I have a St4000+ Autohelm that connects via Seatalk to a St60 Wind instrument, then to a St60 depth display, and ultimately to a C80w MFD. When I was out the other day, I could not get the autotack function to fully tack to starboard, although everything worked normally to port. Playing with it at the dock, I could not get the +1/+10 buttons to work properly. I called Raymarine and didn't really get an answer, but did get some ideas. Still at the dock, I disconnected the Seatalk and everything functioned normally. Reconnected Seatalk and the problem came back. I bypassed the wind instrument and connected to the depth and MFD and everything worked. Tried 3 different cables and the same problem.
Ironically, last week I was helping a friend attempt to trouble shoot a problem with his St4000+. His unit would not go into Auto mode until we disconnected his wind instrument; after this it worked normally.
I am curious to know if others have had this experience, and if they managed to solve it ? It seems to be a Seatalk issue, but don't know if the problem originates with the St4000+ or the St60 wind. I could power and run the wind instrument as a stand alone, but would prefer to have it integrated with the auto helm and the MFD.
Paul Meyers
1986 Catalina 36
Hull #615
Ventura, California
Looks like I am the only one to have encountered this issue. Raymarine support basically told me that this is a problem with the St60 wind communicating via Seatalk but did not provide any suggestions.
I guess a lesson is that if you are having problems with your St4000 exhibiting strange behavior, and it is connected to another instrument via Seatalk, the problem may not be your autopilot at all.
Paul Meyers
1986 Catalina 36
Hull #615
Ventura, California
This is interesting problem. I too have a similar problem - in my case the depth sounder will intermittently display "---" no depth measurement. The only way I can make it work is to turn off the power at the circuit breaker panel and turn it back on. At night you must press a button to turn on the night back ground lights. When the depth sounder goes into this mode I noticed that the back ground light dims also even though all the other instruments remain bright. The PO had replaced the depth sounder - I found the old one still in the boat. So it is not caused by the depth sounder. Also - sometimes - the depth sounder will display compass information !!!. Resetting makes it work again. I believe that since Seatalk is all daisy chained together that sometimes an instrument reads and displays a data that it should not since this data is transmitted to all the instruments. It may not be fixable.
Haro Bayandorian, 1999 C36 MKII, Sail La Vie #1787, M35B,
Coyote Point, San Mateo, CA.
Thanks for your reply Haro. You may be right; just one of those anomolies that you have to work around.
Paul Meyers
1986 Catalina 36
Hull #615
Ventura, California
I have the same unit and my problem is slightly different... the 4000+ wont hold a course and zigs & zags down the bay, but maybe the advice I got from Raymarine might help with your problem.
First, when I called they suggested sending in the head unit from the podium, which I did. They said they could not find any problems with it but suggested an upgrade to the 5000 for only $1,100 plus a complete rewire... I passed.
The tech, Mr. Lee Tang if anyone wants to call and talk personally with him, then suggested this "trick", as he put it, which he said is not in the manual. Follow the manual and go into the unit until you get to the point where you can tell it it's a 5000 hydraulic unit or a 4000 wheel unit. Set it to the 5000 hydraulic setting, save it and shut it down.
Then go back into the unit and reverse the process setting it to the 4000 wheel setting. According to Mr. Tang, this will restore the unit to the condition it was in when it came out of the box. At this point you have to put in all the settings and do the circle thing on the water. He felt this might help since I didn't want to go with a whole new unit. Not having the manual handy I can't give you the step by step procedures for getting into the unit, but they are there in the manual.
I'm on the hard, 20 degree wind chill gusting to 30 so I can't try this out for another 6 months or so. If anyone in a more hospitable climate is having problems and tries this, I'd be interested in the results.
Chuck Parker
HelenRita 2072 Mk II
2002 Tall Rig - Winged Keel
Atlantic Highlands, NJ
I had a similar problem . Talked to Raymarmarine ,did the circle thing and went in and set to north lat and the lat setting .reset gain from 5 to 3 seems to help but next time Iam out just might try the 5000 reset thing
Bill Miller
S/V Lorraine
Pacific Northwest,Sound Sound
Grapeview,Wa
1990 Mk1
Thanks Chuck, I did the reset previously as you described. it didn't correct the problem that I am having. I used the Raymarine support board and the conclusion was that it is a seatalk problem in the wind speed/direction instrument not in the autopilot. Answer- send it in. Instead, I am going to disconnect the wind speed/direction from seatalk and power it separately. I lose a little functionality, autopilot steering to wind, but that's not a big deal for me. Interestingly I have a friend who has precisely the same problem.
Paul Meyers
1986 Catalina 36
Hull #615
Ventura, California