Raymarine at FLIBS, A & STX & SHD

Ben Ellison says:

Some detail on current SeaTalk 1 and NG issues from Jon Fitch, who seems to be an excellent systems detective and also owns the wonderfully named sailing vessel ‘Anomaly’:
I have an ST70 system just installed in my new boat, and have seen some peculiarities in interactions with other devices. Even though Raymarine said they weren’t available, I could buy an ST70 Autopilot control head from Defender, and under this threat was provided one through normal distribution (boat is in Canada). I was told previously by Raymarine Tech support that it would work fine with the S3G pilot computer. Here is what I found:
The ST70 Autopilot head, E-Series Display, and ST70 instruments interact in different ways, depending on how they are connected. With the S3G connected to the Seatalk 1 port on the E-80, the autopilot could be engaged from the E-80 (4.x software) but was not seen by any other instrument.
With the ST70 Autopilot head connected to the S3G on Seatalk 1 and also connected to Seatalk NG, the ST70 Autopilot will see and engage the S3G, can see wind data from the wind instrument, but will not engage Steer-by-Wind.
With the ST70 Autopilot head connected only to the S3G on Seatalk 1 , and one of the ST70 display heads bridging between Seatalk 1 and Seatalk NG, the autopilot could be engaged, Steer-by-Wind could be engaged, and wind data appeared on the ST70 Autopilot. The only problem with this (and all other configurations except the first one) is that detailed GPS data from the Raymarine 125 did not get passed through the ST70 display, only basic fix data. Satellites being tracked, position error, etc. was not available anywhere in the system.
The ST70 Autopilot has a disadvantage for sailboats: the Steer-by-Wind function is no longer available (at it was on the 6000 series heads) by pushing two buttons simultaneously – you must go into the menu system to activate it each time.
Raymarine tech support was clueless about most of this, I had to reverse engineer it myself.
An additional problem occurs due to the Volvo engine: it is a D2-75 small sailboat auxiliary, fitted with the Volvo NMEA 2000 data link common to all their EVS systems and made by CPAK Systems. On the NMEA 2000 bus it broadcasts engine data, which is nicely observable throughout the system on any E-Series or ST70 display. However it also broadcasts Depth, Fluid Level, Environmental, and Rudder data (about which it has no knowledge) with blank data fields. This was observed using Maretron’s N2kAnalyzer software. The Raymarine system seems to ignore the Fluid Level, Environmental, and Rudder data, but is greatly confused by the Depth data. That causes the depth data to flash, and the value to freeze, until the engine electronics are turned off. Since the Volvo interface is common to all their engines, I can imagine that this problem would occur whenever Volvo engine data is displayed on a Raymarine Seatalk NG system. The same erroneous depth data caused the Maretron display simulator to flash, but the depth displayed would update, alternating between “-” and the correct depth once a second.
It would be a great help if Raymarine published what translations are done by which instruments. The E-Series, ST70 Autopilot, and ST70 Display head each have the ability to translate Seatalk NG to Seatalk 1, however each of them does it differently, or filters different sentences. There is no information whatever in their documentation, and clearly the network topology makes a difference. There must be someone at Raymarine who understands what they build, but I was not allowed to talk to one.
Regards, Jon Fitch, s/v ‘Anomaly’
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Impressive detective work, Jon!
I have heard that Raymarine recommends NOT connecting ST70s and E-Series via STng in some circumstances, but I’m not sure what those
circumstances are. And it’s all supposed to get fixed in “coming soon” updates.
Best, Ben
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The local rep in Canada (CMC) said not to connect ST70 instruments to Seatalk 1, use the E-Series to bridge. The tech support line at Raymarine said not to use the E-Series (“they are not NMEA 2000 compatible”), and to use the ST70. The written documentation says both are fully NMEA compatible. I found the written documentation to be the most accurate, but it is quite sparse on technical details. Particularly on the relationship between Seatalk 1 and Seatalk NG. I will probably take the S3G course computer out and replace it with a 30-X, however that unit has both NG and Seatalk 1, again without documentation about what might be expected to happen between the two.
There is one more subtlety: you must make sure when using an ST70 to bridge between Seatalk NG and Seatalk one that the power lead (red) is disconnected at the Seatalk 1 instrument, if that instrument is otherwise powered (as in the case of the S3G course computer). This led to some blown fuses in odd places until I thought it through. It makes sense that the ST70 feeds power through to the Seatalk 1 cable, with the expectation of needing to power, say, an ST60 instrument on the far side. There are instructions with the S3G course computer suggesting that no harm is done if Seatalk power is connected, but these were written prior to the ST70 and NG system introductions. In my case, the NG bus is powered from a Mastervolt 24-12V down converter, while the course computer is powered from 24V and makes its own 12V for Seatalk 1. They could not be expected to agree on just what 12V was. The peculiar result was a blown fuse at the input stage of the down converter, in spite of a downstream 4 amp fuse powering NG. There were other odd symptoms involved in this, such as the course computer not powering off completely when the breaker was tripped (it was able to draw sufficient power from the two Seatalk busses), all cured by breaking the red wire.
Regards, Jon