary pricing. They are the only brand I’m aware of that has created a proprietary NMEA 2000 cabling system to prevent you from using industry standard cabling. So you need to get adapters to integrate into the standard NMEA2K backbone on your Garmin. And the $500 Raymarine remote control cannot be installed / used without buying an additional ‘conversion kit‘ for $140 creating a nest of legacy cabling. Many distributors are completely unaware of required conversion kit for the remote - it’s only when the install can’t be completed that it comes to light. The Garmin remote is more advanced, lists for approx. $320 CAD, and wirelessly connects to your chartplotter. No cables required.
 
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Saratoga said:
I have the Reactor 40 Autopilot (w/ remote) along with a 7610xsv, 24” Fantom Radome, and two transducers. Also have the Garmin AIS VHF radio. The autopilot leverages the chartplotter capability to navigate between waypoints. You can choose to create a path on the plotter between a series of waypoints and select to have the autopilot engaged to take you there. Or you can use the auto guidance feature and your chartplotter will calculate a navigable path to your intended destination. The autopilot will automatically prompt you if you would like to have it engaged to follow the path ... so you can choose to manually navigate if you prefer. When using the autopilot, you can always intervene when necessary along the way. And Garmin is careful to remind you that someone must always be navigating at the helm ready to take control if necessary. The autopilot will not avoid crab/prawn traps, logs, boats, or other undocumented navigation hazards.

The autopilot kit comes with a Shadow Drive which seems fairly unique to the Garmin system compared to others. It will sense if the wheel is turned and will disengage the autopilot temporarily. Once you let go of the wheel, the autopilot re-engages. The downside is this adds complexity to the hydraulic line installation. In my case, I preferred to minimize my hydraulic cables so completed the install without the Shadow Drive. You can still grab the wheel and turn to avoid unanticipated objects. The only difference is that when you let go of the wheel, the autopilot will return to the previous course you were on. With the Shadow Drive in place, my understanding is the Autopilot will re-engage on the new heading that the boat is on. I’m not sure how that plays out if it is navigating the boat to a specific destination along a configured path. For my purposes, that particular feature didn’t seem worth the extra installation complexity. But you will hear from others that have the Shadow Drive installed and are very pleased with it.

Once comment on the cost ... it’s worth it and is very comparable to the cost of other autopilot brands when you compare equivalent capability and final installation cost. Raymarine proprietary cabling and their outdated legacy remote control bring the cost of their ‘fully installed’ autopilot very close to that of the Garmin. The difference is, Garmin provides you everything you need to complete the installation including cables of reasonable lengths (6’ each) when you purchase the kit. Raymarine gives you a few extremely short cables (18”) that almost certainly will not be long enough forcing you to buy replacements at proprietary pricing. They are the only brand I’m aware of that has created a proprietary NMEA 2000 cabling system to prevent you from using industry standard cabling. So you need to get adapters to integrate into the standard NMEA2K backbone on your Garmin. And the $500 Raymarine remote control cannot be installed / used without buying an additional ‘conversion kit‘ for $140 creating a nest of legacy cabling. Many distributors are completely unaware of required conversion kit for the remote - it’s only when the install can’t be completed that it comes to light. The Garmin remote is more advanced, lists for approx. $320 CAD, and wirelessly connects to your chartplotter. No cables
Click to expand...
Simrad has that same shadow drive option your talking about they call it Steady steer..... it’s actually a very simple installation for simrad and I’m pretty sure it’s the exact same flow switch if I’m not mistaken ? Wire it up and either install it on a port or starboard line...I’ve had my eye on it for a couple months now it haven’t pulled the trigger yet lol.
 
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Saratoga said:
I have the Reactor 40 Autopilot (w/ remote) along with a 7610xsv, 24” Fantom Radome, and two transducers. Also have the Garmin AIS VHF radio. The autopilot leverages the chartplotter capability to navigate between waypoints. You can choose to create a path on the plotter between a series of waypoints and select to have the autopilot engaged to take you there. Or you can use the auto guidance feature and your chartplotter will calculate a navigable path to your intended destination. The autopilot will automatically prompt you if you would like to have it engaged to follow the path ... so you can choose to manually navigate if you prefer. When using the autopilot, you can always intervene when necessary along the way. And Garmin is careful to remind you that someone must always be navigating at the helm ready to take control if necessary. The autopilot will not avoid crab/prawn traps, logs, boats, or other undocumented navigation hazards.

The autopilot kit comes with a Shadow Drive which seems fairly unique to the Garmin system compared to others. It will sense if the wheel is turned and will disengage the autopilot temporarily. Once you let go of the wheel, the autopilot re-engages. The downside is this adds complexity to the hydraulic line installation. In my case, I preferred to minimize my hydraulic cables so completed the install without the Shadow Drive. You can still grab the wheel and turn to avoid unanticipated objects. The only difference is that when you let go of the wheel, the autopilot will return to the previous course you were on. With the Shadow Drive in place, my understanding is the Autopilot will re-engage on the new heading that the boat is on. I’m not sure how that plays out if it is navigating the boat to a specific destination along a configured path. For my purposes, that particular feature didn’t seem worth the extra installation complexity. But you will hear from others that have the Shadow Drive installed and are very pleased with it.

