Stuck in Italy. Raymarine advice urgntly needed.

ThereAndBack

ThereAndBack

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We are in Southern Italy with the nearest contactable Raymarine dealer 112 miles away.

Our ST60 autopilot is showing a seatalk failed (STLK FAIL) error message. It powers-up as normal but shows the error within 2 seconds.

Raymarine customer support are no help - just referring us to a local dealer.

I have disconnected both seatalk cables from our Type 100 course computer and then connected only the autopilot to it. I get the same message (STLK FAIL).

We have all other instruments working (ST60 Compass, depth, speed, etc.)

I am inclined to think it may be a fault on the Rudder Reference Transducer but don't have a clue hoe to test it for output.

Can anyone suggest what we should be looking at or testing?

Any help much appreciated as we are due to head to Corfu and hand steering 84 miles will be a major task.

Thanks

Alan
 
I'm surprised that Raymarine are being unhelpful. Have you tried the service dept?
Tel +44 (0) 23 9269 Ext 2029

Doesnt sound like rudder ref but if you want to test it here are the readings.......

Red+Green in any position 5K ohm +/- 5% Blue+Green Full anticlock 1.66 clock 3.3K ohm.

If the display shows Rudder in STBY and the indications on the display are correct then the Rud ref is prob ok.
 
Is the control head powered seperately or through seatalk?
Can you just power the control head by itself and not plug it into the computer? Do you have the same problem?

If you don't have the same problem... can you check the seatalk cable from the head to the computer... are there any shorts across the cables?

Can you run a seperate cable from the head to the computer?

Aside from that I would start with the most basic setup - eg the computer and head and then start adding things until it goes wrong.

Normally this occurs if the seatalk signal carrying cable has broken or shorted to 0v.

Hope this helps but guess you have probably already done these things.

Good luck.
 
Thanks for the advice.

My system has always had the blue and red wires reversed at the computer. So, making allowance for this I followed your instructions. The readings I got are:
Blue (my red) + Green = 1937 to 2904 (lock to lock) Outside the tolerances but quite close.
Red (my blue) + Green = continuity (no resistance)

This looks to me like a knackered rudder ref unit. What do you think?

Alan
 
Hi Foxy.

Thanks for the ideas. The head is powered through seatalk.

I have already tried just the head connected to the computer without any other seatalk instruments connected. I got the same error.

Still, it was good to know I was thinking along the right lines. Any other suggestions are welcome.
 
We had exactly the same problem last year. It turned out to be a short on the Seatalk cable due to a junction box being submerged in seawater in the bilge. You might want to check the wiring.

I discovered this by disconnecting the Seatalk cable from the autopilot, then gradualy adding each section in seperately testing each time by switching the Autopilot on. As someone had added in this extra junction box (from the GPS as it happened) it took ages to find the short.

Good luck..
 
SeaTalk is a fairly simple setup as these things go. From memory on the ST6000 head is connected to the computer by SeaTalk only right? Try connecting the head somewhere else using a different cable.

For example can you remove the control head and put it somewhere else in the seatalk system - or take out one of the other instruments and put that where the ST6000 head is. You can then work out if it's a fault in the cable or in the unit. If the rudder sensor failed I think you would get a different message.

Interestingly I had a faulty charge controller on delivery last year with the same message (Seatalk failed) showing up on the ST7000. It turned out that volts were going up to 17. The autopilot (ST7000) did not like this and said seatalk failed.

Still 84 miles at 6 knots is only 14 hours sailing...........
 
Whatever you don't send ot to Deckmarine in Milan (the Italian agents). The repairs are done by a second company and they take forever and don't tell you anything !!!! Even speaking Italian I had to keep on at them (repairers) before I got success.
 
Piers

That was excellent advice. I spoke to Dave Welcome today and he identified failed seatalk output in the autopilot head unit.

Based on the other posts on here, I will steer to Corfu and try to get it repaired there.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

Alan
 
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