Old autopilot with new SeatalkNG instruments

[Radiozephyr]

I recently purchased a i70s instrument kit to replace the 30 year old instruments on my boat. The boat also came with a ST5000+ autopilot, which I plan to keep. From my research, I’ve learned that I can connect the autopilot with the i70s via the Seatalk to SeatalkNG converter. However, it seems that this would require that there only be one power source for the whole Seatalk network, which would come through the autopilot (I think). Does this mean that if I set it up this way, there would be no way to turn on my instruments without also turning on the autopilot? Would it make the “instruments” breaker on my DC panel useless? Is there a way to set this up so that I could turn off the autopilot but keep the instruments on? Or vice versa?

Also, what if the autopilot fails? Would that mean I’d also lose my instruments?

Thanks!