[TG] [TG11] ACU 400 integration to legacy

[Tom - Raymarine - Moderator]

Hello MBileckyj,

I'm sorry to say that this won't work. Although the ACU400 is a similar size and shape to the T300, it doesn't do the same job.
With Evolution pilots the EV sensor core is the true heart of the pilot, it's where all of the course-keeping decisions are made. The ACU simply receives and acts on instructions to move the rudder to specific locations directed by the EV. Therefore, you can't use an ACU without an EV. If you connect a pilot display, ACU and source of heading data such as the H2183 together and press 'Auto', you'll get an immediate alarm of 'No Pilot', because essentially the EV is the pilot.

You also need a modern pilot controller in any Evolution pilot system. This can be either an Axiom/Axiom Pro MFD or a p70/p70R/p70S/p70RS display. You can connect a Seatalk1 pilot controller (ST6002 or similar or a wireless S100 or Smartcontroller remote) via a Seatalk1-SeatalkNG Convertor, but this cannot be the only controller in the system, there must always be at least one modern pilot display.

It sounds like you need to get both an EV1 and p70S or p70RS display to go with your ACU400.

A lot of things have changed in pilot technology since the T300 was designed in around 1995, and trying to implement full backwards compatibility would limit the development of new products too much. With the Evolution pilots, we had to put the steering intelligence into the EV1 rather than ACU because we need faster communication between the heading/accelerometer/yaw sensors and the main steering algorithm than the NMEA2000/SeatalkNG network would allow: they had to be in the same device.

Regards,
Tom