Raymarine ST1000+ Tillerpilot and ST60 interface

[MatthewCoyne]

Hi,
I have a Raymarine ST1000+ Tillerpilot interfaced to ST60 speed, depth and wind instruments via Seatalk and also connected is my NMEA Raymarine RC425 Chartplotter. The system in my opinion is superb apart from one thing. Why can't I get my ST60 instruments to display a Speed over Ground from the NMEA output on my Chartplotter/GPS ? Surely if the Tillerpilot is connected to both NMEA and ST60 Seatalk it should output SOG to the ST60 instruments ?
I know both NMEA and seatalk are being received by the tillerpilot as it steers to wind angle (seatalk ) and follows a track from my Chartplotter/GPS (NMEA).
Any ideas ??
Regards,
Matt.

 

[alan]

I had a quick look at the ST1000 handbook (Raymarine web site) and it was not clear to me actually what the ST1000 outputs onto the NMEA bus. Raymarine instruments do not always output all the data they have received onto the NMEA bus.
I would suggest to ask the question to Raymarine (try their help page on the web) they usually answer within 48 hours.
Unfortunately Raymarine do not always give full interface details in their handbooks.

Good luck,
Alan.

 

[tillergirl]

I'm confused by the question. The only instrument that can produce the SOG data is the Chartplotter/GPS so I'm not sure what the Tillerpilot has to do with it. Assuming the ST60 Speed works like the Tridata, try using the user calibration to see if SOG is available on the bus - it is displayed below the speed registered by the transducer in one of the CAL screens. If you aren't getting SOG data on this screen, then logic suggests the Chartplotter/GPS isn't outputting it onto the Seatalk bus. However, does the ST Speed display SOG (other than in the CAL screens) - the Tridata doesn't; it only uses the availability of SOG to help calibrate the speed registered from the transducer. I thought the ST60 Speed was a speed through the water/log display not a GPS repeater.

 

[MatthewCoyne]

Hi again,
In response to the question from Tillergirl, the Chartplotter/GPS outputs NMEA to the tillerpilot, which is also connected via Seatalk to the ST60 instruments. You see ?. I am assuming the NMEA data received from the GPS, i.e SOG is also output onto the Seatalk bus to be shown on the ST60 instrument. There is a SOG screen on my speed instrument, but there are no figures on it, i.e. no SOG data being received.
Again, I am not sure if the tillerpilot is an interface between the two buses or not .
Any ideas would be very much appreciated.
Matt.

 

[alan]

Unable to edit my previous post, so:

When I said "outputs onto the NMEA bus" what I really meant to say was "outputs onto the Seatalk bus"; apologies for confusion ...... I did understand your question!
I have a similar set-up, but with Smartpilot and 6002+ head, and I can get SOG on my ST60+ in the cal screen.

Alan.

 

[Anwen]

It will depend on the capabilities of the ST60 instruments that you have. My tridata does not have the ability to display SOG output from my 435 plotter, but the ST4000+ wheel pilot control head does - it has the abilility to display up to 6 user selectable screens, which one chooses from the setup menu. SOG, COG, XTE and DTW are all options. If you want SOG from the plotter to be displayed, you would either need to upgrade to an ST4000 tiller pilot with control head, or buy a graphic/ multi display which can display any of the data on the Seatalk bus.

 

[Danny]

Matt, I suspect that the ST1000+ doesn't repeat any NMEA sentences it receives onto the Seatalk bus. Raymarine also do (or certainly they did in the past) a Seatalk/NMEA bridge box. They probably wouldn't provide the same function in their autopilot for obvious marketing reasons!

Guess you'll have to buy one of their Seatalk/NMEA bridges.

 

[MatthewCoyne]

Many thanks to all who posted replies. Has been a great help.
I believe there is a german company who make their own seatalk/nmea bridge for around £38. I will track them down.
Thanks all.

 

[fireball]

When you find them can you let me know the details... cheers!

 

[tillergirl]

Matt - I'll have another go. The chartplotter is the only device on the bus that will produce the SOG string. As its Raymarine, doesn't it talk in Seatalk? If so that should talk to the ST60 Speed. If it only outputs in NMEA then an interface as others have said is necessary. I have a Furuno GPS which outputs NMEA but the ST60 Tridata doesn't pick up the NMEA string for SOG even though I have the Raymarine interface box. However, the Navico Tillerpilot gets all the wind strings and GPS strings it requires in NMEA via the interface box.

 

[nigelhudson]

You have two Raymarine options for getting the NMEA messages on to the Seatalk bus - the first is the interface box referred to above (c.£120) and the second is the ST60 Multi Display (c.£350).

We have a Furuno GPS interfaced with the Multi Display and whatever settings we use there is a problem over reading the sentences. Most data items are OK in Seatalk (SOG, COG etc) but waypoint IDs are confused and the Multi Display keeps alarming because it believes that it has lost the plot. I looked at the end-of-range Raymarine mono plotters that were available last year as a solution to the problem. However I went off the idea when I realised that they did not have a Seatalk interface (probably why they were discontinued!)

 

[MatthewCoyne]

Hi again,
I guess the reason why my RC425 chartplotter was cheap was because it didn't have a seatalk output. But anyhow, the system performs faultlessly, and I am very pleased, even though it wont repeat SOG on my ST60 speed.

Go to www.tklinux.de for seatalk/NMEA bridge . Looks like a quality piece of equipment at under half the price of the raymarine interface.
Thanks to all who replied, very much appreciated.
Matt

 

[DaveS]

I'm interested in this, but note that:

The protocol converter is a research project
It is used for research on data communication, computer communication and data conversion with computers and instruments on board of boats.
It is not an End-User product and must not be used for navigation
Liability cannot be accepted for any damages, personal injuries or malfunctions caused by this converter.

This may be out of date since it's in the "non-maintained" version of the website, but when I tried to get into the English language version of the "maintained" site I kept getting thrown back to this! Am I doing something wrong?

 

[MatthewCoyne]

Hi again,
I had a look at the tklinux website again but if you go to www.gadgetpool.de the convertor is there for sale as a end user product. Take a look. By the way, I am not connected to any of the above websites.
Regards,
Matt