Raymarine ST60 and I50 Instruments

[KenKrawford]

Has anyone changed out their ST60 instrument displays to the newer I 50"s? Everything was pretty straight forward except the Seatalk connection on the knot meter. The ST60 had a rectangular 3 pin female connector. The I50 has a round connector. There was a "round to rectangular" connector supplied but is was a female to female cable so no way to ST60 Seatalk cable into the new I50 knot meter.
Any insight would be welcome.
BTW, getting through to Raymarine tech support is impossible. They automatically disconnect you after holding for 20 minutes.

[TBOT422]

Ken,
Did you resolve the problem with replacing the ST60 display with the i50? I think I am heading in that direction. Our ST60 Tridata display has began generating incorrect depths in less than 8 feet of water (6.5 feet from transducer to bottom). There seem to be some ST60 units for sale on E-Bay for $150 to $300, but when asking some of the sellers if they have been tested, one said his testing meter started out at 10 foot depths and went deeper, so they could be no better than what I have. I have seen i50 Tridata displays for under $400 on-line and am considering that approach. I don't necessarily like the fact that they have a different profile and red backlighting versus the green on the other displays, but I guess I don't have much of an option other than replacing all of the displays $$$$$$.

Did your existing depth transducer work with the i50 depth display? Were you able to resolve the cabling issues? Did you replace all displays and the chart plotter MFD as well? I really don't need the Tridata display as I only use it for the depth, the knot meter paddle wheel isn't even installed in the hull since it gets clogged quickly with marine growth.

Thanks

[KenKrawford]

Gary, I did replace the old ST 60's with i50's. I replaced both the speed and knot instruments including the transducers so I effectively upgraded everything to i50. My replacement was due to a lightening strike and insurance paid for it. I used the old cables as a fish and just taped them together and pulled. The hardest part was getting the cable through the tube on the pedestal.
If you have a readable display, I suspect your problem is with the transducer. Why not just replace the transducer and then if your problem persists you can replace the display. I believe the newer transducers are compatible with the ST60 displays but verify with Raymarine.
There's not much difference in price between buying the transducer and display separately compared to buying them together and the display is the lion's share of the price.

[TBOT422]

I am assuming that the transducer is fine as the system works perfectly in water depths greater than 6.5 from transducer to bottom and my research seems to indicate that the transducer rarely fails. The system is just erratic in shallow water (depth shown actually increases when approaching a shoal area, not good!). In addition, I would need to haul the boat to replace the transducer. I suppose I could buy a transducer and hang it over the side to confirm the problem is the display slowly lowering it in the water to verify that it works properly.

[Ray Edwards]

I'm about 99% sure you will find that it is in fact the transducer.
I experienced the same in shallow water ---- my West Marine store trusted me with a new instrument to test the transducer with the same edict readings, changed the transducer and working perfect the past four years.

[sv.divine.grace]

Hi Ken

I thought the I50 was NEMA2000 while the ST displays are NEMA0183. How did you get them to talk to each other?

Alan Bray
SV Divine Grace #307

[KenKrawford]

Alan, I sail on a relatively small inland lake and don’t need/have a chart plotter or autopilot therefore didn’t utilize the NEMA interface.

[scott.monroe]

Raymarine utilizes a proprietary communication protocol. The earlier ST series were SeaTalk, while the newer i series are Seatalk NG. The later is very similar to NMEA 2000 (N2K) in terms of communication protocols but differ in wiring. Raymarine adds a 5th communication wire to keep the early SeaTalk and SeaTalk NG compatible. To combine them you need Raymarine SeaTalk 1 to SeaTalk ng Converter Kit
http://www.raymarine.com/view/?id=1597

[TBOT422]

I've decided to buy a new transducer, plug it in to display and dangle it over the side. Slowly lower it to see if readings become correct. If so, then haul out and replace transducer. Are there any issues with submerging the transducer in salt water? It seems to be fully sealed and encapsulated.

[TBOT422]

Ray was correct. It appears the transducer was my problem. I purchased a new transducer, plugged it in and hung it in the water at the transom. It locked in instantly to the 12 foot depth at our dock whereas the old transducer initially showed about 24 feet and would finally settle in to the 12 feet in about 5 to 10 minutes. I then slowly eased the new transducer into the water 1 foot at a time, depth on the display decreased accordingly, until I reached less than 3.5 feet, then the display jumped to 14 feet. This wasn't a very scientific experiment, as by the time I dropped 9 - 10 feet of cable in the water, the transducer probably wasn't pointing straight down as the tidal current created some drift. But since the transducer's operating range is from 3 feet to 200 feet, this seemed reasonable to me.

One thing I did learn was than once the transducer gets out of synch (showing 14 feet when it is actually 3), it does not re-synchronize until the depth gets back to around 8 feet (just like my current transducer). However, with the new transducer, I was able to power the display down and back up at any depth greater than 3 feet and it would instantly synchronize to the correct depth. Old transducer only does this in more than 8 feet of water. Of course, this should not be a problem once installed as the hull location is about 3 feet above the bottom of the keel, so if there is ever less than 3 feet between the transducer and the bottom we will be aground. So it appears I will be without an accurate depth gauge until I get around to scheduling a haul out for other reasons, I can't see paying for a haul out, just to get the depth transducer installed.

[pdenoncourt]

You don’t need to haul the boat to replace the speed or depth transducer. They are designed to be able to replace in the water. I have done this many times. You simply remove the floor cover in the v-berth cabin, be sure you have the new transducer readily available, unscrew the collar to remove the old one, and quickly replace it with the new one. You will get some water into the boat during the transition, but less than a gallon and it goes directly into the bilge.

Hope this is helpful.

Peter

[TBOT422]

Peter,
Maybe that can be done with some transducers, but I see no way this transducer can be installed from inside the boat while in the water. The transducer specified by the RayMarine manual is an M78713. To me, it appears that it must be installed from outside the boat, feeding the cable thru the hull until the flange is against the outer hull, then spin the nut down the body of the transducer to secure.

M78713 Transducer.jpg (18.23 KiB) Viewed 6128 times

Am I missing something?

[KenKrawford]

Gary I believe you are correct. I had to haul my boat when I changed mine. I was out of the water for a week due to other issues but I’d imagine a short haul would be adequate to complete this job.

[oktbrian]

Where did you buy your transducer and how much was it? I have the type that can be replaced from inside the boat.