EV-100 Auto Pilot Install

[Obelix]

Hi Russ,
To make the steering adjustable, I cut a piece off the cross-rod, created a threated insert inside the tube and used a rod-end to adjust the rudder distance (Rod-end is McMaster-Carr PN# 2434K51).



Obelix

[Russ]

Hi Russ,
To make the steering adjustable, I cut a piece off the cross-rod, created a threated insert inside the tube and used a rod-end to adjust the rudder distance (Rod-end is McMaster-Carr PN# 2434K51).



Obelix

Brilliant! Another thing Macgregor should have made standard.

[BOAT]

Did you sacrifice an old tiller for that line route block system?
Looks like the connecting rod (between rudders) is attached to your new arm. Is that correct?
how did you make that "cage trap"? How did you attach it to the aluminum tiller arm?
The photo above appears the existing steering linkage is aft of the tie bar.
--Russ

Answers to your questions:
1. the wood for the pulleys is just a piece of mahogany from the local Home Depot here in Oceanside. I just cut it with a saw and sanded it and slopped on some varnish in case some water from the rudder rope splashed onto the wood. It's not clear in the picture; but, the wood is actually far away from the rudder rope and the rope and wood are not even close to touching each other so it should not see any sea water but I varnished it just in case:

In the picture it looks like the rudder rope is 'bent' around the wood piece but in reality there is a full inch and a quarter clearance between the rope and the wood. You just can't tell in the picture.

As for the cage "trap" it's just a 1-1/4 inch EMT set screw connector. Depending on the size of the ram ball you use a 1" or even a 1-1/2" EMT connector would do. Use a cheap Harbor Freight electric hand grinder to carve in the slot for the ball trap. The slot would be the shape of a cross:

Also, this flat aluminum peice just sits on top of the existing tiller arm. NOTHING in the existing stock steering is changed in ANY way.

Let me be clear: the stock factory steering system is still there exactly as it was operating exactly the way it did before - NO CHANGES were made to the stock steering. All I did was bolt a flat piece of aluminum ON TOP of the starboard tiller arm using the same two bolts that are already there. That flat piece makes the connection to the linear drive and also give the drive an extra 1-1/2 inch of leverage so it's within the RayMarine specs.

Nothing at all was changed on the existing stock steering - I only bolted a flat extension to one tiller arm - that's it.

Here you can see that the tie bar and tiller arms and cable linkage are all still attached to the same places they were before:

Again, NO CHANGES are made to the stock steering system. You can also see that because of the way the factory has the rudder axle nearly an inch in front of the rope tube that there was lots of room to mount my pulleys without even getting close to the rudder ropes.

All in all it's a very simple system, the hardest part of the installation was removing the old tachometer and I needed catigales help to get it out of the pedestal. (Thanks catigale!). The rest was all geometry.

.

[Russ]

Well done BOAT. I love your use of simplicity.

I didn't recognize the "EMT set screw connector". In fact, I wouldn't even know what to call it. Good to know all these parts are available at a box store.

So you bolted it on top. Nice. I don't have access to my boat (or steering) right now to look.
Okay....so if Vic doesn't have a product by Spring, I'm doing this. In fact, I may do it anyway simply for the cool Raymarine electronics and display. I haven't seen Vic's.

What makes this brilliant is the decouple mechanism. I don't want a full time rod attached. Even the bagel bugs me with the sound it makes because it's bolted on the wheel.

Nice. Nice documentation.

--Russ

[BOAT]

EMT Set Screw connector is in the electrical section at any home depot like store. Get a good one made of real metal, not pot metal or zinc die cast. You need to match your ball to the fitting so the two should be fabricated together - find a ball that fits one of the many sizes of EMT fittings that are available. The two need to go together. I used a ball because I was not sure if the linear drive rod RayMarine provided would turn under operation. If your drive rod does not spin or turn under operation then you can use a yoke or plug to make the connection. When I got my unit I noticed that I could turn the stainless steel rod sticking out of the drive so I was afraid a yoke might rotate under operation and get a yoke sideways so I used a ball that would work no matter how the rod turned. Otherwise a yoke would work just as well and would be easier to fabricate. Use a yoke just like the one Obelix suggested two posts above.

The yoke Obelix suggested for adjusting the tie bar was exactly how I was going to do the trap before I realized the drive rod could rotate, otherwise I would have used a yoke just like that as they do on airplanes. (On ships they use a pinion).

[Russ]

1. the wood for the pulleys is just a piece of mahogany from the local Home Depot here in Oceanside. I just cut it with a saw and sanded it and slopped on some varnish in case some water from the rudder rope splashed onto the wood. It's not clear in the picture; but, the wood is actually far away from the rudder rope and the rope and wood are not even close to touching each other so it should not see any sea water but I varnished it just in case:

Beautiful piece of wood. Your carpentry skills are excellent as well. Looks like a hand crafted tiller part. Shame it's hidden behind the scenes and nobody can see how nice it looks.

