Raymarine Seatalk Incompatability Issue

[sanibel sailor]

Hello-
I have all Raymarine instruments - ST60 Plus for speed/depth and wind. They are all linked thru the Seatalk system. I also have an old Raychart RC425 chartplotter, which I have connected with the Seatalk system as well, using the yellow wire. When I power up the chartplotter, the wind instrument no longer gives me true wind, only apparent. Any ideas?

[TacomaSailor]

Do you understand SeaTalk I and SeaTalk II really well?

Do you know if the any of your instruments are repeat only? My SeaTalk TriData instrument will blank the wind instrument display if wired out of order.

Have you tried wiring them in a different order?

I have a mix of SeaTalk instruments and some of them don't work when connected in one sequence and do work when connected in another sequence.

There is an excellent Raymarine / SeaTalk tech support forum that can provide VERY detailed assistance. Here is a link to a technical discussion from Nov 2012 about how I could connect my old and new Raymarine Instruments:

http://raymarine.ning.com/forum/topi...r-drive-type-1

[sanibel sailor]

Compared to your arrangement, mine ought to be hammer simple.

I did not know there was a Seatalk I and II; not mentioned in any of my manuals. I figured since my instruments are all older, they would be compatible.

Sequentially, I have over the companionway the first instrument as depth (ST60+), then wind (ST60+), then speed (ST60+), then a cable run to the nav station where I have a multifunction display (ST60, not plus) which is a repeater, and from there a cable to the helm with the chartplotter. As an aside, none of my cables except the power cable to the depth are the standard Raymarine cables. I made my own with correctly colored 14 gauge wire and the appropriate .110 connectors.

[Cuttyhunk]

You can find the manuals on the ray marine website if you don't have them. Figure out which pieces are SeaTalk I and which are II. Draw a picture with all components, noting which are I and which are II. Take the most complex piece that is II and look in the manual or the online manual for the section with sample wiring. Use that as your guide. Most if not all SeaTalk II devices also have SeaTalk I connections. If you also note the path of the information (is this device sending or receiving info, or both?), that will help guide you especially with the ST60+s.

The Ray site has an area with legacy product info. Keep looking if you don't find the manual right away.

Having made your own connectors means if things still don't work after you have done the above, you won't know if it's a mistake in how you wired it or too much noise in your wiring. Good luck! SeaTalk is one of those things that is terribly confusing right up to the point where you "get it".

[goboatingnow]

I don't beleive the rc425 actually has seatalk , it only has has an NMEA interface. The st60 plus are seatalk , but you'll need a seatalk to NMEA convertor to integrate the chart plotter.

Directly connecting NMEA 0183 to seatalk usually causes the multi talker system to stop. Hence the reason the true wind is failing

It's not a st1 versus st2 issue. You don't have any st2

Dave

[jstevens]

I downloaded the RC425 owner's manual from the Raymarine website, and it does not reference a SeaTalk interface, just NMEA. I found that difficult to understand since SeaTalk has been the proprietary interface for Autohelm/Raytheon/Raymarine since the 1980s. However, plugging a NMEA instrument into your SeaTalk network certainly would cause problems.
So I think this is definitely one for the raymarine forum. That's where I got the link to download the manual.

John

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by jstevens

I downloaded the RC425 owner's manual from the Raymarine website, and it does not reference a SeaTalk interface, just NMEA. I found that difficult to understand since SeaTalk has been the proprietary interface for Autohelm/Raytheon/Raymarine since the 1980s. However, plugging a NMEA instrument into your SeaTalk network certainly would cause problems.
So I think this is definitely one for the raymarine forum using the link provided by TacomaSailor. That's where I got the link to download the manual.

John

Rc425 does NOT have seatalk. Raytheon had several products that did not include seatalk , as they were designed for standalone operation. With just integration into Autohelm autopilots which were NMEA only at the time

This all predates Raymarine

Dave

[sanibel sailor]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

I don't beleive the rc425 actually has seatalk , it only has has an NMEA interface. The st60 plus are seatalk , but you'll need a seatalk to NMEA convertor to integrate the chart plotter.

Directly connecting NMEA 0183 to seatalk usually causes the multi talker system to stop. Hence the reason the true wind is failing

It's not a st1 versus st2 issue. You don't have any st2

Dave

I will review my manuals, this sounds like a likely (now obvious) source. I had assumed the yellow NMEA positive output wire was the same as the Seatalk yellow comm cable. With my simple needs I do not really need the plotter to talk to my other instruments; it just seemed to make sense to connect them. It has gotten me motivated as to connecting my plotter to my VHF.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by sanibel sailor

I will review my manuals, this sounds like a likely (now obvious) source. I had assumed the yellow NMEA positive output wire was the same as the Seatalk yellow comm cable. With my simple needs I do not really need the plotter to talk to my other instruments; it just seemed to make sense to connect them. It has gotten me motivated as to connecting my plotter to my VHF.

NMEA to seatalk convertors are available and not expensive