ST 50 Knotmeter Issues...

[Mike Smith]

My ST 50 Knotmeter has been acting up over the past few months, so I've stumbled onto an ST 60 replacement.  My question is: Will the new ST 60 transducer fit in the hole for the old ST 50 transducer?  I'm assuming it will, but you never know!

Mike

[DEMERY]

Mike

I upgraded from ST50 to ST60 speed and depth instruments. I had the boat yard remove the old and install the new transducers. It appeared to be straight forward with the exception that the prior owner had installed the transducers with 5200. The yard guy mumbled about the 5200, but was able to remove them with little effort using is knowledge and tools.

Dave

[mike lofstrom]

Mike.  If you are asking if the ST60 Transducer will fit in the ST50 plastic sleeve that is bedded into your hull, Unfortunately the answer is no.  When raymarine went to the self sealing transducers on the ST60 series, they changed the diameter of the sensor.  You will have to replace the entire transducer and holder.    I think you can use the existing ST50 sensor with the ST60 though, so that might get you by until the next haulout.

[Mike Smith]

Thanks, Mike -

That's what I was afraid of - The topsides need waxing anyway so I'll have it installed then.

Mike

[Mike Smith]

I'm going to attach the old transducer cable to the new display head and see if it is compatible. I noted in the ST60 Speed manual that you can set the displayed speed to Speed Over Ground (SOG) taken from the GPS. Hmmm... I wonder if the SOG GPS input overrides the transducer input for computation of Max KTs, average KTs, log, Trip, and Velocity Made Good (VMG)? If that is the case, then why bother with the transducer anyway - except for measuring water temperature?

Mike

[captran]

Hi Mike,
Having just done this, I am quite familiar with it and have talked several times with the rayathon folks.  they have a toll free tech line, which was nice.  As you know from prior posts, my st 50 plus displays were soaked.  I sent them in to raymarine.  I have repeaters mounted in the helm pod, and the main units at the nav station/chart table.  The st 60s have a bigger cutout required, and they are grey, not black.  For $300. and only a couple of weeks they refurbished the old 50's, both speed and depth.  New insides and new displays, which I thought was very reasonable.  They said the wiring is all compatible between the 50 and the 60 but that if I upgraded the mounting holes would need to be different and the new 60's would be grey.  My units were mounted with the mounting nuts secured behind on the two long screws (top of unit and bottom), which required removal of the closet inside panel, and quite a reach at that.  To secure the new ones I opted for a small amount of marine silicone-sealant around the hole, clamping for 24 hours.  I stayed away from 5200, but I also wanted to be able to remove them without removing the closet panel, just in case there is ever a problem requiring service in the future.  

I'm very pleased with the results.  It looks the same as the original installation, all displays are black so it's consistent.  I guess you could spray paint them black if you wanted the st60, but also I would have needed to replace the white board on which they are mounted, since the mounting holes are different.  Well. maybe you could just increase the diameter and drill new mounting screw holes, but for the cost, I thought it prudent to repair.

[Mike Smith]

Hi Captran -

With all the enhancements the ST60 series has, I decided to slowly replace my ST50's as they each crap out.  Breezer originally only had the Autopilot, Depth and Speed units.  The Autopilot, which was mounted on the left cockpit coaming, died first, so I replaced it with a new ST4000 head. I installed an angled pedestal guard with an instrument pod and mounted the Autopilot between the ST50 Depth and Speed displays on it. Then I added an ST60 Wind unit and mounted it in the center of an additional instrument pod below the first one.  I like the ST60 display size and graphics a lot.  So far I'm adding about one new instrument a year.

Mike

[captran]

Hi Mike,
Sounds good.  It sure is interesting how all the boats are configured.  I do wish my auto pilot was on the cockpit coming, as it was on my old Newport.  In the NW I used to steer from under the dodger with the auto pilot.  With the st4000 mounted in the helm pod I won't be able to do that, so ultimately hope to get an isinglass enclosure to keep the weather out.  I went for repair for the aesthetics, and simplicity.  In your case it sounds like it's desirable to upgrade.  I was looking at the tridata repeaters when I was investigating what to do.  But at that point I was thinking the repeaters were at the chart table.  As it turns out, the repeaters are in the pod at the helm, and the actual speedo and depth are just above the chart table, in the white board  below the electrical panel.  I enjoy the boats for sale just to see pics of the different configurations.  Good luck with your project.

(as an aside, they are going to move Voyager into the shed this week with hopes of getting the go ahead from the insurance co to start the outside work.  I'm sure looking forward to spring break when I can spend a week hopefully getting her all put back together.)

[Mike Vaccaro]

One option with autopilots is to consider a remote control.  Our Simrad unit has an optional remote that we have mounted at the nav station down below.  It has a 25 foot cord that allows you to stand in the companionway or on deck as well.  This helps with watchkeeping and curbs the temptation to steer the boat from the nav station.  To simplify autopilot/instrument installation, we mounted a terminal block just below the binnacle (below decks above the aft water tank).  All of the wiring runs aft to this block and then to the instruments and autopilot on the binnacle.  It allows you to easily remove instruments for maintenance without having to disturb long wiring runs.  We also found a supplier of waterproof connectors that allowed us to make a quick-release pig-tail for connecting the wheel pilot.

Good marine-grade wiring will last for decades if properly maintained, but the average instrument/electronic component has a life span of about five years; so it's best from a long-term maintainability standpoint if permanent wiring runs terminate at blocks or buses and don't directly connect to components.  It also pays to use larger buses or blocks (i.e., extra terminals) and run extra wiring for future growth potential.  By having strategically located comm and power buses/terminal blocks throughout the boat, adding components becomes a relatively easy affair.  

Cheers,

Mike

[mike lofstrom]

Mike, I concurr with Mike V on the remote:  My boat has a full set of ST 50 instruments mounted in pods on either side of the pedestal and in a small nav pod on the pedestal rail.  I also had a flakey knotmeter when I bought the boat last year.  The folks at raymarine put a new board in the diplay and had it back to me in about two weeks.  I found that their service department was very easy to work with.  I don't remember what the tab for the repair was exactly, but I think it was around $100.  On the Autopilot front, I can highly recommend the ST600 remote from Raymarine.  It looks like an oversize cell phone.  I have one mounted on the head bulkhead port side just inside the companionway.  This arrangement lets me steer the boat from anywhere on deck, as well as from under the dodger when the weather is bad.  One of the real selling points of this remote was the seatalk interface.  It will act as a repeater for all of the other instruments on the network, so you can get depth, speed, wind, etc from the remote while still under autopilot control.  The repeater functions make it very easy to use at the nav station as well.   I singlehand quite a bit, so having the remote mounted just inside the companionway allows me to sit in front of the wheel, man the winches, and still be able to drive using the remote.

[Stu Jackson]

We're still back in the olden days of autopliots, without interfaced anything, and even use charts to navigate!!!  But I agree wholeheartedly with Mike L about working in front of the wheel - I single hand a lot also.

Our original A3000 autopilot had been installed on the starboard side on the vertical face of the angled area at the aft end of the cockpit.  Why? Don't know.

When I installed cockpit speakers, the compass, which is inside the old A3000 control head, went a bit zany from the proximity of the magnets in the starboard speaker.  I installed the speakers in the vertical under the helm seat.

We moved the control head up to the cockpit coaming, pretty much in line with the wheel.  Now I can easily operate the autopilot controls from both forward and aft of the wheel.  Most of the time I'm in front of the wheel.  I'd still have to get wet if it's raining if I was hunkered under the dodger, and it's not as good as a remote, but having the only autopilot control only aft of the wheel seems restricting at best.