[CA] [CA11] Reconnecting X10 Autopilot

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Eniramyar,

General comment: It is not necessary to interface a complete Raymarine autopilot system to any other device to permit the autopilot to steer to a heading (Auto mode).

Q1. Is the S100 adequate as a standalone Autopilot controller, or am I missing a necessary hardwired controller?
A1. The autopilot system must additionally include a compatible autopilot control head. Should the current equipment list not include one, then it would be recommended that a p70S or p70RS Autopilot Control Head be purchased and interfaced to the system. To view more information concerning the use of these autopilot control heads with a SPX autopilot course computer, please click here to view a FAQ addressing this subject. In the case of the proposed system, it would be recommended that the S100 base station alone be interfaced to the autopilot course computer's SeaTalk port.

Q2. I believe the Raydata and ST60 are only data display units and don't offer any autopilot control functions - is this correct?
A2. Correct. To interface these devices to a NMEA 2000 backbone, it would be recommended that an E22158 SeaTalk1 & SeaTalkng Converter Kit be installed within the system's powered and properly terminated SeaTalkng / NMEA 2000 backbone. The unpowered RayData and ST60 instruments would in turn be interfaced to the SeaTalk (yellow) socket of the SeaTalk1 & SeaTalkng Converter. The aforementioned backbone may be joined to a backbone which has been constructed from third party networking products in the manner specified within the FAQ found here.

Q3. Can I connect the Seatalk backbone to the Garmin NMEA 2000 backbone and have the autopilot track a course on the MFD?
A3. It would be recommended that the backbone comprising the autopilot components be isolated from the third party backbone. A NMEA 0183 to NMEA 2000 data bridging device (ex. Actisense NGW-1, etc.) would then be installed between the NMEA 0183 input and output ports of the autopilot course computer and a spur socket within the third party backbone.