HELP Identifying the correct wind transducer for this Raymarine instrument

[Lou-In-NJ]

My wind direction/speed transducer was broken in winter storage and I'm looking to buy a replacement. I'm not sure if there is a difference in Raymarine transducers, but my current instrumentation is all "Seatalk" comparable, and as far as I know, is original (c.1980+?) to the boat. I've gone a few seasons without it, but the original owner said the auto-pilot worked last he used it, but I don't think I can hook it up without the wind instrument working.

I see a lot of ST60 transducers, I presume "ST" stands for SeaTalk, but I wonder if the signals they product are comparable with my generation of instrument?
Anyway, here are inks to pictures of the back of the instruments if that helps.
Also, anybody know what the dot-matrix printed codes on the back of the instruments are?

[Calif.Ted]

Autopilot does not need wind data to work, it does appear the motor control wires are not plugged into the control head.
In your picture the wind transducer also is NOT plugged into the wind instrument. If you do need a new transducer it's available at most chandleries.
https://defender.com/en_us/raymarine...81115212407952

[Lou-In-NJ]

Originally Posted by Calif.Ted

Autopilot does not need wind data to work, it does appear the motor control wires are not plugged into the control head.
In your picture the wind transducer also is NOT plugged into the wind instrument. If you do need a new transducer it's available at most chandleries.
https://defender.com/en_us/raymarine...81115212407952

Unfortunately, it looks like the link you provided, isn't comparable with ST30 instrumentation, which is strange because I found another transducer that is comparable with ST30 through ST60. Weird.
Yes, in those pictures, the transducer wires aren't connected, but my transducer was still broken off.

Also, does anybody know what the dot-matrix printed codes on the back of the instruments are?

[Jim McGowan]

It looks like you have old Autohelm ST30 series instruments.

The print on the back of the middle instrument, Z153, is the part number for the ST30 Speed instrument, which makes sense based on the connections I can see. Your Wind instrument is probably labeled Z174, and the other one is most likely the Depth instrument Z154.

We do still make the transducer used with the ST30 series wind instrument. Its called a RotaVecta transducer, part number Z195. The RotaVecta wind transducer has a 2-wire connection, red and blue, that plug onto the corresponding color-coded terminals on the back of the instrument.

The link posted earlier to the Standard-Arm, Forward-Facing transducer is NOT compatible with your ST30 Wind instrument. That transducer has a 5-wire connection to the display, accounting for its separate sensors for wind speed and wind angle. That one is used with ST50, ST60, i60, iTC-5 and a few others.

RotaVecta is a bit different from other Raymarine wind transducers in that it uses a combined cup and vane system, rather than having a dedicated vane and dedicated anemometer. The RotaVecta measures the wind angle by sensing the momentary slowdown in the rotation of the cups as the elongated vane-cup passes through the wind.

As you are reading the modern listings for the wind transducer compatibility, it is not uncommon for the ST30 series to have been dropped from many descriptions as they are very, very old at this point. I've been with Raymarine for over 25 years, and they were discontinued shortly after I started, replaced by the ST40 series. Glad to hear yours are still working after all of these years.

[Lou-In-NJ]

Originally Posted by Jim McGowan

It looks like you have old Autohelm ST30 series instruments.
... Glad to hear yours are still working after all of these years.

Jim, thank you for your response to my post from a few weeks ago on Cruisersforum.com about my old anemometer!
I now have some decisions to make about replacement or upgrade.

Now that we have a bimini over the cockpit, it would be nice to see wind direction, via a big arrow, on the display. Would I have to upgrade all the instruments to have an instrument that displays wind direction as well, if I wanted SeaTalk to continue to work with the Auto-Helm?
-Lou

[svtickles]

Originally Posted by Jim McGowan

Any of our ST60, or ST60+ wind instruments

What's the difference between them and the i50?

I need to replace an ST60 which is working as a repeater, so looking for something similar. However, the i50 doesn't have the same plugs on top. Would the converter adaptor allow the device to continue working as a repeater?

Would the i70s be a better option and would it work as a repeater, too?

[Jim McGowan]

The i50, i60 and i70 instruments use the newer SeaTalk NG networking.

In order to mix them with existing ST30, ST40, ST60, ST60 or ST60+ instruments you'd need to add a SeaTalk to SeaTalk NG converter (E22158) into the network. It bridges the communication between the old and new devices and translates the data between old and new standards.

It is not particularly difficult to install, it simply plugs into your existing SeaTalk network through its yellow port. New instruments connect to its white ports, and the SeaTalk NG backbone can be extended to new locations onboard through the blue ports.