One comment on the cost ... it’s worth it and is very comparable to the cost of other autopilot brands when you compare equivalent capability and final installation cost. Raymarine proprietary cabling and their outdated legacy remote control bring the cost of their ‘fully installed’ autopilot very close to that of the Garmin. The difference is, Garmin provides you everything you need to complete the installation including cables of reasonable lengths (6’ each) when you purchase the kit. Raymarine gives you a few extremely short cables (18”) that almost certainly will not be long enough forcing you to buy replacements at proprietary pricing. They are the only brand I’m aware of that has created a proprietary NMEA 2000 cabling system to prevent you from using industry standard cabling. So you need to get adapters to integrate into the standard NMEA2K backbone on your Garmin. And the $500 Raymarine remote control cannot be installed / used without buying an additional ‘conversion kit‘ for $140 creating a nest of legacy cabling. Many distributors are completely unaware of required conversion kit for the remote - it’s only when the install can’t be completed that it comes to light. The Garmin remote is more advanced, lists for approx. $320 CAD, and wirelessly connects to your chartplotter. No cables required.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info.... I think I may have to order this kit. Steveston Marine has 15% off regular items.. drops it to under 5K..... I guess its only money, and as far as I know they print it every day... just need to get my share of it. LOL! Thanks... autopilot it is!
 
Hahaha! I am thinking likewise, may as well use a bit of cash in hand, inflation is going to make that 5K seem like nothing after a couple of years!
 
Best $5k you will ever spend. With Covid you are saving tonnes on not being able to travel to expensive sun vacation destinations so consider this an investment in your boating sanity.
 
pescador said:
www.gpscentral.ca

Garmin Compact Reactor 40 Hydraulic Autopilot with GHC 20 and...

Find the Garmin Compact Reactor 40 Hydraulic Autopilot with GHC 20 and Shadow Drive Pack (010-00705-08) at GPSCentral.ca. Find it at GPSCentral.ca today! Shop online in Canada & save!
www.gpscentral.ca www.gpscentral.ca

Why do I need to spend $5K when I can get this? I’m running a main and a kicker. Won’t this work?
Click to expand...
I would just verify that the 1.0 litre pump will have sufficient capacity for your hydraulic system. You need to determine the volume of your steering cylinder and whether it’s single or dual to determine the correct pump (Seastar has the specs on their website). It’s very important that the pump is not undersized. If your steering cylinder volume is at the threshold between two sizes, get the larger size. Garmin has 1.0, 1.2, and 2.0 litre pumps. In my case, I needed the 1.2 L pump. So I got the kit without the pump and then added the pump separately. Garmin has a cross reference sheet on their website once you have the info.
 
Hey guy's this is a great topic as I want to install autopilot in my boat as well. My ideal system would be to use the Seastar pilot pump

Boat

Dometic helps you meet your essential needs at sea. Like cooking, keeping food fresh, taking care of personal hygiene and much more. Our comprehensive range of comfort systems are designed to withstand harsh marine environments, maximize use of limited space, and enable you to stay on your boat...
www.seastarsolutions.com www.seastarsolutions.com

The reason being I already have the Seastar power assist installed and this unit would bolt right up to it which would save having to deal with hoses.

I have all Lowrance so I would be looking at connecting the NAC-1 to my system

www.lowrance.com

NAC-1 Autopilot Computer | Lowrance USA

Autopilot computer for hydraulic and cable-steered vessels up to 9 metres/30 feet in length.
www.lowrance.com www.lowrance.com

Question I have is are the two units compatible from the picture the NAC-1 plug to the drive shows a 4 pin Connector while the pump only has two wires.

Does anybody have this system? Does it work? how are they connected electrically?
 
Great thread, lots of good info.

Is it possible to run a simrad op12 controller with a lowrance ap ?
 
tannerc said:
Great thread, lots of good info.

Is it possible to run a simrad op12 controller with a lowrance ap ?
Click to expand...
When I installed my unit, no simrad is not compatable with lowrance for all the nav features. But things are constantly evolving so best to drop into a dealer for quality advice. That said, I control the AP from either the Simrad controller or my remote FOB. The main features I use are holding course when I'm running the fishing gear, or during long transits from point to point. There are some really cool contour following functions on some units, but that's way beyond my pea brain.
 
I Did it!..... ordered the Garmin Reactor 40 with smart pump today... with the discount that Steveston Marine is offering, I got the whole package including another 4" screen for 4590 plus taxes..... should be a good fun install... as soon as we see some decent temps out here. All the research showed me that this was the superior system and certainly made sense running the three 942's we will be putting in. Lots of wiring coming up!
thanks for the info on this thread... made a lot of sense.!
 
So I just picked up my auto pilot. It was described to me as plug and play. Not exactly...does anyone have a good electronics guy they want to tell me about? It's a bit complex for a carpenter.
 
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