Trouble with Sea Talking to Sea Talk Converter

[Walt]

As I had mentioned in another thread, after adding a Sea Talking to Sea Talk converter to my EV 200 pilot to communicate with my older Sea Talk devices it quit receiving data after working for several weeks. Everything worked fine on this new install other then the track function on the pilot head which would just read No Navigation and beep when I tried to go to a waypoint on the chart plotter. The data boxes on the pilot head displayed all the information from the various units within the system and the converter blinked the Healthy/Healthy code of 8 second cycle. Now, no data in the data boxes except Heading which is coming from the sensor. The LED light now remains solid on, on the converter. All connections are secure. I was willing to live without the Track feature but was using the other information on the pilot head such as Bearing to waypoint and Cross track info to manually command the pilot to the waypoint at a glance. Now I have no data period to the pilot. Yet, the pilot seems to steer pretty good with no speed input or other info. Any idea what might be going on? I miss the data being displayed at the very least. Would really be happy if I could get data back AND get the track to work too! Thanks, Walt

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Walt,

As had been discussed earlier, the non-flashing green LED of the SeaTalk to SeaTalkng Converter is indicating that it is not communicating with the SeaTalk bus to which your older equipment has been interfaced. The reported issue may have resulted from a loose or disconnected SeaTalk cable within SeaTalk bus or may have resulted from a failure within the SeaTalk communications circuitry of one of the older devices which is interfaced to the SeaTalk bus. Please list each of the older devices which have been interfaced to the SeaTalk bus. Please additionally indicate whether older devices are communicating with themselves. It is additionally recommended that the SeaTalk bus be traced from the SeaTalk to SeaTalkng Converter to each of the older SeaTalk devices, where the connectors will be disconnected and then re-seated to ensure a proper connection to the device.

[Walt]

Thanks Chuck,

Besides the EV-200 on the Sea Talking side, on the Sea Talk side I have: a color L770 PLUS fish finder/chart plotter linked together with a color RL80C PLUS PATHFINDER radar that I transfer my chart plotter data to and overlay radar on to. I also have a older Raystar 120 GPS supplying GPS data to both units. Everything communicates very well with each other on the older Sea Talk system and still does even though there is nothing reaching the pilot head now. That older Sea Talk of coarse had its own 12 volt power source introduced to the Sea Talk network to make it work before the converter was added. That was disconnected after adding the converter and now both sides are now powered via the back bone to the converter. The older devises still share everything no problem so 12 volt introduced to the system is not a issue and is still coming from the converter. Just nothing is reaching back to the pilot now. It worked very well for weeks (minus the track not working because of the message “no navigation data” even though everything it needed, bearing to waypoint, distance, cross track error etc was being displayed in the pilot heads data boxes). Now, nothing in the data boxes and the green solid LED on the converter stays on. Not very many connections on the entire system to try. All Sea talk plugs seem secure as do the connections to the converter.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Walt,

Q1. It is recommended that troubleshooting begin by unplugging the SeaTalk to SeaTalkng Cable from the SeaTalk to SeaTalkng Converter's yellow socket ... wait a few minutes and then check the GPS status dialog of the Pathfinder Series Displays. Does the system lose its GPS position FIX?

Q2. What version of software is installed within you SeaTalk to SeaTalkng Converter? This information may be obtained via the Evolution autopilot's control head (MENU->SET-UP->DIAGNOSTICS->ABOUT SYSTEM)? Should the SeaTalk to SeaTalkng Converter not have v2.03 software installed within its memory, then it is recommended that it's software be updated accordingly.

Additional Recommendations:

When seeking to use the autopilot's Auto and Track features, verify that the autopilot is not configured to Fishing Pattern mode (MENU->MODE->PATTERN).

Earlier this week, Raymarine introduced a software update for the Evolution EV Sensor Core to address the No Navigation issue which would occur when running the prior version of EV Sensor Core software. Accordingly, it is recommended that the software within each of the Evolution autopilot components be updated with the latest available Raymarine product software updates. Updating the Evolution Autopilot's software will necessitate that a Pilot Factory Reset (MENU->SET-UP->AUTOPILOT CALIBRATION->COMMISSIONING->PILOT FACTORY RESET) be performed, followed by the Dockside Wizard. The Evolution software update and subsequent Pilot Factory Reset will cause deviation data stored within the autopilot to be deleted, necessitating that the autopilot once again create its deviation table and report the maximum detected deviation.

Please click here to view a FAQ addressing how one may update the software within Raymarine products in systems lacking a Raymarine MFD having a SeaTalkng /NMEA 2000 communications interface.