Adjusting The Rudder Gain - Raymarine ST290 Owner's Handbook Manual

81183_2 S8.book Page 23 Tuesday, May 6, 2003 9:08 AM
Chapter 2: Autopilot Operation

2.9 Adjusting the rudder gain

WARNING:
1. Incorrect rudder gain values on planing craft will lead to poor
steering performance and can be dangerous at high speeds. You
must set the rudder gain correctly.
2. If you increase the rudder gain setting on a 150G or 400G
autopilot, you must also increase the counter rudder setting.
Note: Although the rudder gain feature is available on all systems, you
should not need to adjust the rudder gain setting on 150G or 400G auto-
pilot systems once AutoLearn has been completed (see Section 8,
Chapter 4).
On T150 and T400 (non-GyroPlus) systems, you can make temporary
adjustments to rudder gain to change the autopilot's steering
characteristics. Rudder gain is a measure of how much helm the autopilot
will apply to correct course errors (see Figure 2-20 ):
•
•
•
Figure 2-20: The effect of incorrect Rudder Gain settings
Note: See Section 8, Chapter 5 for a full explanation of rudder gain and
how to adjust it correctly.
ST290 Instrument System Owner's Handbook
If rudder gain is adjusted correctly, the course changes should result
in a crisp turn followed by an overshoot of no more than 5°
If rudder gain is too high, courses change will result in a distinct over-
shoot ( )
A
If rudder gain is too low, the boat will feel sluggish – it will take a long
time to make the turn and there will be no overshoot (
Rudder gain
too low
Rudder gain
B
New
heading
B
New
heading
A
too high
Correct
rudder gain
8-2-23
)
New
heading
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