Connecting old Garmin to old Raymarine.

Oct 22, 2014
20,992
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Not necessarily. This is NMEA 0183 data. the protocol is Talker - Listener based. Your AP is listening for the data to calculate the True Wind. If one or more of the elements of data is not provided it can not compute True Wind. It displays 3 bars.
 
Dec 2, 2003
751
Hunter 260 winnipeg, Manitoba
Any chance you have photos of the back?

It sounds to me like you have only one seatalk plug into the auto pilot?

You need to have a look at your auto pilot controller to see what your connections are. The auto pilot controller sea talk connection will go back to the smart pilot computer.

See p8 of this document.

https://m.box.com/shared_item/https://raymarine.box.com/s/nwf2s5ha9xrltggghogu/view/17296742353

You should have two sets of seatalk connections to the computer. If only one then autopilot is wired stand alone.

If there is only one sea talk connection to the wind (other than jumper to depth/speed) it could be that it is connected to power rather than the rest of the seatalk network (ie to the computer) - essentially leaving the autopilot stand alone. This would explain your lack of true wind as there would be no compass input to the wind instrument. Does your controller head have a second seatalk connection location? If so you should be able to jump this to the second location on the depth/speed to complete the seatalk connection. You can do this even with just two wires (screen connector to screen connector and yellow to yellow, red connections are power supply between units so can be left off. ) - either permanently or temporarily and later buy the proper cable if you wish.

Pages 9-11 of the above document show the different wiring options for it.

This was how mine was installed by the dealer - tridata had power supplied through seatalk but no connection to autopilot.
 
Dec 2, 2003
751
Hunter 260 winnipeg, Manitoba
Actually this is all seatalk one protocol. Nmea shouldn’t be part of this until and only for the connection to the Garmin.
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,992
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
I am sorry for trying to simplify the statement.

Under "Seatalk" there are Unidirectional and Bidirectional signals transmitted. If you do not have the data transmitted to the AP the True Wind can not be calculated.
 
Dec 2, 2003
751
Hunter 260 winnipeg, Manitoba
So here is how it looks your connections are made.

Autopilot computer - 1 seatalk connection to 1 seatalk connection on auto pilot controller head.

No second connection on computer or on control head - autopilot is stand alone.

That is seatalk network 1

Seatalk network 2
Power seatalk connection from instrument switch to 1 seatalk connection on wind instrument - provides power only - the only standard cable included with the instrument purchase.

Jumper connection from 2nd seatalk connection on wind to 1 seatalk connection on depth speed - provides communication from wind to depth/speed along with power for that instrument.

Seatalk network 1 and 2 don’t have connection. No connection - no compass, no true wind speed/direction

Three ways to get connection between units.
Power cable for wind can be routed to second set of seatalk connections on computer
Diagram p10 of document I previously linked to.

Put jumper between control head and speed/depth all three connectors - red,screen and yellow ( disconnect and insulate red wire at seatalk computer connection. )You only want 1 power supply going to the auto pilot computer itself.)
Diagram page 11.

Third way to do would be to disconnect the seatalk connector going in to wind and the jumper all three connections between depth/speed.
Gives page 9 wiring.
 
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Feb 20, 2016
96
None None None
Not sure that I am following everything. However I can show you what a rather crude picture of the back of the instrument panels. Remember that the one on the far left is actually the auto pilot the one in the middle is the depth/speed instrument, and the one on the right is the wind instrument. This is the exact reverse of what I described before, because obviously you are looking at the item from behind.

Not sure whether this picture adds any clarity to the situation or not but I thought that I would put it up in case you see something obvious that is wrong.

Sorry about the picture quality..
 

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jviss

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Feb 5, 2004
6,745
Tartan 3800 20 Westport, MA
Draw a diagram, if you can, based on your pics and memory.
 
Feb 20, 2016
96
None None None
That’s all that “pics and memory” contain. I’m two hours away from the boat so I can’t get any more right now.
 

jviss

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Feb 5, 2004
6,745
Tartan 3800 20 Westport, MA
I understand, that's fine. Maybe we can figure out how it should be connected.
 
