Autohelm ST50 depth on multiple displays

[daifu]

Hi Everyone,

Not strictly a Jeanneau question but it is a question about instruments on my Jeanneau SO34.2...

The boat came with Autohelm ST50 instruments (Wind, and Tridata displays, and wind, depth, log/temp transducers).
The displays are installed near the companionway.

I also have an Autohelm ST50 Depth display and was hoping to install that on the binnacle as a slave display from the Tridata (the Tridata is connected to the depth transducer)

However, neither the Tridata, or the Depth unit seem to be passing on the depth info over the seatalk bus.
(Both displays show the depth when directly connected to the transducer though)

Should this work, or am I doing something wrong?

Any help much appreciated.

thanks
Dave

[Don Reaves]

I used to have an ST50 Tridata. It was replaced by the equivalent i50 Tridata after a lightning strike, but that's another story...

The ST50 Tridata provided depth, speed, and log data via the SeaTalk bus to my Raymarine e7 Multifunction display, so yes, it should be sending the data.

I wonder whether the problem might be that neither the Tridata nor the Depth sounder are willing to receive the depth data over the bus. They have their private connections to the transducer, and may not have been designed to be slaves. So it's possible that the combination you have won't do what you want. But this is just conjecture.

I would post this question to Raymarine. They used to have a forum where customers could have conversation as in this forum. But the last time I checked, the forum had been locked (no more posts). Instead, they encourage you to ask questions directly to the Raymarine staff. I have found their responses to be useful but not very prompt

[Charlie-Bravo]

I believe it could well work, and I had a similar issue fiddling with ST60 displays in the past, worth going into the settings of your existing tridata display to set it as a repeater (if it can) as this will allow it to pass on the data, but as Don says, worth contacting Raymarine for full details, they are quite helpful.

Eventually I jumped into mixing old instruments with new i70s display, but this did involve getting a Raymarine ITC5 and a nmea 2000 backbone cable , seatalk to seatalkng converter and a few cables and adapters which all add up money wise, but nice to have information in sight of the helm.

CB

[daifu]

Thanks for the replies Don Reaves and Charlie-Bravo!

I've asked Raymarine, as suggested, so will see what they say...

I'm going to borrow a another unit and try and identify which unit is not sending/receiving SeaTalk and see where we go from there.

Otherwise it'll be another project to upgrade all the instruments! (£££)

Thanks again
Dave

[daifu]

Update:

So it seems my Autohelm ST50 Tridata is not sending data over the ST1 bus! (but it does receive it ok)

I figured out how to switch the various devices between master/slave mode
and using the ST50 Depth display as the master (with the depth transducer plugged in) works fine.

The ST50 Tridata, and another ST60 Tridata, display the depth correctly,
but plugging the depth transducer into the ST5 Tridata (and changing it to master) results in ---- on the ST60 Tridata.

Very annoying!

Also, it seems my ST50 Depth display cannot be put into repeater mode - the device does not follow what the manual says its supposed to do. I guess it may be a very early version without this capability.

I also tried connecting the depth transducer to the ST60 Tridata, but this didn't work either - it just shows ---- on the display.

So, conclusion:it looks like I'm stuck unless I replace the ST50 Tridata and hope it shares ST1 data.
But I'm not so keen to invest in more old tech - I'd rather upgrade I think...

[Charlie-Bravo]

Many options for upgrades , and it can be expensive throwing out all the old and replacing the whole lot in one go, and I don’t like throwing out things that still work.
Being myself at the more impoverished end of the Jeanneau yacht owners, I chose a bit by bit upgrade, which is still an ongoing thing, it all works well enough but I now wait for something to die before integrating something new.
(Idid a ‘partial upgrade’ post some time ago, but can’t seem to find it in the archives here)

My masthead wind unit died, spurring the project, and I wanted AIS transmit , and also the ability to see instrument data down below as well as on deck. The new Raymarine masthead bit wasn’t cheap but came with cable, and I got a local sailor to pop up to do the altitude bit, in exchange for the old anemometer cups on it , got that working, then the wind instrument at the helm died, installed i70s multifunction display and i60 wind display, ……. but the i70s couldn’t understand the masthead or  hull transducer … should have read up on it more .. purchased a Raymarine ITC-5 which converts analog signals to digital, and sends the information onward down a ‘NMEA backbone’  ….. now the aging C70 can’t understand the instruments so got a Raymarine converter to plug the new instruments into along with the old plotter.
Now having a backbone (lots of new phrases to learn in this game) I got a Vesper ais to plug into it, and the vesper can see all the instruments from the backbone , and via its own wi-fi can display on phones and pads, and let the Irish ferries know I’m coming !

Old ST autohelm remains isolated from new backbone , just connected to the C70 plotter which can see my old style radar, and overlay the new ais on the screen at the same time. Then the VHF died ……….. new one installed and integrated.

All this was spread over a couple of years, and is easy enough to do, but well worth studying for many hours before purchasing anything to fully understand what it can do ….. and what else is needed, and what won’t work afterwards.

I mentioned above, new phrases to learn, “Starter kit”. = you are going to have to go shopping for more bits.

Good luck 

CB

[daifu]

A bit by bit upgrade sounds like a good approach, although I think I'm stuck due to the transducers being so old.
I did try the old ST50 depth transducer with the 'new' ST60 Depth display but no joy.

Did you upgrade your depth and speed transducers as well as the wind when you installed the i70s multifunction?

If I do end upgrading the transducers I think I'l replace the old speed/temp transducer with a new combined depth/speed unit (no extra holes in the hull!). That means I'll have a spare depth display as a backup.

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions.
Cheers

[Charlie-Bravo]

I did replace the hull transducer with an Airmar triducer, although the old transducers worked through the itc-5 , my depth transducer then died so had to do something to fix that, no depth reading makes me twitch when taking the mick with the tides getting in late.
The itc-5 is quite a key component in mixing old and new, sucking in the analog signals of older transducers and spitting it out down the 2000 backbone, (or seatalk ng, same thing with different plugs ) I believe there are other similar things out there from others, but stuck with Raymarine as a lot of my stuff is made by them, so just upping the odds of luck in my favour ……. probably at the expense of my wallet, plus modern tech can calibrate through an itc-5 , not a huge issue for some things, but worth a read up on.
Your old transducers may work fine through an itc-5

CB