Connect knotmeter to Wheelpilot ?

[Calif. Ted]

Recently replaced old Autohelm Wheelpilot with a new Ray ST4000 and am wondering if it is worth the $30 for special order cable to connect seatalk between Tri-data and Autopilot. Anyone done this and does it improve the autopilots' performance if it knows how fast it is going?

 

[mick]

Connecting knotmeter to wheel pilot

The wheel pilot uses the speed information in "Track Mode", if that information is not there it uses a value in the setup menu. So it isn't vital, but it is used. The wind speed instrument also uses the speed information to compute the wind speed functions, and here it is vital because without it you will always have only one speed for the wind. The appearant wind speed will be the same as the true wind speed.

 

[Calif. Ted]

Thanks Mick,

It's getting close to time for new standing rigging and adding a wind instrument is a possibility so I think I'll get the cable now while it's available. The knotmeter uses old round 3 seatalk and new stuff is flat so this is cable for backwards compatibility and I found it in stock at Consumers Marine.