Raymarine E120 Classic & ST6001 Autopilot

[Saildriver44]

Can someone help me find or set up my plotter so it connects to the autopilot for course to cursor and route following? I was told I'm missing a cable but what cable would it be? And where would I find one if I had to buy it? I looked at my installation manual (I didn't do it cause the boat is new to me) and it looks like I'm on the network but all I get is simple steering by the autopilot head and a 'no data' message on the autopilot screen when I try to track course. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


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[r.furborough]

The connection can be made via seatalk or NMEA 0183 connection either way a cable is required.
The ST6001 is not an autopilot, it is the control head. Somewhere below deck you will find the autopilot computer.
Probably an S-series or X- series.


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[wingless]

Yes, the autopilot and the display talk w/ both NEMA0183 and SeaTalk. Ensure both are intact.

Also, ensure the E120 is running the latest software, here is the link.

[transmitterdan]

The autopilot course computer is a box below decks. It gets heading information from the flux gate compass. If that works then you have almost everything you need. The E120 usually talks to the course computer via Seatalk. The Seatalk network is a simple 3-wire cable. Look at your course computer manual and determine how many Seatalk connections it has. If it has only one then you will share that between the E120 and the ST6001 control head. Read the manual on the course computer as it requires some special considerations. If the computer has 2 Seatalk connections then one can be used by the E120 and the other by the ST6001. Also, you will likely need GPS data on Seatalk. You may already have that. How does your E120 get GPS data now? If it is by Seatalk then nothing more is required.

You will need to research your boat to figure out how Seatalk and NMEA are routed to various devices. It's very simple but not having a sketch of the system makes it hard to recommend exactly what you should do.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by wingless

Yes, the autopilot and the display talk w/ both NEMA0183 and SeaTalk. Ensure both are intact.

Also, ensure the E120 is running the latest software, here is the link.

No need for both , if it's all Raymarine , generally using seatalk is all that is required

Dave


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[wingless]

Originally Posted by wingless

Yes, the autopilot and the display talk w/ both NMEA0183 and SeaTalk. Ensure both are intact.

Also, ensure the E120 is running the latest software, here is the link.

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

No need for both , if it's all Raymarine , generally using seatalk is all that is required

The SeaTalk is a propriatary Raymarine interface, so there is not an on-line document available showing the sentance structure for that interface.

According to the E120 Installation Manual: "The NMEA 0183 standard carries similar information to SeaTalk." The manual also states the NMEA interface is used for: "Third party equipment; NMEA multiplexer Fast heading sensor; RS232 interface Autopilot; AIS receiver and a Navtex receiver".

When both are provided the system gets whatever it needs.

[wingless]

The SmartPilot Commisioning Guide for my autopilot states that the NMEA 0183 interface is used for fast heading data used w/ MARPA.

[transmitterdan]

That's right because Seatalk isn't fast enough to supply MARPA heading data. But that has nothing to do with autopilot usage. MARPA is a radar feature.