Raymarine Sea Talk Failure

[Kidd, James]

While sailing to Newport this weekend from Sag Harbor, I suddenly received a “Sea Talk Failure” on my Auto Pilot, and remote. My Chart Plotter also would not “find ship” , so its apparent no instruments are communicating.

The Auto Pilot held its heading, but would not alter course when requested.

 

I shut down all instruments and restarted them to no avail.

 

Does anyone have an idea what this problem is?

 

 

James Kidd

B 361

Adventure Galley

 

 

 

 

 

[Denny Wertheimer]

I had a similar experience this summer, turned out to be the computer and ray marine replace the board under warranty, when you do send back the the s3 swnd back the control head for the auto pilot just in case it needs to be fixed.

--
Denny Wertheimer


314-330-5001

[Denny Wertheimer]

Also , you can check the out out of the computer for the sea talk and if you have a value of say 8-14 volts and steady , i believe it is the mother board gone bad. Mine had a constant out put of 12.8 and thus ended the story.

On 9/5/06, Kidd, James <jk...@kaydon.com> wrote:

--
Denny Wertheimer


314-330-5001

[Rick Lucas]

<snip> Does anyone have an idea what this problem is? </snip>

 

James,

 

If the whole buss went dead, it sounds like a loose wire somewhere in the SeaTalk circuit. In particular, check to make sure that the power wire is correctly connected. Power should only be connected to one SeaTalk device or you’ll get weirdo behavior out of your instruments. If you have a multimeter and the manual, check the voltages at each instrument. I think it should be 5vDC for the power circuit. Depending upon how many SeaTalk components you have, it shouldn’t be too tough to track down.

 

If all your instruments are getting power, then it’s the data wire that’s suspect. Again, probably loose. The Raymarine three-prong connectors are quite secure, but sometimes devices are connected using individual blade connectors. These can work loose rather easily, or get corroded over time. Check each of these carefully.

 

It might also be a failure in the device supplying power to the buss, although I think that’s somewhat less likely.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Rick L

 

[pegasu...@aol.com]

That happened to me.  Root cause was GPS went out. Replaced GPS then all was well

Could be loose connections.

It appeasrs the GPS is not talking on the network

Joe 

 

 
-----Original Message-----
From: jk...@kaydon.com
To: Benetea...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 11:51 AM
Subject: {Beneteau Owners} Raymarine Sea Talk Failure

While sailing to Newport this weekend from Sag Harbor, I suddenly received a “Sea Talk Failure” on my Auto Pilot, and remote. My Chart Plotter also would not “find ship” , so its apparent no instruments are communicating.

The Auto Pilot held its heading, but would not alter course when requested.

 <![endif]>

I shut down all instruments and restarted them to no avail.

 <![endif]>

Does anyone have an idea what this problem is?

 <![endif]>

 <![endif]>

James Kidd

B 361

Adventure Galley

 <![endif]>

 <![endif]>

 <![endif]>

 

 <![endif]>

---

Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. All on demand. Always Free.

[Capt Guy]

if

 

  gps goes out (I assume a 120 or 125),

 

then "No Fix" Message  and instruments are OK

 

  else if

 

SeaTalk goes out

 

then "Sea Talk Failure" Message

 

    else if

 

SeaTalk failure on power connector 

 

then  all instruments go dark ... Chartplotter has own power source and does not put power on SeaTalk

 

    end if

 

  end if

 

end if

 

-------------------------------------------------
www.nsbtaxi.com

 

Captain Guy
s/v Island Time (352#277)
AICW 845.5
386-689-5088

[Capt Guy]

btw if plotter can't find ship, does it show lat/lon or is no fix indicated

 

 

-------------------------------------------------
www.nsbtaxi.com

 

Captain Guy
s/v Island Time (352#277)
AICW 845.5
386-689-5088

----- Original Message -----

From: pegasu...@aol.com

To: Benetea...@googlegroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 4:43 PM

Subject: {Beneteau Owners} Re: Raymarine Sea Talk Failure

[Peter T]

According to the manuals and my experience, Sea Talk is powered by the Auto
Pilot if available but also can be powered by the chartplotter. I just
checked this. I have the auto pilot on a its own circuit it does power all
of themnot the (plotter). The chartplotter is also on its own circuit and
will power all the instruments with the autopilot off. I have never checked
but would guess that the auto will not be powered just the display. This was
done because if the plotter dies I still can get GPS and most of all Depth.

I would sure check out the power source from the auto pilot to the rest of
seatalk. But is sounds like you already have. I have had probelms with Sea
Talk failing, it seems that it can fail with voltage changes and for some
reason not come back alive. Kind of like when you had to do control alt
delete and then wait a few minutes. I just replaced the old displays and
found two of them were cracked and the seals had failed. Never would have
known if I had not pulled them out. I do not know if the seals might have
been part of the problem. Just a suggestion to take a close look.

