Nav Pilot 300 / PG700 sensor lost calibration, recalibration hangs at 50%

[xplorz]

As the title says I have a Nav Pilot 300 with the PG700 heading sensor and a physical rudder position sensor. It worked great last season after installing it over the summer. First trip out and it has lost its calibration. When attempting to recalibrate whether for manual or auto modes, it hangs up at 50%. What are the next steps?

In the picture you can see the Suzuki SMD-9 with COG 125, the PG700 shows COG 110 and heading of 83 degrees. The SMD-9 is closest to the compass reading. This is a flat calm ocean day with almost no wind, running the autopilot on heading only. Sometimes it will hold ok, sometimes it will start to slowly turn a large circle and once a very sharp 90 turn after about a mile of straight. All this just running a heading, no waypoints.

I feel like I'm being led around by Captain Jack Sparrow's compass. Where do I go from here?

 

[TheReaper]

How does the 83 degree heading from the PG700 compare to the compass on your dash? Also, what is your magnetic variation where you are?

 

[xplorz]

Looking very closely in the picture, the compass is about 110 degrees.

Noaa calculator says 15.09° E declination for the location, just off the mouth of the Columbia River running back in from halibut opener.

 

[TheReaper]

Does the PG700 location test pass? If you haven't done it, the procedure is on the top of the PG700 itself. The compass calibration is just building a magnetic variation table, so it's important that the location test passes and that no metal or a lot of RF interference (noise) is around it.

Is heading changing normally no matter what direction you are pointing (off by same amount in all directions)? Does it move smoothly or does it jump around?

On your NAVpilot 300 display, in the:
1. Sensor Selection menu, what device shows as your HDG source? Are there any other options available? What are your SOG and POSN sources? Are there any other options?
2. Sea Trial menu, what is the Mag Var setting (Auto or Manual)? What does it show as your Mag Var (in degrees)?
3. Compass Setup menu, is Select Compass set to PG-700? Is there any Compass Offset entered?
4. Parameter Setup menu, is the Speed Calculation set to Auto or Manual. It is normally set to auto and gets the speed from your SOG source.

As far as a drastic turn goes, I recommend ensuring that a hydraulic system purge is done using a Power Purge system. It may have air or something in the system.