[CA] Upgrading and connecting Raymarine instruments to Garmin 7610 MFD

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Nokay,

I recently went through this exercise within another customer having a very similar equipment. While the ST-STng Converter will do a fair job of bridging data to/from instruments and GPS sensors having a SeaTalk communications interface, the same cannot be said for the legacy autopilots having a SeaTalk communications interface. In the end, we found it necessary to use a NMEA 2000 to NMEA 0183 data bridging device (ex. Actisense NGW-1-ISO-STNG, etc.) to interface the legacy Raymarine autopilot to the NMEA 2000 backbone. Accordingly, the SeaTalk to SeaTalkng Converter shown within your Goals 1-4 diagram would need to be replaced with a SeaTalkng 5-Way Connector and an Actisense NGW-1-ISO-STNG which would in turn be interfaced to the autopilot course computer's NMEA 0183 Port 1. Additionally, the NMEA 2000 backbone shown within the Goals 1-4 diagram would be in need of a power insertion spur.

Regarding the Goals 1-5 diagram, please refer to the comments for the Goals 1-4 diagram. Additionally, when used with a compatible legacy autopilot lacking a SeaTalkng / NMEA 2000 communications interface, the p70/p70R/p70S/p70RS autopilot control head must be interfaced to a SeaTalk bus which is in turn directly interfaced to one of the powered SeaTalk ports of the autopilot's course computer, not to a SeaTalkng backbone as you diagram shows. The communications interface of the p70/p70R/p70S/p70RS autopilot control heads will support either SeaTalkng / NMEA 2000 communications (for use with Evolution or SPX autopilots) or SeaTalk communications, but not both simultaneously. Raymarine offers the A06047 ST to STng Adapter cable to permit these autopilot control heads to be interfaced to compatible legacy autopilot lacking a SeaTalkng / NMEA 2000 communications interface such as your S3G autopilot course computer.

When so interfaced, I believe that you would find that heading and rudder angle data from the autopilot will be bridged over to the NMEA 2000 backbone.