Hoping to understand Raymarine ST60 and ST60+ Tridata instrumentation.

[ostra4]

I found this the other day which might have some info you need
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/pdfs/Raymarine/ST60+_Tridata_OH.pdf

 

[nigelmercier]

It appears to do the same as my device, although possibly at the wrong frequency; as I said above "per nm there would be 60 x 60 x 5.5 pulses, 19,800". I'm sure you will be able to adjust your instrument to correct this, but I know the chap who owns CruzPro and he is normally spot on.

 

[RichardS]

Father's Day present arrived today ..... and it's the tinyiest and lightest boaty thing I've ever seen. I won't have any problems finding somewhere to fix it.

Here it is standing on a standard beer mat.

Just in time for next week's Med cruise.

I'll report back in due course.

Richard

OK, I promised a report on the Cruzpro and here it is:

[RANT ON] :ambivalence:

As we are current still storm-bound until at least tomorrow I decided to fit the SOG-1. This mean taking the headlining down and removing the Tridata and using my second Wago to connect together the ST60 Tridata, the RS125 GPS mushroom, the SOG-1, the Autopilot and the C80 Classic.

It was another snakes nest of wires but in the end I got everything connected and switched the Tridata to receive speed data from the "paddlewheel" (SOG-1) rather than the GPS.

And all I got was three dashes on the display!

There followed several hours of cursing whilst I checked and rechecked the connections all to no avail. Finally after some more Googling, it transpires that unless the Tridata "sees" a sea temperatue sensor it assumes that the display is a repeater and will not accept any paddlewheel data.

Of course, this ridiculous stipulation is not mentioned anywhere in the Raymarine manuals.

I now need to purchase a 10k ohm resistor once back in the UK to wire across the thermistor terminals to fool the ST60 into thinking that a temp sensor is connected ..... unless anyone out there knows a way to achieve the same objective from within the display software?

So that's it ..... progress halted until later in the year!

The good news is that I connected my multimeter across the RS125 NMEA output and across the SOG-1 simulated paddlewheel output and I am getting a different output signal compared to the input so it looks like the SOG-1 is doing it's job. It's just Raymarine who have scuppered me with their stupid engineering!

Richard

R

 

[nigelmercier]

Oops! Sorry, I meant to tell you about the resistor. The alternative is to leave the relevant wires from the paddle-wheel connected.

 

[RichardS]

Oops! Sorry, I meant to tell you about the resistor. The alternative is to leave the relevant wires from the paddle-wheel connected.

Don't worry Nigel, it's Raymarine who should tell you things like that in the manual. I can't see why they didn't simply make master/repeater configurable in the software. As it is, if the thermistor cable should break somewhere along it's length you not only lose the sea temp but also the speed and log. Just what is the point of that for God's sake?

I don't have an ST800 paddlewheel at all so I'm stuck unless I find a resistor shop in one of these small Croatian villages....... Fat chance.:-(

Richard

 

[nigelmercier]

How long are you there for? Time for me to post you a few?

 

[davidej]

Slight Fred Drift here but my B & G autopilot won't respond to the +1, +10, -1, -10 buttons when the water log isn't working.

Never quite understood the reason for this. Is it because the computer wants to know how fast the boat is travelling to decide what rudder deflection is needed?

 

[earlybird]

.
I don't have an ST800 paddlewheel at all so I'm stuck unless I find a resistor shop in one of these small Croatian villages....... Fat chance.:-(
Richard

The required value is very non-critical. It's possible to make resistors with a soft pencil, a strip of (thickish) paper and 2 paper-clips.
Will pass the time while the weather's bad!

 

[RichardS]

The required value is very non-critical. It's possible to make resistors with a soft pencil, a strip of (thickish) paper and 2 paper-clips.
Will pass the time while the weather's bad!

Now that's what I call practical boat ownership!

Thanks for the kind offer Nigel but we're on the move. I'll see what I can find in Venice when we get there.

Richard

 

[Gypsy]

Or look out for any piece of electronic equipment thrown in a bin or a corner. You are bound to be able to scavenge a 10k resistor.

 

[RichardS]

Or look out for any piece of electronic equipment thrown in a bin or a corner. You are bound to be able to scavenge a 10k resistor.

Haha ?

I've already said to SWMBO that we need to look in skips etc for an old TV which we can cannibalise for the resistor. I'll leave you imagine her response but suffice to say that old skips are off the agenda.

Richard

 

[RichardS]

OK, I promised a report on the Cruzpro and here it is:

[RANT ON] :ambivalence:

As we are current still storm-bound until at least tomorrow I decided to fit the SOG-1. This mean taking the headlining down and removing the Tridata and using my second Wago to connect together the ST60 Tridata, the RS125 GPS mushroom, the SOG-1, the Autopilot and the C80 Classic.

It was another snakes nest of wires but in the end I got everything connected and switched the Tridata to receive speed data from the "paddlewheel" (SOG-1) rather than the GPS.

And all I got was three dashes on the display!

There followed several hours of cursing whilst I checked and rechecked the connections all to no avail. Finally after some more Googling, it transpires that unless the Tridata "sees" a sea temperatue sensor it assumes that the display is a repeater and will not accept any paddlewheel data.

Of course, this ridiculous stipulation is not mentioned anywhere in the Raymarine manuals.

