Auto pilot 711 and the Octopus pump

[MarkCyre]

Hello:
I purchased a boat that came with an Octopus pump and, I’m assuming, an Octopus hydraulic linear actuator. It was connected to an old Furuno 3002 processor. It also came with the parts for a 711 auto pilot( not installed), 7002 processor,RRU, 711 controller, and PG-700 heading sensor. After looking at the pump, I am confused about how to connect the pumps wires to the processor.
What wire is what and where to connect it. I have the Furuno manual but I am still unclear. I can’t seem to find what I need from the Octopus website too. Any help will be great.
Thank you
Mark

 

[Taniwani]

Presuming all hydraulic steering and your octopus pump a reversing pump, you should just have two wires coming from the pump and they should go to SOL-A/MOTOR+ and SOL-B/MOTOR-. Polarity would not matter as the autopilot will figure out during commissioning which way the motor turns.

But if your pump is driving a cylinder that is dedicated to the pump and manual steering is separate and mechanical, you may also have another two wires from a by-pass valve. In that case you would have to connect those additional wires to the computers B/C terminals, again polarity would not matter.

 

[MarkCyre]

I got that. Thank you, but there are some other wires coming off of the pump motor end. I can see the 4 wires mentioned but there is an additional harness that was connected to the old processor. I am wondering what to do with those. It is a pump driving a hydraulic linear activator for mechanical steering.
Thanks again

 

[Taniwani]

My best guess regarding the additional wires, is that these come from a rudder angle sensor. In that case it might be at least 3 more wires, beyond the 4 we talked about. In your case where the old installation was a Furuno FAP3002 processor, chances are high you have a Furuno rudder angle reference unit and the wires are 4 white/black/yellow/green and a shield.

 

[MarkCyre]

There are 2 red wires coming from the hose end and 2 wires, black and red coming off of the Motor end under the end cap. Also is some resistor business tucked in the cap which is connected to the red and black wires from the motor end. Coming out is a mess. Power from the battery ( red and yellow)plus a 4 wire harness( blue, red, black, white) that went to the old processor(3002).now spiced down that harnessed line are the 2 red wires from the hose end. Down the line of the main power is a spliced white and black cable powering the old processor. The rudder reference unit has its own cable that went straight to the old processor.

 

[Taniwani]

OK, I think it might be safe to say that the black and red wires from the motor end are the pump motor connections and the 'resistor business' is the usual noise suppression cap for the motor. You could check this by putting power (12V) on the two wires and see if your pump starts to run. If that's the case you should be fine connecting those wires to SOL-A/MOTOR+ and SOL-B/MOTOR- on the new processor.

The two red coming off the hose end are very likely from the by-pass valve. Again, you could try to power those wires and if we guessed right, your steering should lock. You say that those wires are spliced to some wires in the harness that leads to the processor location, so if you can identify their other end, you would wire to the BC terminals of the processor.

As for the rest of the mess, I think that there are quite a few possibilities of what these wires were for, but all or most would probably be obsolete. For example, the main control unit would have had 10 wires going to the processor and remote controllers would come in via another 6 wires and it may have had its own heading sensor coming in on another 4 wires. The remote controllers though may still work with your newer 700 series, but the rest would be different and heading you will get via NEMA2000 from your PG-700.

 

[MarkCyre]

Ok, this is all making sense to me now. I will check this out and report back.
Thank you

 

[MarkCyre]

Ok. So I powered up the pump motor on it’s own and it started up no problem. I did the same to the hose end, bypass valve, and was not as fortunate. Do they both need power at the same time for the steering to lock? Should I plug the motor and the Bypass valve int o she new processor; basically booting up the whole system? Do I need noise suppressors in-line? I also have to extend the RRU cable to get it to the new processor. It is quite short.
Also, I was planning on running a canbus cable to a Furuno junction box,5002, connecting the auto pilot to the network.
Is it ok to extend the junction box power cable?
Thank you again.

 

[Taniwani]

Certainly safe to connect the pump motor to the processor, now that you know it runs ok and doesn’t short. As for the valve, the same is true as it didn’t blow your fuse. But it worries me that your steering didn’t lock. Did you notice any clicking when you supplied power? Any slight sparking when connecting, showing that there is some current draw? Maybe you have air in the system. What’s your octopus pump model number?

I don’t think extra noise suppression is necessary, the pump motor already has its own. Maybe you can use the cable from the old RRU, in fact the old RRU might even work. But since you have a new one it’s better to use it.

No problem extending the power cable to the junction box.