Peter T
Soul Sender

[Capt Guy]

wrong, no, not correct.

the chartplotter and autopilot do not power the seatalk bus, instrumetns
provide power to the bus and one must have a 12v connection.

Guy

-------------------------------------------------
www.nsbtaxi.com

Captain Guy
s/v Island Time (352#277)
AICW 845.5
386-689-5088
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter T" <soulse...@hotmail.com>
To: <Benetea...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 11:03 PM
Subject: {Beneteau Owners} Re: Raymarine Sea Talk Failure

>

[Ca...@aol.com]

We have had this problem for a few years, and I finally fixed it! (actually Raymarine fixed it but I found it).

Get a DVM if you don't already have one. Get into the space behind your instruments. Set the DVM on VDC (Volts DC). Unplug one of the Seatalk cables and stick the black lead in the center receptor and the red lead on one of the other two. If the DVM reads 12 volts you found the power supply. If it reads between 8 - 11 volts or so, you found the communications wire. If you get no voltage you got the wrong end of the wire. Plug it into the instrument and check the other end.

I found good Seatalk voltage going into the autopilot instrument and bad voltage coming out. I sent Raymarine the instrument, they fixed it, and we haven't had a lost fix since.

I now keep an extra length of Seatalk cable that lets me bypass the bad instrument (a Tridata also failed) and this gave me a fix and an autopilot. Most recently I bypassed the autopilot head to give me a fix and chart plotter. We had to hold course manually, but it was much easier keeping the boat image on a line than finding a heading and all that stuff.

Cap in MD
B-473 #20 Zydeco

In a message dated 9/5/2006 12:54:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time, jk...@kaydon.com writes:

While sailing to Newport this weekend from Sag Harbor, I suddenly received a “Sea Talk Failure” on my Auto Pilot, and remote. My Chart Plotter also would not “find ship” , so its apparent no instruments are communicating.

The Auto Pilot held its heading, but would not alter course when requested.

 

I shut down all instruments and restarted them to no avail.

 

Does anyone have an idea what this problem is?

 

[Ca...@aol.com]

Seems Basic, eh?

Our Seatalk failure was marginally fixed with replacement from 120 to 125, but we had to have the funky autopilot instrument fixed before we had reliable (for now) GPS. This has been going on for a few years. It seemed that if I held my mouth right the GPS would work, but if the personal aura wasn't perfect we were screwed.

I sent in the computer and it was OK, but the did add the latest firmware. I sent in a few other instruments, but generally they were OK. The autopilot head fix seems to have solved the problem.

Net Net is that you have to 'wring' out the system with a DVM to find the culprit.

Cap in MD

[Peter T]

Capt Guy,
I do not follow.

Page 22 ST60+ Depth Instrument Owner's Handbook "If instruments are
connected to Sea Talk,no separate power connection is necessary. Where a Sea
Talk system includes an autopilot, the power for the system is provided by
the autopilot."

The same is in other instrument handbooks.

Sorry but I do not understand what you are saying., which may explain why I
(we) are having problems.

Thanks
PT
Soul Sender

[Rick Lucas]

Cap,

 

Very good information to have. I will keep that in mind when we go offshore.

 

I’m not sure, but I think you minimize the impact of a failed instrument by using the SeaTalk buss couplers (not sure of the name). Instead of passing SeaTalk data thru the instruments, they sit on the end of a stub. I suspect that this would limit the exposure from a failed instrument, at least the power side of the system, to the instrument providing the power to the buss.

 

SeaTalk is really rather simple from a hardware perspective. Installing it in such a way that would limit the exposure to a component failure is a smart idea, and probably not something that most installers consider.

 

Rick L

 

 

[Michael Puig]

Howard,

Want to go this year? - Im trying to get the original crew together!!
You can bring another pork roast to recycle....

MKP

[Capt Guy]

Correction...yes, the autopilot instrument (control head) is on the seatak
bus and as all INSTRUMENTS do, it provides power to the seatalk; the
chartplotter, GPS, fishfinder, etc. do not.

I was refuting hte comment that the chartplotter provides power, it does
not.

BUT at least ONE INSTRUMENT in the chain MUST have a power connection.

Guy

-------------------------------------------------
www.nsbtaxi.com

Captain Guy
s/v Island Time (352#277)
AICW 845.5
386-689-5088
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter T" <soulse...@hotmail.com>
To: <Benetea...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 10:34 PM
Subject: {Beneteau Owners} Re: Raymarine Sea Talk Failure

>

[hd...@aol.com]

Hi Mike--

yes, I am interested.

As you remember I am prone to seasickness...but, I would like to go .

What boat are you on?

 

Howard

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