I now need to purchase a 10k ohm resistor once back in the UK to wire across the thermistor terminals to fool the ST60 into thinking that a temp sensor is connected ..... unless anyone out there knows a way to achieve the same objective from within the display software?

So that's it ..... progress halted until later in the year!

OK .... it's now "later in the year" and I have reconnected the SOG-1 with the necessary 10k resistor. And the result is:

Doesn't look like much but the important stuff is that I now finally have "True Wind" for the first time ever! I also have a distance log which actually registers distance and a speed readout which reads to the second decimal place ..... although the last thing is pretty irrelevant. I also have a Sea Temperature readout for the first time. It always says 28 degrees which is far from the truth in October even here in the Med, but I have chosen not to display it.

The conclusion is that if you rely on GPS for speed but want functions from your Raymarine gear like True Wind and Log then the Cruz Pro SOG-1 is a great solution. But, and it's a big but, don't forget the 10k resistor or you will be wasting your time and money.

Richard

 

[laika]

I seem to be late to this party but a couple of things tangentially relevant. The week before last i was on some friends' boat. They hadn't put the log in (they don't seem to bother) but I noticed that whilst there was no STW available, log and trip on their E120 classic was updating. How does that work? The question had never occurred to them but when I looked at an E120 manual when I got home it seems it offers the option of "ground log" and "ground trip log" as well as regular log/trip. I presume that's what they were displaying.

Doesn't help for the tridata of course...

Also as has been discussed in countless other threads, "ground wind" (i.e. what is calculated from SOG and apparent) isn't the most helpful piece of data for us. Often people might want to use TWA* to help make a decision on when to tack etc, but a hard running tide doesn't suddenly stop when you go about. As long as we sail on a moving platform, our speed relative to that platform (i.e. STW, not SOG) is what counts. Obviously in the med with no log option the concept becomes more attractive.

*Calling up a defunct airline for navigational advice is probably a bad idea.

 

[nigelmercier]

I find that ground or true wind us a useful guide to "How much of this wind am i making myself?"

 

[wizzer]

Just read thro this end to end & at the risk of making a complete ar*e of myself:
I have 2 C80 MFD's on my system, one is now dedicated to chart plotter & radar, the second is used solely as a sounder. I also have ST60 Tridata, ST60 wind & ST4000 autopilot
The Tridata display only shows the depth, no speed or log. The wind only shows apparent wind.
I'm confused by the fact that the Tridata display apparently only has just 2 Seatalk sockets on the back, having looked at the "resistor fix" threads I thought I'd give that a go, but there doesn't appear to be the option as I can't see the other depth (3 terminals) & speed (5 terminals) connections.
The sounder transducer is a B744, with the paddle wheel
Any suggestions?

 

[earlybird]

If memory serves, the Tridata display was offered as a repeater instrument for connection to Sea-Talk. You appear to have one of these.
From your description, you also appear not to have water speed, necessary for true wind.

 

[wizzer]

If memory serves, the Tridata display was offered as a repeater instrument for connection to Sea-Talk. You appear to have one of these.
From your description, you also appear not to have water speed, necessary for true wind.

That would make sense, can't see the logic in fitting a Tridata display which will only display depth...

 

[RichardS]

Just read thro this end to end & at the risk of making a complete ar*e of myself:
I have 2 C80 MFD's on my system, one is now dedicated to chart plotter & radar, the second is used solely as a sounder. I also have ST60 Tridata, ST60 wind & ST4000 autopilot
The Tridata display only shows the depth, no speed or log. The wind only shows apparent wind.
I'm confused by the fact that the Tridata display apparently only has just 2 Seatalk sockets on the back, having looked at the "resistor fix" threads I thought I'd give that a go, but there doesn't appear to be the option as I can't see the other depth (3 terminals) & speed (5 terminals) connections.
The sounder transducer is a B744, with the paddle wheel
Any suggestions?

What is your paddlewheel connected to Wizzer? That should give you the speed through the water which the ST60 needs to calculate true wind but it depends where it's connected. If you don't have the 5 pin socket on the back of your ST60 then the paddlewheel must be connected somewhere else and the ST60 obviously won't be getting its output.

Richard

 

[wizzer]

Hi Richard
The transducer is connected directly to the back of one of my C80 MFD's - there's only one socket on there where it can go, marked DSM.
As this is the only transducer (triducer in this case) connected to the system I assume that the ST60 Tridata display should display SOG using information coming from the paddlewheel? If that's the case, then maybe it's something in the settings menu?
This is the transducer:

 

[earlybird]

Hi Richard
The transducer is connected directly to the back of one of my C80 MFD's - there's only one socket on there where it can go, marked DSM.
As this is the only transducer (triducer in this case) connected to the system I assume that the ST60 Tridata display should display SOG using information coming from the paddlewheel? If that's the case, then maybe it's something in the settings menu?
This is the transducer:

A paddlewheel will not give SOG, only speed through water GPS is required for SOG. DSM stands for digital sounder module, doesn't sound (sorry!) as if it will accept your triducer log input, but I'm not sure of that, perhaps someone will confirm either way.
To display log data on your Tridata, it needs a seatalk connection from an instrument that is out-putting the necessary sentence, perhaps the MFD, if it really is getting paddlewheel input.
Does the MFD show speed through water?