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Experience with Raymarine EV-1 Autopilot?

T

tboussie

New member
I am shopping for an above-deck tiller pilot for a Capo 30 (similar to Olson 911S). I am looking at the Raymarine EV-1 unit, but I would like to talk with someone with experience with this new unit before I commit. My chief concern is the dumbing down of the basic control unit to three settings (Leisure, Cruising, Race), the burying of more detailed setting controls under multiple pages of UI, and the heavy marketing to powerboat operators. What little independent info from sailors that I have found on the Web has not been encouraging.

Does anyone out there have real-world sailing experience with this unit? Suggestions for alternatives for an above-deck tiller installation?

Tom
 
I have the EV-1, but with a linear wheel drive. Boat is Tartan 4100, so heavier. Comparison might not be valid, but for what it's worth...
I came from a Raymarine Autohelm and it is a great improvement over that, both up and down wind. Great for the bay. However, I felt the need to hand steer the whole time coming back from the Doublehanded Farallones (25-30 kts and a good swell running from behind). Net/net good, but not a panacea or exactly like those NKE Vendee Globe brochures. :)
 
sunol said:
I have the EV-1, but with a linear wheel drive. Boat is Tartan 4100, so heavier. Comparison might not be valid, but for what it's worth...
I came from a Raymarine Autohelm and it is a great improvement over that, both up and down wind. Great for the bay. However, I felt the need to hand steer the whole time coming back from the Doublehanded Farallones (25-30 kts and a good swell running from behind). Net/net good, but not a panacea or exactly like those NKE Vendee Globe brochures. :)
Click to expand...
The return from the Farallones would have been a challenge with any AP unless maybe you had a big hydraulic RAM or a nice long keel to keep the boat dynamics to a controllable level.

Brian
 
I bought an EV-1 kit from Raytheon before the '14 SHTP. Mainly to get another ST4000 ram. Never did install the weird looking white steering thingie as I was afraid it wouldn't interface with my ST-50 instrumentation. I'm using the 6002 control head and the belowdeck brain. Any advice as to how the white steering gizmo would interface? I've been pretty happy with their AP system, but looks like they've abandoned me! I have interfaced some ST-60 items, but I heard the anemometer transducer for the ST-60 won't interface with my ST-50 instrument without modification of some sort (beyond my capability, I suppose). I was able to repair my ST-50 masthead transducer, so have an unusable spare...i guess I could work an ST60 wind gauge into my ST50 system. just more money, which might be wasted? Looking for Bay Area advice...you people are always on the cutting edge....????
 
I just bought an EV-200 system (without drive unit) at Defender's Warehouse Sale. I also bought RM's Seatalk 1 to Seatalk NG adapter so the new AP will talk to my old ST60/60+ instruments and X-5 AP (if I keep it installed as a backup).

If you believe the hype, that new 9-axis heading sensor is a big improvement over the old fluxgates we've been using. The adapter should let everything talk to each other and costs less than $100. It's RM P/N E22158.

Also, I have a spare ST60+ Wind display and an older (but new) Raytheon ST80 Wind display that is probably the same vintage as your ST5000 stuff. Both take the regular three-prong curved Raymarine plug. I'm happy to let you try them out - just tell me where to send them.
 
I used the EV-100 tiller pack to Hawaii and back. It was just "ok"
To get better performance from this pilot a speed input is very necessary as is a tiller position feedback sensor. It then works pretty well. I did interface it to my old ST50 instruments with the Seatalk to SeatalkNG adapter kit http://www.raymarine.com/view/?id=1597 which worked well. My ST50 wind transducer died but it is possible to plug the new ST60 wind transducer directly into the old masthead socket ...but the display must also be replaced..... the old cabling works with the new.
This all works for true and apparent if you have the seatalk to seatalk ng kit for communication with the old ST50 instruments.

So to summarize it is possible to get all the older ST50 stuff including the new white heading sensor and EV-100 pilot .... and gradually replace the ST50 stuff as it fails with ST60.

Have not tried the older pilot (6002) with the newer heading sensor. Dont know if that's possible.
 
Thanks. I had heard the ST60 transducer, while it will plug into the masthead socket, will not operate correctly with the ST50 display.
I'll look into the adapter kit. Sounds like just what I need. I do have a rudder reference device installed at my tiller. And Bob Johnson is going to send me an ST60 display. I think I have adapters to fit it into my daisy chain....
 
Harrier said:
Thanks. I had heard the ST60 transducer, while it will plug into the masthead socket, will not operate correctly with the ST50 display.
Click to expand...

That is correct Ken. The ST60 masthead needs the ST60 display. Just to be clear. But the existing masthead socket and wiring will plug into the new ST60 masthead and display. The network wiring will need the seatalk to seatalkng adapter.
 
Going back to the original poster's question, what about alternatives?
I went with Raymarine primarily because it plugged in to my legacy system... and would go that route again on a price for performance basis. But what about alternatives? Frankly, I haven't heard anything better about Garmin, Simrad or B&G. Although I agree with the posters comment about Raymarine seeming to target the powerboat market more and more.

Only alternative that consistently gets higher marks is NKE, but that performance comes at a steep price:
http://www.pyacht.com/nke-autopilots.htm
It's amazing to me that they can charge that much, mostly for software, in this digital age, but I guess they know their high-end market.

Then there is the whole open source route, which is a pretty serious time investment:
http://themarineinstallersrant.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-arduino-autopilot-that-jack-built.html
 
I'll just put a confirmation out there, that while NKE is bloody expensive compared to others, it does work really, really well. I've been looking for alternatives, but in the end if I were equip another boat for shorthanded ocean sailing (why would I do that???) I would get NKE again. I'd rather spend the coin on something that works than spend half the coin on something that doesn't.
 
The Raymarine works great and I know of many division and overall winners who have used them. Is the NKE system better, yes. Does it cost 3 to 4+ times the price for just one, yes.

Redundant systems and spares are the name of the game with any autopilot system(s) for a long distance singlehanded race so if you can't afford a good back up for the NKE I would much rather have several ST4000/X5s/Evo system on the ready...... which is what I have. Still need to install the EV-1 which has been sitting in the box as the X5 is doing fine.
 
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