41DS Raymarine Help

[Valor323]

Hi everyone, 

Just completed a 12-day sail from Gulf coast Florida to Long Island Sound, New York a few days ago. The entire Raymarine network started to fail along the way including the autopilot. We eventually shut the whole thing down and just used Navionics to chart and hand steered for about 6 days.

I am now trying to do some trouble shooting of the Raymarine system and I am not sure where all of the connections and backbones are located to possibly see what is creating the issue. 

What I have found so far:

Obviously, the Raymarine chart plotter, ES series, in the cockpit pod.
Autopilot computer and compass in the aft cabin, port side. 
2 Tee connectors aft cabin, port side under the side seat backrest. Seems to control the 2 I70's and the 1 autopilot display on the helms. 1 spur cable goes to the compass.
1 Backbone and an ITC-5 converter at the nav station behind the switch panel. The anemometer is the only thing connected to the spade connectors of the ICT5.
The rudder sensor and the Autopilot head and ram are in their obvious locations. Not sure where the rudder sensor terminates yet.
The depth sensor is present, not sure where it terminates to.

I'm guessing there needs to be more to this system than that. Any insight would be very much appreciated.

Just to float this out to the group, all of the lights on the ITC5 are blinking quickly. The manual states this indicates a low voltage bus issue. I think my initial course of action will be to locate the 12v tap and check the supply voltage before moving on. If there are any electronics experts that can offer a hand, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Michael

[Charlie-Bravo]

I’m no electrical expert, but have i70s, itc5, along with more ancient Ray plotter and auto helm.

My depth, log, temp sensor and wind all go through the itc5 as its that that converts the analog info to digital info for the Ray NG backbone and on toward the i70s display, I then convert back to 0186 cables via a Raymarine converter for the old plotter, and by luck everything seems to work.

You have identified the low voltage at the itc5, and the need to possibly improve the voltage supply, or remove any crusty green connections that are causing a drop.

Power to the backbone via itc5 needed a dedicated new cable , and I went up a size just to be sure, a lot of gadgets seem a bit frugal with the cable sizes and lengths.

Other thing to check is the backbone terminations, if not seated quite right, odd things can occur.

Happy hunting 

CB

[Valor323]

Hi Charlie Bravo, Thanks for the reply. As a B&G guy, I have no knowledge of Raymarine. What powers the ICT5? Would it be from the wire off of the white spur connector connected to a power supply or would it come from a blue backbone connector?

[Charlie-Bravo]

The ITC-5 is powered, if I remember correctly, through a cable direct (give or take a battery isolator and switch) to the batteries, and I think it has a white Raymarine connector which plugs into the ITC-5, this is the power for your backbone cable. The backbone only needs one power supply.

On mine I have a battery isolator then the switch for my auto helm’s brain (it’s a small brain that uses little power) sharing the power to the ITC-5, so I have a panel switch for instruments …. plotter etc and then switch on the autohelm power to also power the ITC-5 . It sounds confusing but it was convenient for power to come from close to the batteries, and not a long run of cable to the ITC-5, all probably not relevant to your boat but just to highlight the possibility that the wiring may not be completely straight forward, depending on who installed it. 

Follow the power from ITC-5 to the batteries, and if that is not possible, get a new power cable for the ITC-5 and temporarily hook it up to the batteries to see if it solves your issues, and if it does, then install it properly through battery isolator and perhaps another switch.
It could be a simple fix …… not often found, but nice when they are.

Hope that is of some help.
CB

[Charlie-Bravo]

And here is a link to the ITC-5 instructions, which will enlighten you to the delights of SeatalkNG …….. much the same as a NMEA2000 backbone network , but with different connectors, there are connector adapters for device net etc so all things ca be plugged in.

CB

rowlandsmarine.co.uk/content/iTC-5-Installation-instructions-EN.pdf

[allegria]

Hi Valor,

I had a similar issue a few years ago and it was coming from the wind instrument converter (can't remember the model).

The best option is to disconnect the ITC-5 from the network and check if the issue persists.
Basically, take every device connected to the network, one at a time, then check again...

In my case, the fault was coming from the converter, but it was showing an auto-pilot fault!
I replaced it with an ITC-5 and everything went back to normal.

Let us know how you go...

[Valor323]

Allegria,
My biggest issue so far is I can't locate all of the pieces of the network. If someone has the secret map and is willing to share it, it would be much appreciated.

Mike

[rcsailor]

A find that has caused me issue on my 44ds on a couple occasions...there should be a dedicated 12volt feed to your autopilot computer protected by a in line maxi fuse. On my boats this cable was direct off the battery switch to the AP computer.  Check the maxi fuse and holder for any corrosion which will impair voltage to the AP computer. 

[barryl]

Hello,

When it comes to electronics, there is no way of knowing if your boat is the same as any other boat because the installers can do different things, people select different electronics, upgrades, repairs, etc.

One thing you must do is verify that all connections to / from batteries and switch panel are clean, tight and in good condition. This is true for both positive and ground connections. 

You also need to find and check any relays that provide power to the electronics. The relays can go bad, the connections can go bad as well. Same thing for all fuses. Just because a fuse is intact doesn't mean it can carry all of the current required for the device. 

Good luck,

Barry