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peteatbeach

I have a Raymarine C125 MFD with ST60+ autopilot and 150 course computer. During recommission this spring I noticed the autopilot control head LCD had become dark. I was able to obtain a free ST60 autopilot from a rep who had just removed it from another boat. When installed I received an intermittent error every 30-45 seconds on the MFD indicating Pilot Status: Pilot Status - Auto, Pilot Status - Pilot Head Lost, Pilot Disengaged. (This happens without engaging the autopilot in Auto mode on the control head itself.) It would sometimes disappear by itself, other times I had a use the back key. The depth and wind data is getting through to the MFD.

A tech came onboard and checked wiring, updated the SEATALK and NMEA contoller s/w releases, updated the MFD with latest s/w, but the problem recurred. We changed out the Seatalk-NMEA cable, same problem. I recently replaced the ST60 control head with the old ST60+, and the same problem occurred with both cables. Depth and wind continues to show, however occassionally I get a strange anchor alarm regarding depth, at less than 12' and sometimes over 1600'. Addtionally, The attached screen shots show that when the MFD believes the auto pilot is engaged (pic ending in 49) and the red bars under the buttons are mostly filled, but when lost (pic ending in 46) the single green in the middle is lit. (I'm not if the first screen shot is telling me something.)

The Autopilot and MFD work fine when disconnected from each other (sailed 2300 miles from Grenada to Norfolk with this config). But, I'd like to resolve this issue. I've tried a different cable between the Auto Head and the controller. Since the same issue occurs with two different auto heads, and two different cables, I think I'm left with the issue being either the NMEA controller or the MFD.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Pete