Upgrading Raymarine Instruments

[Steve E.]

Greetings all,

I am planning on upgrading my existing RayMarine ST40 Depth and Speed instruments with a Raymarine i50 / i60 Depth, Speed and Wind Systems Pack. My hope is that I can use the existing wiring for the transducers for speed and depth (as there is nothing wrong with them) and only run the mast wire for the wind.

Does anyone know if that will work, or will I have to do a complete rewire?

Thanks,

 

[Sailm8]

My experience. Depth display on my autohelm ST30 went out. I called Raymarine to see if the i series was a direct replacement. They assured me no problem. The transducer will work, direct replacement they said so I bought an i90 depth for about $340. As soon as I opened the box I saw it would not work. Called Raymarine and was told, "Who told you that"? You need a $300 interface box and a $100 cable. Had to pay a 10% restocking fee to send back the display, If you call Raymarine tech service beware.

 

[Pizzazz]

Raymarine sensors are analog. So, the wind/depth/speed sensor sends analog data to the instrument which then converts it into Seatalk (older series) or NMEA 2000 (new series) that you can then distribute on your network. You do not need to change the analog wiring but you will need to change from Seatalk to NMEA 2000 and make sure your chartplotters can accept NMEA 2000.

One option is to go for digital sensors, so that you do not need to buy new instruments but it entirely depends on how you want to setup your boat. Originally I had ST60+ instruments on my boat. The wind vane failed, the depth transducer was erratic. I was looking at a $1,500 to replace everything. Then I got a nmea 0183 wind instrument, NASA Marine - $200, and a Garmin 44dv chart/sonar ($250) that I put at the helm. Now I have a single, highly configurable display at the help that does: sonar, depth, temp, apparent wind, ground wind, AIS, heading, charts and autopilot control from a device not much bigger than a Raymarine i60 display. I kept the older ST60+ displays for a while (they can still display wind and depth since the autopilot converts nmea to Seatalk) but eventually got rid of them. They just took too much space. I do prefer the clean look though. Some people like to have 5-6 displays at the helm. You decide what works best for you.

I also got rid of the compass by the way since I installed a gyro compass updating at 10 Hz. So now I have just two displays at the helm: the Garmin 44dv and the autopilot control.

 

[Steve E.]

As I understand it (I need to visually verify) nothing is running in a network. Everything in single runs to the transducers. The boat is on the hard right now, so this winter is the time to upgrade them if I want to.

The existing transducers and the new i50/i60 from RayMarine appear to be compatible. As I can tell, the new system talks SeaTalk/SeaTalkNG/NMEA. The bigger question is, will the old transducers work with the new units. I am inclined to say yes, but given Sailm8's answer, it may be better to replace the transducers anyhow. Especially since the boat is out of the water. New hardware, cabling, etc.

 

[jviss]

i90 depth

I can't find an i90 anywhere. Perhaps you mean i70?
The i50 depth and speed, and i60 wind, will work with existing transducers. However, the older speed transducers don't have a temperature probe, as the new one does, and there likely won't be enough wires run already to use this feature even if you install the new transducer. But yes, they will work.
The i70's are NMEA 2000 instruments, so the ITC-5 analogue interface for older transducers is required.
I have installed the i50 and i60, so I can attest to this working with the older transducers.

 

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[artboas]

Here is exactly what you want.
First of all go with the i70 color. Much better than the i60
Hey thanks itc-5, and new depth & speed xducers.
Will work perfectly, and you're done.
Old knotmeter cducer won't work

 

[artboas]

I've responded to this elsewhere
Here is exactly what you want
Go with i70 color heads. Don't go monochrome
Get the itc-5
Fish a new mh cabke using the old one.
Put in a new wind vane
Your old speed xducer won't work.
Put in new speed & depth
Now, your whole system is N2K, and you're done. Anything else & you will be troubleshooting forever.
So, new gear & be done with it.

 

[jviss]

AR, I'm having trouble making sense of your two posts. Why would one bother with a new wind transducer if installing an ITC-5? And, the old speed transducer will work, according to Raymarine.

The most cost effective upgrade here is the i50/i60 instruments, new analog wind vane, which comes with the sail pack, and use the existing speed and depth transducers.

 

[Meriachee]

Be very careful tossing around SeaTalk variants and NMEA versions as blanket statements. The stuff does not all talk to everything else without protocol converters like the ITC5, and displays like the i70 are probably best considered "repeaters", rather than control heads. You don't plug the windvane INTO the i70, the network cable delivers the wind DATA, TO the i70.
A small, but expensive difference.

 

[Doug4bass]

The Airmar transducers (speed and depth) on my C-270 (I-50s) installation are the very same as the transducers in our C-385, which C-125/I-70 is installed. Uses the ITC-5 for the analog to digital conversion.

 

[artboas]

Ok, on the original knotmeter xducers they didn't have a temp sensor.
Next, after a full cycle of many years on a masthead unit, several parts are coming close to EOL. Don't forget, the bearings spin 24/7.
Secondly, the vane plug is not what I would call mil-quality. After a number of years the pins start to corrode, especially if you're in salt.
There is a significant discount buying this stuff in the "pack", and it will give you trouble free usage for many years
And if something physical (or electrical) happens to your new MHU, you have a spare. Which is about $350 to purchase.
You are correct that you don't wire the mast cable into the i60.
You use the itc-5 for everything. For $250, it is a BARGAIN, and works flawlessly. One of rm's best pieces of engineering.