I find that when in seas over 2 feet, using CE as a chart plotter becomes difficult, as the boat goes through wake, seems to throw off the heading and we zig zag a lot.
We do have a Raymarine EV-1 with a P70 auto pilot.
If rough water, I have to set heading on the P70 manually to stay straight. I believe this unit uses a magnetic compass vs. GPS receiver for true heading.
How do I get CE to use the magnetic compass from the P70 for more accurate heading?
How is your autopilot connected to your computer? Is it delivering data via NMEA2000 or NMEA0183? If Coastal Explorer is receiving heading data back from the autopilot, you can set it as the top priority heading sensor in Coastal Explorer by clicking on the ‘Settings’ button on the left side of the screen and selecting Electronics. Then select Sensor Priorities from the top of the panel. Make sure that your autopilot is at the top of the list in the “Heading Sensor” category.
I have read your post a couple of times and come away a little confused. I can read in to it that you are sending a route (Raymarine uses the term track in their documentation) from CE for the autopilot to follow. If that is the case, CE is already connected to the autopilot. Then I read your statement about having to give the autopilot a manual direction to follow using the P70 which further reinforces that you have sent a route to the autopilot but maybe not from CE. I have a similar Raymarine autopilot I use with CE and the only way it can be connected is via NMEA 2000 as the EV-1 does not have NMEA0183. If you have a NMEA 2000 interface with CE from the EV-1 then Aaron’s response is spot on.
When you get this sorted out, you will find that CE works well with the Raymarine autopilot. I regularly follow routes I have plotted in CE and sent to the autopilot in following seas up to 4-5’ without any problems as long as I use HP to keep up with or slightly ahead of them. If you don’t do that then the autopilot can’t keep up and boat zig zags or wallows all over the place.