How can you tell an S1 AP is talking to a GPS

[rpwillia]

I finally got my VHF radio to receive the GPS data - pretty cool to see lat/lon values on the radio. Yahoo, Now I am trying to get the Raymarine S1 AP to see it also. The Raymarine documentation is pretty slim on this. Has anyone (I think you have Witzend) seen this and have a picture and the button sequences you need to confirm it?

 

[Witzend]

Ya got me here.
My C90w GPS heading corresponds closely to the S1, but only after I enabled the Auto Pilot feature in the system page on the C90w. I did not need to do anything on the S1.
As far as Lat./Lon. I have never seen anything in the S1 documentation that would indicate it can display Lat./Lon., but maybe I missed something.

 

[Calif. Ted]

Set the GPS to a waypoint then hit the "track" button on the AP, if communicating AP will display a heading to the waypoint and question(mark) if you want to engage. If not communicating the AP will display a dashed line and may even say "no gps data" if I remember correctly.

 

[rpwillia]

The Raymarine Docs are pretty slim

I can check with a waypoint, but I was thinking that I read somewhere on the XTE page that I would see lat/lon or something like that. In the install docs there is all of about 1/3 page on interfacing with a GPS.

 

[Witzend]

And sometimes ambiguous. I know I'm talking because there is an icon on the C90w that indicates the status of the S1, Auto or Stndby. If they are not talking than there is an X over the icon.

 

[rpwillia]

In a couple of days...

when I get back home I will get down to my boat and send you pictures of what it looks like when the GPS talks to the radio, etc. I will also see if I actually have to GPS talking to my AP.

Witzend, it is helpful you GPS shows the connection, but it would seem to make sense there is some sort of indication on the AP.

 

[Witzend]

I agree, but I have had no indication on the AP that it is receiving GPS on it's display. So far I have tried a "goto" from the C90w and the AP took me there, and the C90w told my I was there by alarm, but it was a direct route under power. I will try a "goto route" that would require a tack under sail and see what happens, then I will be sure com. is operational bidirectionally. I also know that when close hauled and I activate the AP by depressing the STBY and AUTO buttons at the same time I get a "wind" status displayed on the AP. The course seems to correct for changes in with direction and does not blindly drive a course into the wind.

 

[rpwillia]

Indicators on the S1 AP it has GPS Data

Read the manual and played with it and then it made perfect sense. The AP only cares about GPS data if it is being told to so it looks for the BTW (Bearing To Waypoint) and DTW (Distance To Waypoint) words. There are only output from the AP is you are navigating to a waypoint. So on my Humminbird chartplotter if I hit the GOTO button, select a waypoint (down arrow on keypad) and have it go to it (right arrow on keypad) it starts navigating. On the S1 if you hit the DISP button the 2nd or 3rd display will be the BTW followed DTW displays. There on the top line you will see the BTW with the waypoint name to the right (if the waypoint name is long the display will scroll). The bearing is displayed below the first line with the bearing in real big numbers. Same goes for the Distance to Waypoint (DTW) display as long as it is fairly close. When I selected it buoy close to my slip it read 1.2nm, but selecting on that was further away (I think 50 miles) left it blank so I suspect there is a limit. But really simple when I thought about it.

It is a shame Raymarine did not think to add that into the manual as it would explain a lot.

 

[rpwillia]

Here is what the outputs look like

Finally got a chance to take some pictures. Here is my drawing plus the AP and VHF displays. Pretty neat now that it is all working.

"TIM 1" is the waypoint I was going to. To get to the displays all I did was hit the DISP button on the Raymarine ST6002 control head and they come up. As you are moving along they update. If you exit navigate mode on the GPS they go blank.

I believe you can customize some of the other displays, but have not played with them yet.