Raymarine SeaTalk Blackout

[Herman18887]

I have a 2005 Hunter 33 with Raymarine ST60 speed and depth, ST6002 SmartPilot, and C80 display. We were motoring using the autopilot on a very hot day last week when all the instruments except the C80 went blank. The C80 lost the GPS connection but still showed the chart.

Can anyone suggest how to begin troubleshooting this? I saw a forum post which talked about an autopilot CPU, but I can't find one on my boat.

Thanks,
Herman

 

[HernandoBeacher]

I would suspect the course computer if that is the source of power assuming that you have a seatalk network running. There are fuses within the course computer thatare easily tested and replaced. If power is getting to the instruments, I would suggest that the next step would be removing the data wire within the network cable from the instruments to determine if a network error is causing the instruments to go blank.

 

[Bill Roosa]

If you are using SeaTalk it supplies DC power, ground, and data to all the instruments. It normally gets these from a location near either the chart plotter or GPS through a dedicated connection to the SeaTalk power and ground wires running to the ships mains. it can be connected anywhere however.
The first step is to determine where SeaTalk is connected to the ship mains. Since the C80 still had power I'd assume that iit is near that unit.
Walk your way down the SeaTalk cabling to the next unit and closely inspect the wires and connections. Since everything went dead at once it sounds like they just lost power and since SeaTalk connections are serial it is probably the first unit in the series that is causing the problems .

 

[Scosta]

I agree. Sounds like the wiring. When it happened to me it was the bare ground wire. I re tightened all all the wires to the ground block at the helm and it corrected my instrument blackouts.

 

[Herman18887]

Thanks so much for the quick responses. I found the SmartPilot course computer behind the AC panel and replaced a blown 5 amp fuse. Everything works again!