Raymarine Seatalk failure

[catnap892]

About two months ago, we were hit with a nearby lightening strike that disabled my Raymarine st40 Wind and close hauled instrument and gave me a Seatalk failure on the st4000 wheel autopilot. For the Wind, I replaced the masthead as well as the instrument panel unit with a st60+ unit but the auto pilot still read seatalk failure. I sent the autohelm instrument to Raymarine and they sent it back, 6 weeks later and $200.00 later, but it still will not function and still reads seatalk failure. Any suggestions? I don't have much faith in the Raymarine factory techs, as their standard answer is send it back to us.

[brak]

It could be the autopilot itself, I suppose.

[negrini]

Have you checked cables ? Is it possible to have it melted ? Check for simp-ly continuity ....

[Cruisingdad]

Originally Posted by catnap892

About two months ago, we were hit with a nearby lightening strike that disabled my Raymarine st40 Wind and close hauled instrument and gave me a Seatalk failure on the st4000 wheel autopilot. For the Wind, I replaced the masthead as well as the instrument panel unit with a st60+ unit but the auto pilot still read seatalk failure. I sent the autohelm instrument to Raymarine and they sent it back, 6 weeks later and $200.00 later, but it still will not function and still reads seatalk failure. Any suggestions? I don't have much faith in the Raymarine factory techs, as their standard answer is send it back to us.

Try cleaning the connectins. If there is not a good connection with one of the HSBs (anywhere in the daisy chain) it will caluse a failure of almost the entire system. I had some corrosion on one terminal once and it caused really wierd failures. I think you have a wiring issue... just my guess.

I use a piece of wire inside the HSB cables. wiggle them all and make sure you push them in hard.

Again, from the limited description, this is my guess.

- CD

[bobwebster]

Make sure the seatalk is getting power. It may be coming from your autopilot, which probably has an internal 5-amp fuse that powers the seatalk. The red seatalk wire should be 12v+.

Also, you can try disconnecting seatalk instruments on the boat one at a time until it starts working.

[BELLATRIX1965]

Originally Posted by bobwebster

Make sure the seatalk is getting power. It may be coming from your autopilot, which probably has an internal 5-amp fuse that powers the seatalk. The red seatalk wire should be 12v+.

Also, you can try disconnecting seatalk instruments on the boat one at a time until it starts working.

Yes, bobwebster is on the right tack! - I have had similar problems with my ST60 - RAYMARINE advised me to check the SEATALK system by changing the backlighting on one connected instrument. If the backlighting doesn't change on ALL connected instruments when you change the one, there is a problem. Disconnect instruments one at a time, repeat the backlight test until you have eliminated the problem instrument (when you disconnect the bad one, changing backlight setting on one of the remaining will change backlight on all other connected instruments). Let us know what you find!