I70S Digital/Analog Compatibility

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum capacolla,

Q1: I understand that the speed paddlewheel is analog so that I would need to purchase an ITC-5 converter to change the analog signal to digital which could be transmitted on the SeaTalkng backbone. Is there new digital version of the paddlewheel that I can purchase and avoid using the ITC-5 converter?
A1: While Raymarine offers the M78716 ST800 transducer (features a SeaTalkng communications interface) calibration of the speed and temperature, and configuration of speed, and temperature alarms must all be performed via an i70/i70S MFID which has been interfaced directly as a spur to the SeaTalkng backbone rather than an i70/i70S which has been connected directly to the SeaTalk bus. Should your currently installed speed/temp transducer have failed, then the ST800 may be worth considering.

Q2: Can I use the old speed instrument with the NEMA2000 cables to just daisy chain the speed information to the system and will it be readable by the I70s? Presently the analog wind and depth are seen by the I70S.
A2. No. See the response to Q1. An i70/i70S and ST800 would each need to be interfaced as spurs to the SeaTalkng backbone to which the Evolution autopilot components had been interfaced.

Q3: Will the AIS display work on the I70S with NEMA0183 protocol that I'm presently using to display targets?
A3: No. As Raymarine MFDs neither supports bridging AIS data to SeaTalk nor SeaTalkng, the AIS receiver/transceiver would need to be interfaced to the SeaTalkng backbone in order for an i70/i70S to display AIS information. As GPS data is being passed to the SeaTalkng backbone via a SeaTalk to SeaTalkng converter and the Evolution autopilot is supplying the backbone with heading data, all additional data items required for an i70/i70S (which has been interfaced as a spur to the SeaTalkng backbone) to display AIS data.