ST5000 Autopilot losing its mind

[Greg]

I have a ST5000 in my 4 month old C36mkII. In two different instances, I've had the following troubles:We're sailing along with the autopilot holding the course. The Autopilot then shows a SeaTalk Failure, and the Autopilot won't respond to any commands - and locks up the steering until someone races down below and kills the breaker.When we kill all the nav equipment, wait a minute, and then bring it back on line, everything works fine - for awhile.Any ideas?

 

[Bill Boudreau]

At least its mind is confused

A failure after a certain length of time usually indicates a component failure (related to heat)on the PCB. Our larger autopilot systems will give this STLK FAIL alarm when their control heads are powered up but not connected (communicating) with their central course computers. In you case, with the ST5000 , the course computer is in the ST5000 control head along with all the drive circuitry. Does this only happen in auto? Do you have any splices in the compass or rudder reference wires (possible shorts)? If it happens in STANDBY, what happens when you disconnect the compass and the rudder reference? I believe you will need to have a technician take a look at the control head. Visit www.raymarine.com for dealer and repair services contact information!

 

[Konrad Weinstock]

ST4000 behaves identically

My ST4000 on my 2000 Hunter 340 behaves in exactly the same manner. My dealer tried swapping the head unit for another with the same result. We observed that when this occurs, my Raychart 520 displays dashes for depth (from the ST40 Depth - which does display a depth at the time). I'm not sure if there is any correlation, but the autopilot never fails while I'm motoring. The installer has checked the wiring connections multiple times with no success (unfortunately, the unit never fails when he's around).