Need Raymarine st7001 auto pilot

[Steve Franklin]

Hello, I had the Searay out last week, and after about a hour the auto pilot messaged that sea talk had a failure. I checked cable connections and all the other nav. components work. I thought if I can buy a Raymarine st7001 auto pilot I would switch it out. Any ideas? Steve

 

[alnav]

Steve, I had this problem a couple of years ago. In my case the Raymarine seatalk multiplexer that was installed in my system to gather several inputs like GPS and depth then send to the autopilot and plotter had failed. That was an easy fix. But, other likely problems are the seatalk cable between the course computer and the ST7001 head so testing a new or different cable might help. If not that, the course computer itself may be the problem. Just to be sure you understand, the ST7001 is just a display, the real autopilot work is done in the course computer. If you haven't already, you should find that (probably inside the dash pretty close to the control head) and identify which computer you have. That unit is probably what you will need to have fixed or replaced. You should call Raymarine service and see what your options are. They used to take in computers, fix problems and update the firmware/software if applicable. That is probably the best and perhaps most cost-effective way to address the problem. I thought I heard there were certain units Raymarine was no longer supporting due to age and lack of parts but they would be able to tell you if they can still help.

 

[Steve Franklin]

Al, thank you for your reply. I've had a local tech here look at my set up, and he did check out the cable and looked at the computer ,he also called Ray marine and they told him ,like you said they are not supporting that model anymore. The tech told me that under those circumstances, I would probably be better off going with new electronics. The bright side of all this is my daughter works for West Marine. Al thanks again for the reply . Steve