Will Ray i60 wind display talk to older ST50?

[Jon Hacking]

Will the Raymarine i60 wind display talk to an older (Autohelm, now Raymarine) ST50 (black bezel) wind display?

We currently have a pair of ST50 wind displays, with the master down at the nav-station & a slave up at the helm, connected via ancient SeaTalk cabling. Everything still works, but it's 20 years old & we depend on it. I know the newer masthead transducer won't talk to my older ST50 display, & the older xducers don't seem to be available anymore. So I'm assuming that if I want to upgrade, I have to upgrade both the masthead xducer & the display it's connected to.

My question is: Do I also have to buy a new i60 display for the helm, or will the new i60 wind display at the nav-station talk to my old ST50 wind display (at the helm) OK?

I know the connectors aren't compatible, but soldering in the newer connectors is not a problem as long as everything speaks compatible SeaTalk.

TIA

[CS Cruiser]

Soldering in new connectors will not likely be enough, I believe you will require a Raymarine ST1 to STNG converter, it will convert the buss talk properly between the two seatalk versions you have.
Any repeaters whether old or new will display all available seatalk buss info..

[CS Cruiser]

Here's a link.
http://www.raymarine.com/uploadedIma...t%5B1%5D.1.jpg

[Jon Hacking]

Thanks Paul. According to this sales blurb,

"...the i60 Instruments support SeaTalkng 0 CANBUS networking, as well as our original SeaTalk 1 networking."

Further down under i60 Key Features it lists:

• SeaTalkng and SeaTalk-1 Networking.

So I'm not sure if they ship it with a converter, or the i60 itself can speak both (they don't say what's actually included in the box).

But my real question is: Will it talk to our older ST50 wind display?

RayMarine does not have a good reputation for backwards compatibility. For instance, the new wind sensors are not compatible with the older ST50 displays (& ours date from the Autohelm days). It seems the i60 will speak SeaTalk 1, but does it use the same sentences from 20 years ago? I don't know that the sentences have changed, but I don't know that they haven't...

[CaptNemoO2]

The i60 can do seatalk 1 using an ST1 to STng adapter cable. The converter is not needed. In the picture in the above post, it's the cable with a yellow connector on one end and the flat ST1 connector on the other end. The i60 can also act as a repeater, however, I can not confirm that it will repeat ST1. I suggest searching or posting the question to Raymarine's support forum... http://raymarine.ning.com/forum

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[CS Cruiser]

Originally Posted by Jon Hacking

Thanks Paul. According to this sales blurb,

"...the i60 Instruments support SeaTalkng 0 CANBUS networking, as well as our original SeaTalk 1 networking."

Further down under i60 Key Features it lists:

• SeaTalkng and SeaTalk-1 Networking.

So I'm not sure if they ship it with a converter, or the i60 itself can speak both (they don't say what's actually included in the box).

But my real question is: Will it talk to our older ST50 wind display?

RayMarine does not have a good reputation for backwards compatibility. For instance, the new wind sensors are not compatible with the older ST50 displays (& ours date from the Autohelm days). It seems the i60 will speak SeaTalk 1, but does it use the same sentences from 20 years ago? I don't know that the sentences have changed, but I don't know that they haven't...

Joe, I think because it's wind it will not calibrate properly to the ST50.

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by CS Cruiser

Jon, I think because it's wind it will not calibrate properly to the ST50.

I'm obviously having a hard time explaining this effectively. You're right that the new wind xducers are not compatible with the older wind displays. So we're planning to get a new masthead xducer & connect it to a new i60 (master) display down at the nav-station. I'm hoping calibration won't be an issue, as the analog signal from the xducer will be connected directly to the i60 display.

But up at the helm are some repeaters (slaves) connected to the nav-station masters via SeaTalk 1. Will the old ST50 wind display at the helm be able to read the sentences output by the new i60 wind display?

[CaptNemoO2]

Originally Posted by Jon Hacking

I'm obviously having a hard time explaining this effectively. You're right that the new wind xducers are not compatible with the older wind displays. So we're planning to get a new masthead xducer & connect it to a new i60 (master) display down at the nav-station. I'm hoping calibration won't be an issue, as the analog signal from the xducer will be connected directly to the i60 display.

But up at the helm are some repeaters (slaves) connected to the nav-station masters via SeaTalk 1. Will the old ST50 wind display at the helm be able to read the sentences output by the new i60 wind display?

Not 100% on this for the ST50, but it looks like you can do this.

http://raymarine.ning.com/forum/topi...llation-design

Look at the diagram in the first response.

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[Jon Hacking]

Thanks Nemo! That PDF shows everything (except the 6002?) speaking ST-ng. I still don't know if/how the i60 talks ST1 (through a converter or natively, if at all) but all my existing Raymarine instruments speak ST1.


I've now joined the Raymarine forum (didn't know there was one!) I've posted my question to them here. We Shall See...

[Jon Hacking]

To bring this thread up to date, I (finally) got my point across to "Underway" who is apparently a Raymarine employee on this Raymarine forum. He replied:

Yes, the i60 Wind instrument display does come with the Seatalk 1 to Seatalk NG adapter cable. You will not need to purchase it separately.

and

...the Seatalk interface was tested as far back as the ST50+ instrument systems, not the ST50. But the protocol did not change drastically with wind information so I can say it should.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to test this myself until I get everything back to Malaysia, by which time it will be too late to do much if it doesn't work. But we can hope...

[tj_tonus]

As a number of people have already stated the i60 as the master instrument will transmit ST1 sentences. ST1 messages (including all the appropriate wind messages) are sent over Raymarine's version of NMEA2000 - STNG! This is done with the inclusion of a ST1 data lead in the wiring along with the can bus pairs. Therefore with the appropriate ST1-NG lead the seatalk sentences can be put onto the same seatalk network as the ST50 instruments.


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[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by tj_tonus

...the i60 as the master instrument will transmit ST1 sentences...

Yes, & the i60 will even xmit those sentences over our ST1 network, since it ships with a converter cable. The real question is: will our c.1995 ST50 wind display (slave) be able to correctly interpret those i60 sentences. Our ST50 actually says Autohelm on the front, not Raymarine, & RayMarine doesn't have a great track record of backwards compatibility. For instance, their new masthead wind transducers are not compatible with the older wind displays, & the displays are $400.

[privileged]

Hi Jon I know this was a long time ago but I am doing the same upgrade and wondered if my slave displays inside will still work . Was it successful. Cheers Mick

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by privileged

Hi Jon I know this was a long time ago but I am doing the same upgrade and wondered if my slave displays inside will still work . Was it successful. Cheers Mick

Oh, no, it's a zombie thread, dead for 4 years, come back to life!

Privileged, I still don't know, mainly because our ancient ST50 wind instruments continue to do their thing happily (touch wood) so I haven't tried to replace them.

I do have a newer ST60 (or possibly i60) Master, & a masthead transducer for it hidden somewhere obscure on the boat, but since it ain't broke ...

Sorry I can't be more helpful. But I'd love to know how your upgrade goes.

Interesting that your masters are outside, & your slaves inside. Mine are just the reverse. I guess I could make an argument for either one.

[privileged]

Hi Jon
Just letting you know that I have installed the new i60 wind including the transducer and all is working very well. Both my repeaters are working fine. The new gauge is a lot more accurate and faster than the old st 50. And the old st7000 pilot is steering much better in vane mode with the new gear. cheers Mick