Threaded Mode | Linear Mode

Wings

We are in Rarotonga, Cook Islands and had to hand steer for a few days when our Raymarine autopilot failed and we had no wind.

ST8002 display head, SPX30 controller. It's worked for flawlessly for 8 years and no changes in wiring other than environmental degradation in heat in South Pacific. Used terminal strips for Seatalk 1 connections. The system has worked until one day it stopped working and displayed the message, "No Pilot", then "Seatalk Failure".

Thinking it might be wiring-related, I used a fresh, out-of-the-package Seatalk cable with 3-pin head on one end and bare wires on the other. I removed the SPX30-to-ST60 Seatalk cable (the one in place all of these years) from the left-hand Seatalk bus on the SPX30. (Right hand bus wiring goes to Seatalk terminal strips.) I replaced it with the new Seatalk cable, directly from the SPX30 to the ST60 but received same message. It's not the wiring since all old wiring was bypassed in this test and the results were the same.

No fault lights show on SPX30. Red power light and 12V light show on SPX30 when it's powered. Display red and shield work since display head is powered. It's that damned yellow wire again, the bane of my life.

There is no reason to think that the SPX30 or display head have suddenly failed, I don't think. I just have no way to test anything else but do need the system to work if possible.

Testing "yellow wire" problems is always difficult since I can't determine if the data is being transmitted. Is there a voltage check for this as there is in the r28170 diagnostics?