ST-60 Wind Problem

navigator97 · Aug 11, 2011

I suspect that the screw holding the vane to the transmitter has loosened. I have had mine loosen on the ST-50 on my 1990 H-33.5 to the point it fell off, fortunately while on the hard for winter storage. The parts were retrieved, the transmitter removed by the yard with their crane, and it was reassembled by the local electronics shop. The yard re-installed the repaired transmitter again using their crane. Works fine after that and still today.

Rick486 · Aug 11, 2011

John T1594 said:

I have an ST-60 wind instrument as part of a wind/depth/speed package on my sailboat( 2000, H340). The unit is about 11 years old. Recently, the wind direction feature has stopped working while the wind speed remains functional. The wind direction needle on the display points between 90 degrees to Port or down to 180 degrees regardless of which direction the wind is heading. There is some slight response if the wind is 90 degrees to port but all other wind directions send the needle display to 180. The wind vane at the mast head turns in all directions and it appears that it maybe slightly bent to one side as viewed from the deck. I have tried turning the boat several times to re-calibrate but that does not seem to help.
A month or so ago, the unit started reading 180 degrees from the actual wind direction and that corrected itself after a day or so.

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John T1594 said:
Is there any way to troubleshoot the mast head unit vs. the display? If it needs to be replaced, are these units still available?

When mine acts up, which it does frequently, with the gauge reading seemingly random directions while the vane at the mast head points correctly, I go to "dealer calibration" and select "factory defaults". This restores the thing to proper operation until the next time. You might try doing that ritual to see if that restores proper operation.

jsalley · Aug 11, 2011

My ST-60 wind instrument has also acted up, with the numeric display getting stuck on VMG. I sent the head unit back to Raymarine - twice. First time, they sent me a new one (it was under warranty), second time they simply reset it to the factory default and it worked fine. I agree you should try a reset first. If it does need replacement, the ST-60 instruments are still available, and you can purchase just the masthead unit or the instrument head from places like Defender.

Bill Roosa · Aug 12, 2011

Raymarine has some diagnostic info on their web site. it seams to indicate that there are port and starboard "coils" that interact to produce signals that are combined by the display head as the actual wind direction. sounds like either the power to one or the signal from it have stopped. 99.44% of all electrical problems are corroded connections. so I'm thinking that you should check the quick connect at the mast head first. May just need pulled and reinserted to clean it enough to tell if a dedicated cleaning is warranted.

Ken Palmer · Aug 12, 2011

Rick486 said:
I go to "dealer calibration" and select "factory defaults". This restores the thing to proper operation until the next time. You might try doing that ritual to see if that restores proper operation.

My ST60 acts very similar. I called Raymarine for some troubleshooting hints. I asked if there was a battery inside the meter assembly to hold the memory, and they said no battery and suggested I send the unit in. I didn't want to spend the money, so I just reset the unit to dealer calibration and it works until the next day. Can you believe they get $600 for a replacement unit less masthead sensor and wire. What a rip-off.

Rick486 · Aug 12, 2011

Ken Palmer said:

My ST60 acts very similar. I called Raymarine for some troubleshooting hints. I asked if there was a battery inside the meter assembly to hold the memory, and they said no battery and suggested I send the unit in. I didn't want to spend the money, so I just reset the unit to dealer calibration and it works until the next day. Can you believe they get $600 for a replacement unit less masthead sensor and wire. What a rip-off.

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Yeah Ken, I agree. Mine has acted squirrely since new. To me it seems more like a firmware/software issue since it can be corrected by wiping the slate clean so to speak. Mine doesn't go haywire every day but often tho. But I still have my windex to rely on. As an aside though, I have owned 3 cruising boats with masthead electronic AWIs from 3 different companies and they all gave trouble at some point. I can think of much better uses of $600 than to replace the head with another and probably have it do the same thing.

Ken Palmer · Aug 12, 2011

I have a new problem now... The wind-speed cups won't turn unless there are 20 knot winds. I think the spiders have been on my mast head and gummed up the works. I need somebody to go aloft and clear it.

Bill Roosa · Aug 14, 2011

Sounds like your display head is oK and just getting bad sensor info/no sensor info.
Before you go replacing parts check the quick connect at the mast head. If it is corroded then you will not be getting all the sensor info and the display will act odd.

Monty Miller · Aug 15, 2011

"symptoms sound like a bad display" is kind of a loose answer.

Using a digital volt meter you should see the following readings from the masthead transducer:

Red to Screen: 8V
Blue to Screen: Variable 2 to 6V
Green to Screen: Variable 2 to 6V
Yellow to Screen: Variable 0 to 8V

This is from the Raymarine site.

https://raymarine.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/408/kw/st60/related/1

I hope this helps and good luck.

Bill Roosa · Aug 15, 2011

That is classical 2-resistor sensing. Power to two variable resistors and variable voltages back from them. The thrid is the wind speed. The control head is working but only in one sector which makes me believe that
1) Power is being supplied to the sensor
2) One of the resistors is working
3) One of them is not or has a lot of resistance in its return wire

AHEM! Check the quick connect at the mast head for corrosion.

Ken Palmer · Aug 15, 2011

Good information. Thanks Monty and Bill.