[DG] [DG11] Question about the two Seatalk connections on ST6002 Pilot controller

[JohnCanSail]

I am researching how I am going to connect my older ST60 (wind & tri-data) instruments and ST6002 SmartPilot X5 which all use Seatalk 1 with newer NMEA 2K system. I know about needing the converters and just figuring out the where/how of the physical connection into the Seatalk 1 network.

Currently the ST60 instruments and the Pilot controller are in a Navpod at the helm, connected together and then from the pilot controller run to one port on the course computer.

I've looked at the Smart Pilot X5 installation and setup guide (doc ref 87074-2) and my course computer and it shows that there are two Seatalk physical connections on the course computer. But from the documentation it is not clear to me if these two Seatalk connections are on the same physical bus or if they are two separate Seatalk buses.

Basically I am trying to determine if I connected to the currently unused Seatalk connection on the course computer would it see all of the Seatalk data from the instruments on the other physical connection or not. Is somebody at Raymarine able to comment if the two Seatalk ports at the course computer are effectively on the same physical bus or bridge between the two (by this I mean forward/retransmit data on the other port or not) or are in fact two completely separate Seatalk buses that the course computer can receive/send data on and data would only be seen one or the other bus connections.

Thank you
John