[mastreb]

BOAT--you should make a kit with all this stuff pre-fabbed and installation instructions so people can just buy the EV-100 and your kit to do the install exactly the way you did it.

If I wind up keeping my Mac, I'll convert my bagel to your tiller system.

[BOAT]

Basic Troll Skills Russ,
all Troll children are taught Basic Troll Skills in Troll school when they are very young. Actually my elementary school scores in basic bridge building and trap door fabrication were pretty bad. You guys just never see my fails.

Here is an example - I made the pulley block upside down the first time, and also missed the hole on the first drive block I made, see here:

This photo brings up a good point: as you can see the drive block is just a peice of wood that slides between liner and the hull, (hull? deck? whatever that part of the boat it is - I think it's a motor well).

The ONLY hole in the boat on this install is the little one you see in the above picture where the rope ball comes out. And that hole must be close enough to the rudder rope hole to make sure it's inside the plastic tube the factory put in.

That rope goes down the tube and comes out like this:

As you can see no ropes are touching the wood and the two ropes are not touching each other.

The drive block is NOT attached to the hull or the deck! No fiberglassing is needed and no holes in the boat, only the liner. The liner is thick and plenty strong in this location to support the driver block with this plate:

You just need to sandwich the liner between the driver block and a bolt plate (screw plate). Cut out a rectangle and slide the wood up between the liner and hull. The liner is thick there, but the gel coat on the liner would crack around the screw heads without the plate.

I did poor in troll school but I did score pretty good on general grumpiness and was voted most likely to be annoying.

[seahouse]

I'll just quickly pop in here to say your whole system is 'brilliant" at so many levels, BOAT! Great solutions and executions. I must also add that I have come to expect no less from you.
-Brian.

[Russ]

BOAT--you should make a kit with all this stuff pre-fabbed and installation instructions so people can just buy the EV-100 and your kit to do the install exactly the way you did it.

+1

And I wonder how this system could be implemented on the X steering.

[BOAT]

Maybe someday when i get the time I will just take it all apart and just make a set of plans. That's really all that anyone would need.

[Russ]

Maybe someday when i get the time I will just take it all apart and just make a set of plans. That's really all that anyone would need.

Even that would be awesome. Spec out exact parts and sizes.

I can't stop looking at this mod. I've tried to think up a solution for so long. This is absolutely brilliant! The only change I might do is use a cam cleat topsides. I even like the ball at the end.

[BOAT]

I wanted a ball right from the start before I even had the mod installed, (for reasons I will list below), but I never thought I would find a ball so I did buy one of those cams on my first trip to WM. I still got it and you can have it if you want it - it is no use to me now.

Here is why I use a ball: When you or the AP turns the rudders (with the drive connected) the housing will swing to accommodate the arc of the tiller arm:

That means the rope that lifts the housing that is wrapped around the housing needs just the right amount of slack so the rope will not impede the movement of the housing. If there is too much slack the rope could tangle in somthing so the ball is a stop guide to allow the rope to go slack only just the right amount.

To pull the rope and get the drive out of the trap means the all metal steel drive is now hanging from that rope the whole time you are sailing in rough sea or hard motoring in the chop and imagine if the rope comes loose of the cleat while you are in a hard port turn and drops the drive housing and suddenly your steering jams because a drive is laying on a tie bar or tiller arm or somewhere else where it does not belong - it's pretty easy to look down and see a ball that is sucked into the hole and know what's going on but to gauge a length of rope is a bit harder. The ball was my first choice because it's either all the way in or all the way out - no in between.

West Marine just happened to have the balls in black and red right there in the section where the stuff is to make reefing lines so I lucked out. If I knew they were there I would have never bought the cleat the first time I was at West Marine to get the cheek blocks.

[BOAT]

I said I would post picture when I got the hatches back in. So I am.

I got so tired of taking off the rear hatch and putting back on that I just put it on a hinge so I can just lift it when I need to:


It looks like the new auto pilot is well hidden.

NEXT PROJECT!!

Anyone know how to remove the top off the sliding galley??? :

It's time to install a counter top and sink and water system and pumps and stuff and I don't know how to get the top of the galley off! maybe catigale knows that one too?

Anyways, the galley will be a new post later. This one is done.

.

[Jimmyt]

I was looking at that the other night. Looks (feels) like they took the top and glassed it to the base. $&@-?! Wasn't expecting that, but I've got plenty of tools of mass destruction that will cut fiberglass. I'm sure it made the assembly much stiffer for sliding back and forth but it is going to make the mods a bit more interesting.