The EV-100 (which I now have on the E38):
I went ahead and measured the hard over time, just the way the manual says. It came out to a fairly substantial 16 seconds!
--Stefan
In answer to Steve's original post, the default "hard-over time" of six seconds is all wrong for my boat. I am now at "19". Oddly, a higher number of "seconds" gives a faster turn, and a lower number, slower.
I still have some minor weaving, which I believe may be related to other settings, possibly rudder deflection.
The EV-100 has only three "response" settings: performance, standard and leisure, or something like that.
The precursor SPX-5 had 10 levels to choose from, and I usually operated on 5, or all the way down to 2 for motoring.
The "leisure" choice--or low numbers on the SPX-5--means much less work for the wheel pilot motor, with corresponding reduction in noise and battery use.
I believe these units work well, and the biggest problem is the Raymarine user interface. Finding the setting screens is frustrating (must be on "standby"). As Stefan noted, the installation manuals are a mess of contradictions--unchanged from the older SPX-5 manuals.
Once installed, though, the gizmo is well worth its cost of about $1200.
The Ray wheel pilot is not as disposable as a tiller pilot, which is miniaturized and exposed to weather. Still, the solid state components are subject to mysterious malfunction, and vulnerable to shorts. This argues for West Marine, which offers long term no-questions-asked instant replacement parts off the shelf. Defender's price is hundreds of dollars cheaper, but any issue means takign the unit off the boat and sending it to Nashua, N.H. for a long time and probably an argument about warranty.
I think a binnacle mount of the P70 control head is best, because you wind up steering the boat by the push-buttons, which is very convenient. That means running wires through stainless tubing, which turns out to be complicated by large connector sizes.