Raymarine ACU-100 as upgrade w/ ST7001 head & ZG100 compass

[dave777]

We are thinking of upgrading our old Raymarine S1 autopilot computer which drives a 215cc hyldraulic cylinder on our sailboat. The S1 does not have a gyro. We have a B&G ZG100 compass GPS sensor which feeds our plotter & 3G radar on NMEA2000.

Raymarine's converter bridges Raymarine weather and other Seatalk data between SeatalkNG & NMEA2000.

Currently, the S1 doesn't hold a course well on certain points of sail, though it does a little better while motoring.

I believe that the new ACU-100 will work OK with our existing ST7001 control head, and send & receive data with the NMEA2000 network. We have an existing resistive Raymarine rudder sensor which the ACU-100 should be able to use as well.

Has anyone found the Raymarine ACU 100/200 series computers to work well getting heading & gyro data from third party devices over NMEA2000?

Our understanding is that the Navico plotters won't have direct control +10, -10 control over the ACU-100 but we'd prefer the separate head anyway. I've read that the ACU100 can follow a waypoint/course from third party plotters over NMEA2000.

Is it fair to assume that the ACU-100 hold a better course than the S1?

Any other suggestions or advice appreciated

[dave777]

My mistake, and I'm just closing this thread out just in case someone else gets the same wrong idea. Raymarine changed how they divide up the functions among the components in their new autopilot system. The old S1 was the course computer AND the steering driver, but the new Raymarine ACU is just the steering driver, so the EV1 antenna/compass/Computer would also be needed.

Long story short, can't upgrade the computer with one component. Unless the EV1 could control the S1 ...