Raymarine e series newbie

[CharmCityBoater]

My ‘new to me’ sailboat has full raymarine electronics and autopilot. It is older generation stuff. Much of it seems to work but the GPS seems to not be working and autopilot will engage but just spins the boat in a circle.

I am a techie but new to marine electronics. Where do I start? Any good tutorials on how it should be wired, setup?

Thanks

Phil

[smac999]

those are 2 seperate issues as the pilot will work with no gps. you can check if the compass heading appears correct on the screen and also if the rudder bar appears correct and moving in the right direction.

as the gps. it's a common problem for this to fail. it likly has an external 120 or 125 gps antenna and the system is 15 years old. I have seen some failed antennas.

if it works after a long time you can try replacing the internal battery. if it never works or cuts in and out the battery will not help. it will only make the start up faster.

replacment options are not great as seatalk antennas are not made anymore. you can get a STNG antenna + converter but they are expensive. or if the nmea 183 port is free you could find a 183 anteanna.

[Pete7]

Can we confirm the model number as the later e series had built in GPS whilst the earlier E80 and E120 did not and needed a separate GPS antenna.

This is the later e series:

https://hudsonmarine.co.uk/categorie...ction-displays

[CharmCityBoater]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Can we confirm the model number as the later e series had built in GPS whilst the earlier E80 and E120 did not and needed a separate GPS antenna.

This is the later e series:

https://hudsonmarine.co.uk/categorie...ction-displays

It is the older model e series. It doesn’t seem to bad for a 15+ year old system and would like to get it working before I give up on it. After it is on for a long long time it does appear to work intermittently. The PO thought it was a loose wire someplace. I do not believe that to be the cause...

I will check the compass heading but the PO suggested it simply needed to be re-calibrated. Not sure how to do that.

[Pete7]

Ok, well the separate GPS antenna has a battery inside it as it actually has a circuit board inside rather than just a plain receiver. CR2032 from memory but its been a while. They can go on for ages before finally giving up the ghost. Simple fix and I used to do mine every 5 years or so. Even if it isn't the battery, this is were I would start.

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...c80-52914.html

Which model auto pilot do you have?

[CharmCityBoater]

Originally Posted by Pete7

Ok, well the separate GPS antenna has a battery inside it as it actually has a circuit board inside rather than just a plain receiver. CR2032 from memory but its been a while. They can go on for ages before finally giving up the ghost. Simple fix and I used to do mine every 5 years or so. Even if it isn't the battery, this is were I would start.

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...c80-52914.html

Which model auto pilot do you have?

Need to dig into autopilot more not at the boat now. Will post when back at the boat

[purplesunrise]

We updated our E series system with a new Digital Yacht AIS transponder which included an up to date GPS receiver. It talks to all the old Raymarine equipment over Seatalk NG. Solved two issues with one device.

[CharmCityBoater]

Originally Posted by purplesunrise

We updated our E series system with a new Digital Yacht AIS transponder which included an up to date GPS receiver. It talks to all the old Raymarine equipment over Seatalk NG. Solved two issues with one device.

Which unit did you get?

[purplesunrise]

We added the DY AIT2500. It is connected to a dedicated antenna. Also added the Navlink2 so we can get data to the mobile devices. Seems to be doing a great job.

[George DuBose]

Raymarine wheel pilots seem to need calibration every season or so. It's not too difficult, but it helps to have to people. One to operate the boat and the other to read the manual and program the autopilot. It takes 10-15 minutes for the calibration.

Some external Raymarine GPS antennas have an easily replaceable battery, some had the battery soldered in. I had to replace my antenna after 10 years and also buy the Seatalk ng converter.

[Brewgyver]

No matter which of the older RM autopilot series you have (ST4000, ST4000+, ST5000, etc, they all used the same Fluxgate Compass, which is VERY sensitive to magnetic influences. Turning in circles could be caused by something as simple as having a tool bag or stack of canned goods near the flux compass, even on the other side of a bulkhead. Looks like this:


Testing procedure here:https://forum.raymarine.com/showthread.php?tid=96

Most importantly, get the model and download the manual from Raymarine Support library here: https://raymarine.app.box.com/s/nwf2s5ha9xrltggghogu