[CA] [CA11] Autopilot Control eS127 / S3G / ST8001

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

hynespa,

Q1) Do you mind taking a look at the attached Chuck to see if I misinterpreted your earlier coaching?

A1) Your diagram shows a T connector joined to each of your Fusion devices and then connected as a spur the backbone. This is invalid per NMEA 2000 standards. It is recommended that the SeaTalkng Backbone be extended to the locations of each of the Fusion devices. At each location, a T-Piece or 5-Way Connector should be installed. Raymarine offers SeaTalkng Spur to DeviceNet Male (A06046) and SeaTalkng Spur to DeviceNet Female adapter cables (A06045) to permit third party products having a NMEA 2000 communications interface to be adapted to be mated to a spur socket within a SeaTalkng / NMEA 2000 backbone which has been constructed from SeaTalkng Networking components.

Q2) I would eventually like to add a Raymarine S100 remote or E15023 SmartController to my setup. Does it matter if I plug the base station into the back of the ST8001 or the D244?
A2) While it is indeed possible to interface the base station to the ST8001 as you have suggested, interfacing the remote's base station to the D244 block would permit that remote (SmartController) to display system data, irrespective of the power state of the autopilot.

Q3) If I want to maintain the ability to control my autopilot from my eS127 MFD, should I avoid upgrading the MFD to Lighthouse III?
A3) As a number of gap features remain to be included within a LH3 software update, I would recommend remaining at LHII v19.03 until the Spring of '19 when it is presently expected that the remaining gap features will have been introduced into LH3.