[CA] [CA11] Smart Pilot melted 2A fuse, blown board

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum Rick,

Q. the SeaTalk red was connected to the terminal on the Smart Pilot - I mention this because reading through posts on the forums I found that should not be the case when the smart pilot is powered. My e80s, VHF, Raystar are all powered on one breaker, and the autopilot is powered on a separate breaker.

A. In fact in the era of the E-Series Class MFDs and SmartPilot, it was common for the autopilot to supply power to the SeaTalk bus within small systems such as this. Unlike the MFD designs with followed, the SeaTalk port of the C/E-Series Classic MFDs was capable of powering a small SeaTalk bus which was basically limited to a powering a GPS sensor. However, within systems featuring additional SeaTalk devices, it was recommended that this feature not be used and the the red lead of the MFD's SeaTalk/Alarm Cable not be connected to the SeaTalk bus. It appears that this was an oversight within your system, as it appears that your MFD is indeed powering the GPS sensor via the MFD's SeaTalk/Alarm Cable.

Regarding the autopilot, it is clear from your description that the autopilot course computer, and possibly the autopilot control head have suffered a failure of their communications circuitry. However, without having a technician inspect and test these items, it would not be possible to know the extent of the damage. Unfortunately, Raymarine can no longer service these autopilots. Your idea concerning replacement of the autopilot course computer is indeed one option which may be undertaken. However, in doing so, the entire course computer should be swapped out rather than attempting to repair the original. That said, if the autopilot control head has also suffered a failure (I would recommend testing it alone with the replacement course computer), then you may want to consider replacing the autopilot with an Evolution autopilot.