Feb 20, 2016
96
None None None
From what I can understand from reading the explanations, it seems as though whoever set the system up wanted to have two separate systems. One was for the auto pilot. The second was to simply power of the wind instrument and the depth instrument.

I’m not too versed in this but it sounds like maybe they did that in order to conserve power. In other words you don’t have to run the computer just to have a wind instrument and a depth sounding. That probably would explain why there’s two switches on the breaker one for “navigation“, and the other one for “auto pilot“.

I’m just inferring all that.

Inferring further, it sounds like the three methods that were suggested all have the advantage of connecting everything through Seatalk. But it sounds like they have the disadvantage of powering the entire system all the time, rather than segregating the power.

Not sure if I am understanding this correctly. Just trying to get an overall idea of the problem.

Thanks again.

Michael
 
Feb 20, 2016
96
None None None
On second thought I think I have that wrong. The second method, which is described on page 11 seems like it might be the smart way to go. If I understand what happens there the course computer gets its own power independently but it doesn’t pass it on down the line. Everything else gets its power from the wind instrument. If you do it this way it seems like you could power on the wind and the depth instrument independently and leave the course computer off at the breaker. Sounds like this might be the right way to go. Again I’m not sure I’m understanding any of this. Just trying to understand it from a layman’s standpoint.
 

jviss

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Feb 5, 2004
6,745
Tartan 3800 20 Westport, MA
I think you're on to it, Michael. But, the AP provides some valuable info to the Seatalk bus, like heading info, and does bridging of NMEA-0183 and Seatalk, for your chartplotter. If it's not steering the boat the AP doeson't use a lot of juice.
 
Feb 20, 2016
96
None None None
Yes, I see what you’re saying. I was just curious as to why a person would go through all the trouble to set things up the way mine is when you could simply run to the course computer and daisychain everything off of that. Why go through the trouble of having to separate breakers, to separate power sources, and not having this system talk to itself? It just seems like a lot of work for no result. That’s why I thought maybe it was a power saving arrangement. But as I’ve noted, I really don’t know.

Can I ask another juvenile question? Is there a good source to buy Seatalk Jumpers? I see they have them on eBay but I like to buy things from more reliable sources than that.

Thanks again.

Michael
 
Dec 2, 2003
751
Hunter 260 winnipeg, Manitoba
You don’t “have” to buy seatalk jumpers. Just need three wires connected same to same. I.e.red to red, yellow to yellow and screen to screen.

I think you have it worked out now.

On my autopilot if the autopilot is on and connected to other instruments that are not powered on you will get a seatalk failure message and it’s unusable. That is the only reason I can think of.

In your arrangement though it really should have been wired to wind so the autopilot could sail relative to wind (trim) as opposed to holding course.


Based on previous photos and your diagram, and memory I think you are currently wired as marked up.
82E9DEAA-821D-4B56-90FF-89290E279533.jpeg

The wires in the lower right of your diagram should be to power.

As you’ve noted I think as wired on page 11 might give you the options your looking for - although it does require all instruments to be powered up in order for your autopilot to work.

By the way - looks like you should be able to do the Garmin nmea connection either at the course computer or at the control head. Will give your autopilot course, waypoint, crosstrack error etc.
 
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Feb 20, 2016
96
None None None
Twalker:

Thanks again.

I would think that you would have to get a SeaTalk jumper if you’re going to go from the auto pilot over to the depth/speed instrument, right? You’re really couldn’t do that with just wires I don’t think?

Also, you indicated earlier that the speed instrument and the wind instrument should be talking to each other right now because they’re connected via a jumper. However, they don’t talk to each other and I can’t get the true wind. However, I am assuming that is because those two instruments never get back to the computer and that’s where of the calculations take place, right?

Thanks.

Michael
 
Oct 22, 2014
20,992
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Michael, I was looking for an image from Raymarine to help explain the way the st60’s are connected as listeners and the transducers are aligned as talkers in the system. Your “instruments” are listeners and they tell you what they hear.
The AP is the tool that needs to get the data so it can compute the information and talk to the other displays.

The attached diagram helps.
 

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