So, I tried to find a reasonable hydro pump. Google led me to www.hypro.co.uk , who offer OEM steering pumps. I contacted them, told them what I planned to do, and wow!, they were really supportive. So, I ordered a pump, got it and installed it. I went to an ordinary hydraulic shop and had new hoses made (this took less than an hour, I could wait for them). Connecting the components was straight forward.

After carefully bleeding the whole system I connected the pump to the course computer where the wheel drive was connected before (two wires from the pump, black and red, to the A and B pins of the course computer. Whether the red line is connected to the A- or B-pin is simply a question of the rotation direction of the pump resp. the connection of the hydraulic hoses. So, there is a 50 per cent chance of being connected correctly the first try ;-))

If it would work, I assumed, I had at least to run the whole setup procedure again, because the ram is bigger than the one before, a pump is not a wheel drive and so on.

So, I went for a test drive.

First wow! The wheel was (of course) easy going as before without the wheel drive. I had already forgotten how easy! One finger! Then I turned on the AP. Second wow! The display showed 232° and DIDO kept this course. Then I pressed 20° to starboard. Third wow! DIDO turned 20° to starboard, then kept course. So obviously, this works - basically. Without any new setup procedure or new settings, so far.

But the biggest wow! certainly is: You hear - NOTHING. This is so strange. At the moment I am almost missing the noise, as this was some sort of feedback of the AP in terms of "is it too sensitive?" or is it working? or is it on at all?

Whether it will work under all regular circumstances we'll see next week. Then we'll be heading for our summer vacation at the Adriatic.

I shall report the results and experiences.

August, 4th 2013 

We have Just returned from our vacation. We did some 100 hrs or 600 nm. During this time the AP worked flawlessly. No new setup procedure was necessary (in my case. This might be different with different setups, of course). There is no difference in performance etc. apart from the fact that you hear nothing when the AP is on and that the wheel may be literally turned with one finger when the AP is not engaged. These are exactly the improvements that we expected.

February. 2017

I just had a look in the internet and found that Hy-Pro now sells via ebay. Their actual price for the pump model PR+0612 (0.6 liters per minute, 12 V) is GBP 295 plus GBP 27 for shipping. In 2013 I payed GBP 155 and 25 for shipping. The product, I assume, still is good. The price was a bargain those days,