Interfaceing EV 200 to older Raymarine Displays/ GPS

[Walt]

Well after several trolling charter trips, I concluded that the auto pilot worked well enough holding the coarse "line of site" and that I could live without the convenience of the Track mode. As I mentioned earlier the data boxes all had the required data indicated, but when asked to track to a waypoint that I had selected on the plotter to go to, I would get the "No Navigation Data" message and beep.

Now, all of a sudden I don't even get any communication at all with my other systems which at least were being displayed before. What the heck! I knew something was up when I turned the pilot on and I got a unfamiliar "no speed data" warning/error message right away. But the pilot continues to work well. Just no outside information anymore. Depth, speed, nothing. I checked the Sea talking converter LED and it no longer blinks as it did before but now remains solid green.

If I can't get the track to work (Not interested in downgrading software nor do I have a late model MFD to do upgrades or downgrades with) the other data in the data boxes is meaningless to me as I don't need just another repeater. Can I just use the pilot as is? I'm guessing it received speed info long enough to do the auto learn requirement for a properly operating pilot. Would that be correct? Interestingly enough, the pilot at trolling speed (1.5mph to 2.2 mph) seems to perform even better then before! Before the boxes went blank, the pilot held well but seemed to do a lot of see sawing and was working unnecessarily hard. Now the pilot is dead silent and only making the rare correction when needed to hold coarse. I'm thinking of locking the settings and just calling it good. It really don't need constant GPS heading coarse or constant speed input after auto learn has been completed, does it? -Walt-

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Walt,

Q: Can I just use the pilot as is? I'm guessing it received speed info long enough to do the auto learn requirement for a properly operating pilot. Would that be correct?
A: As you have suggested, the Evolution autopilots are heavily dependent on being provided either speed through water data or GPS speed over ground data from the system. Should the autopilot fail to perform in a satisfactory manner in Auto mode in the future, then you will need to troubleshoot the failure reported with the SeaTalk to SeaTalkng Converter (recommend created a separate thread to address this topic).

[Walt]

Gottcha and thank you for your input. I have a extremely heavy schedule now and really don't want to pursue anything that isn't absolutely necessary. As I mentioned, the auto pilot seems to be working remarkably well even without the speed inputs. I will definitely be watching it closely. I understand the recommended separate new thread suggestion. Very quickly however, what does the green LED on the Sea Talking Converter staying on solid green indicate? When information was being transferred to the pilot earlier, it blinked (every so many seconds) One note, the other older units connected to this system (Sea Talk units) are still communicating no problem via the Sea Talking converter (with the solid green LED on now) and being powered thru this converter. Thanks, Walt

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Walt,

The following except from Section 6.2 Troubleshooting of the SeaTalk to SeaTalkng Installation Instructions describes all of the codes indicated by the SeaTalk to SeaTalkng Converter.



As indicated with the excerpt, a solidly illuminated green LED indicates a healthy converter which is indicating that it is not connected to a source of SeaTalk data.