Simrad AP16. discontinued but AP 26 is a good substitute

[Chappelear2020]

Our Simrad AP16 control panel stopped working on the fly bridge. We need to replace it and found they are very very rare. There is one for sale on EBAY for $1000 which is a rip off because there is no guarantee it will function long. We went to Max Marine in Pompano Beach and the guy there (Zack) was great. He says that he has a second hand one for $1000 but he guarantees the product...much better than taking chances with Ebay. But, SeaTronics in Pompano Beach a few doors down will fix your existing AP 16 for half the cost ($500). usually the problem is with the rubber things that allow you to press the keys go bad and some corrosion by water getting in. The reason we are repairing a 2005-6 piece of equipment is cause if we don't we will need to spend at least $10,000-13,000 to update all our electronics and cable to the newer generation....no thanks. My North Sea Cutter electronics work just fine including the Furuno Chartplotter and Simrad auto pilot once I get this control pad fixed. We heard that the AP 26 is a good substitute but it's template is a bit larger than the AP 16. The AP 25 is also a substitute but its much larger in area. That's what we found out.

[afrayedknot]

I had a similar problem with the buttons on my bridge unit and found a YouTube item explaining how to clean the corrosion off with alcohol and a cotton swab. So far it has worked for me and saved me a lot of worry on replacing the unit.