flipfloplife
New member
OK so I'm looking at installing the NavPilot 300 right out of the gate on a new boat. I'm pretty sure that the manufacturer has been putting UFlex MasterHelm steering in. From what I can gather that just means they are installing a pump that pressurizes the helm "manual pump" (like ... regular old non-powered helm) --- this makes the steering take less "oomph". fair enough. seems fancy. they even put a puck on there to control just how much pressure they are putting in there. cool.
That said -- the NavPilot w/ the safe helm2 really gives you about the same thing. I mean ... you got your octopus pump ... you got your safe helm. Aren't we trying to achieve the same thing here?
Here's the question part. Am I pulling out this (brand new) MasterHelm electric power steering assist pump? Is it incompatible?
I guess I'm asking because extra complexity is always a poor design choice in my book. what if the sensing is a few milliseconds off and I have 2 pumps fighting each other? for only a few milliseconds but over and over and over?
My other thought was that I could re-brain the MasterHelm electric power steering pump and then potentially not need the octopus? I mean that pump should be the correct size, etc. But furuno has this system setup and balanced this way for a reason. I'm not super keen to be doing electronics experimentation when I want to be fishing.
Thoughts? Anyone done this? TVee 240DC, new digi-zukes if that matters (and this is why I'm doing the NavPilot -- spot hold is a killer app for my application).
That said -- the NavPilot w/ the safe helm2 really gives you about the same thing. I mean ... you got your octopus pump ... you got your safe helm. Aren't we trying to achieve the same thing here?
Here's the question part. Am I pulling out this (brand new) MasterHelm electric power steering assist pump? Is it incompatible?
I guess I'm asking because extra complexity is always a poor design choice in my book. what if the sensing is a few milliseconds off and I have 2 pumps fighting each other? for only a few milliseconds but over and over and over?
My other thought was that I could re-brain the MasterHelm electric power steering pump and then potentially not need the octopus? I mean that pump should be the correct size, etc. But furuno has this system setup and balanced this way for a reason. I'm not super keen to be doing electronics experimentation when I want to be fishing.
Thoughts? Anyone done this? TVee 240DC, new digi-zukes if that matters (and this is why I'm doing the NavPilot -- spot hold is a killer app for my application).
