Intermittent Raymarine ST6001 Autopilot

[aquacruise]

Originally Posted by trantor12020

aquacruise, have you fitted the Raymarine E85001 Seatalk-Nmea converter? How did it go?

It was great - worked straight out of the box! My biggest problem was actually finding one. They stopped making it years ago, and Raymarine told me that I would need to get a seatalk to seatalk-ng converter first, then buy the latest seatalk-ng to nmea converter...I did not like the sound of that! In the end I had to call round lots of retailers, and eventually found a chandlery that had a E85001 at the back of the shop covered in dust - £75, I was very happy!

I still do not understand why the original installer of the Furuno system did not install this! Now I have this large colour display that actually displays useful information, such as depth, speed through water etc! All those previous empty boxes now work! Crazy that this wasn't addressed at the time of installation.

The only thing that isn't transmitted is the GPS data FROM the Furuno TO the S1. Since the S1 in connected via seatalk to the VHF, it means the VHF does not have GPS info for the Distress button. But I've solved that by reconnecting the old GPS anntena for the S1. Now I have two GPS anntena's - one for the Furno system, and one for the S1 - works perfectly, and I suppose also gives me some limited back up in case one of the GPS systems fail.

And finally to close, I also solved the original issue with the intermittent "NO PILOT" and "SEATLK FAIL". After many weeks of swapping out cables, checking connections, substituting head units etc, I was ready to buy a new course computer at a cost of over £1000. Then someone suggested the fixed price repair offered by Raymarine....I sent them the course computer, and after 3 weeks they got in touch to say that it was faulty, but it was too difficult to repair - so instead they sent me a brand new S1, at no extra charge and covered under the fixed price repair - i.e. £150.

It all works fine now, and I'm chuffed!

[trantor12020]

Aquacruise, thanks for the update. Good ending. Btw I'm shopping for the E85001. Any clue where I can find a dusted up unit? Internet search is dead ended so far.
Thanks.

[aquacruise]

No problem. I just called the shop I got mine from (Greenham Marine, Lymington, UK). He did say that they might have one available - something that recently came in on a part exchange, but they need to run a full fault test on it first before they will sell it. He said he would come back to me early next week. Or if you prefer (and easier for me) you can take it up directly with him:

Kelvin - Greenham Marine
Lymington
tel: UK 01590 671144
mail: kelvin (AT) greenham-regis.com

You'd better tell him that the enquiry is in my name, Daniel Barber, otherwise he might apply a supply&demand factoring on the price!!

[trantor12020]

THANK YOU!!! I'll email Kelvin now

Done! Sent email to Kelvin.

[trantor12020]

Aquacruise, Kelvin had tested the Interface Box to be ok. He'll ship it to me. Thanks for your help.

Ken