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Doug McEwen

I have installed a new a98, a second i70 and an Android tablet as a below-decks repeater, and have hit some issues which didn't work according to Raymarine documentation. A circuit diagram is attached showing how all instruments are powered, and a network diagram is attached showing how network signals (Seatalk, STNG, NMEA 0183 etc) are interconnected. I have upgraded all firmware which would take an upgrade, such that the current situation is:

a98: v17.45-00403, S/N E70233
i70: 1.25 S/N 1221266
i70: 2.18 S/N 1250133
E22158: 2.01 S/N 0831310

The upgrades of the a98, the E22158 and one i70 were successful. The upgrade of one i70 and the SPX5 failed, with an error message saying "no update found". I have no idea why one i70 failed, except that it is several years older than the one that successfully upgraded. I am guessing the SPX5 failed because it is only connected to the network via Seatalk and NMEA 0183, not STNG. If this is the case, can you please tell me how to connect the SPX5 to STNG - it will require ordering a STNG stub cable and connecting wires of various colors to the four STNG terminals on the SPX5. I cannot find any documentation that explains which wire color goes to which terminal.

The port diagnostics page on the a98 shows that NMEA 0183 sentences are being received on both ports 1 and 2, but there is no indication that the a98 is using this data. I noted that before I upgraded to R17, the a98 showed HDG coming from the SPX5 on the NMEA 0183 port, but after the upgrade to R17, it no longer shows this - it only shows the slower 1 Hz HDG data coming from the E22158. So it appears that R17 disabled NMEA 0183 data, or something like that.

The RayViewer app works fine on the Android tablet and does what it is supposed to. But when I try to download the RayControl app, I get an error message from the Google Play store saying that this app is not available in my country (Canada). Is there some way I can get the RayControl app in Canada?

In summary, the issues I hope you can help with are listed below, in rough order of priority:
- a98 does not make use of NMEA 0183 data it receives on ports 1 and 2
- how do I download the Raycontrol app in Canada
- if STNG is a better way of getting 5 Hz HDG data from the SPX5 to the a98, and the software update from the a98 to the SPX5, then I need some documentation on what wire colors to connect to the SPX5
- how do I upgrade the software on the one i70 that failed to upgrade?

Thanks in advance for your help with these issues.