[CA] Compass heading over nmea 2000 from ST70

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum WPrice,

Q1. Are there any settings that will insure that the fluxgate compass that is part of the ST70 autopilot system broadcasts its heading data over the NMEA 2000 network.
A1. Negative. Such configuration is not possible with this product. As equipment of this vintage supports single data sources (i.e. cannot support more than one source of GPS, heading, wind, depth, etc.), the SPX autopilot course computers will by default transmit heading data from the MFD's SeaTalk port, SeaTalkng port, and NMEA 0183 port. Unlike the autopilot design which followed the SPX autopilots, SPX autopilots, ST70 autopilot control heads, and ST70 instruments are not NMEA 2000 certified. Accordingly, Raymarine makes no promises of successful communications when interfacing SPX autopilots with products having a NMEA 2000 communications interface.

Q2. I have the switch on the smartcontroller set to get it's power fron the NMEA backbone and all functions as far as tracking and interface with chartplotter etc seem to work fine but I want to insure my radar is getting the compass heading.
A2. To verify whether your chartplotter is receiving heading data, it is recommended that your chartplotter be configured to display the Heading data item ... given the other successful communications, it is quite likely that you will find that the Heading data item is populated.