At my wits end - Raymarine seatalkng and wind indicstor

[Peregrine1983]

Hi all,

I posted about this a couple of days ago. I’m trying to get my Raymarine es-78 MFD to see information from my Raymarine microtalk and by extension my Raymarine wireless wind indicator (rebranded tack tick).

Raymarine customer service is only M-F 8-5pm which is quite frustrating considering the nature of their products.

Some helpful folks here last told my to buy a seatalkng starter backbone kit.

I have connected my mfd, a power cable, and the micro talk to the backbone and have terminated it properly. (I think. Photo below.)

I have my wind indicator in the sun (it’s solar powered), about 15’ in front of the micro talk. I taped it to the top of the companionway so the signal distance is much smaller than it will be when it’s atop the mast.

Still, whenever I search for wind data inputs on the mfd, I get nothing.

What am I doing wrong???

[Peregrine1983]

Ok so a little more info here. The microtalk red led is blinking once every 15 seconds, which according to the manual means “micro net searching for network”.

[Captain Bill]

Did you note on the installation instructions that new devices must be placed within 11.8 inches if the Micro-talk device to join the network for the first time?

[Peregrine1983]

Thanks bill. That’s not helping though. I have everything now connected within 11 inches. I have 12v going into the seatalk backbone with the red and black cable, I have the white seatalk cable that came with the micro talk connected to the backbone, and I have the black and white spur cable connected from the mfd to the backbone.

The micro talk blinks 4 red lights every 12 seconds... which is not in the manual as a code with meaning.

In the es78 menu I’m going to SET UP -> SYSTEM SETTINGS -> DATA SOURCES -> WIND. It scans for a wind source and comes up with nothing.

More photos attached. Any help really appreciated. I’m about to throw it all the in water.

[Captain Bill]

Are you using lighthouse 2 or 3? It seems that the ES series was shipped with 2 but can be upgraded to 3.

[Captain Bill]

I have an older "C" system using lighthouse 2 and my wind instrument is connected through an ITC-5 analog instrument converter. My chart plotter does not show the wind instrument when I select wind on setup it shows the ITC-5 converter. I would expect yours to show the micro-talk interface, but things may work differently with the Micro-talk unit. Have you checked to make sure no pins are bent in your connectors?

[Captain Bill]

I found this on the Raymarine forum.I did not see a display or remote in your pictures. Do you have one?


RE: [DG11] Interface T70345 Wireless Wind Kit with EV-100? - Derek - Raymarine - Moderator - 06-17-19 08:54 AM

Hi Willy,
Thank you for your enquiry.

The Microtalk puck needs to have wireless communication from some other deveice in the wireless network, for example the remote or a fixed display such as the MN100 type displays. The reason for this is that the system needs to be able to be powered down when not in use to conserve battery power, we determined that the system would be identified as 'in-use' if a display was powered up.

The orientation was derived from the other features that the microtalk puck has, but not yet enabled, in order to correctly process pict and roll, the orientation is important, since this is not yet enabled, orientation is currently not critical. Mounting above deck would be of benefit in some installations where the construction of the boat impedes the operation of the wireless function.

regards

Derek

RE: [DG11] Interface T70345 Wireless Wind Kit with EV-100? - raymarine@vancrey.org - 06-17-19 04:27 PM

rereading your response i realize my previous post may not make sense. i now understand a "display" device wakes up the wireless network. i'm still curious if the puck receives wind data directly from the wind transducer or only the T113 remote?

this is important to understand if i ever have problems with the puck receiving data and need to relocate it.

RE: [DG11] Interface T70345 Wireless Wind Kit with EV-100? - Derek - Raymarine - Moderator - 06-18-19 09:15 AM

Hi Willy,

The Microtalk puck does communicate directly with the masthead transmitter, however, the communications alone between the two are not sufficient to keep the microtalk puck online. The addition of another display or a remote to the system will cause the microtalk puck to remain online and so keep the network online.
Thanks
Derek

[Peregrine1983]

Hi Bill,

Thank you very much. Really appreciate you taking the time to read my post and reply.

The posts you pasted make it sound like I need to buy (yet another) Raymarine component to make this work. That would explain why all the diagrams I see of a Raymarine wireless wind system also include a standalone wind receiver/display. If that’s the case, I really wonder why they advertised this es-78 mfd as being able to display wind information.

I’m having buyers remorse and wish I bought a B&G mfd. That, or I should have just bought a wired wind indicator and called it a day.

I’m going to call Raymarine in the am and see what they say.

Thank you again.

Ps - to answer your earlier question, I’m not sure what version of lighthouse I’m using. I bought and installed the es-78 mfd in 2017 and it has not been updated.