SC50-lost initial out sentencing

[Les Voguer]

Hi, my display unit for Furuno SC-50 was becoming unreadable. I found one on eBay, bought and installed it thinking it was plug and play…… and threw out the old one…. Horrible mistake.

So the output sentencing in the new display would not give compass readings to my auto pilots, Simrad AP 25 and 26. The boat and its electronics are 21 years old.
I have not been able to find the output data sentencing map on board, and I can’t get AP 25, which is AP 1 to work, I am in the Caribbean full time live aboard and slowly becoming electronics literate as things breakdown. I did manage to get AP2 ( simrad AP25) to work, but it is only available in the pilot house. Flybridge operations work on AP 1.

Any thoughts……

 

[jp498]

The SC50 might be having a dead battery inside the central box, losing it's settings for NMEA output. You can configure which sentences go out with which ports, then lose them all again if the battery doesn't help hold the settings in memory.
I don't remember where in the menus to do this, but it's pretty easy to find.
Maybe one of the ports has a default configuration to send heading data? With 0183 you can have multiple listeners, so both APs could go to the same output on the sc50 if you have an output working for the AP26.

If it's important, perhaps add a SCX21 to the mix; it will have configurable NMEA0183 outputs like the SC50; it can use a GP39 for display and configuration, or a computer for configuration.

 

[Les Voguer]

The SC50 might be having a dead battery inside the central box, losing it's settings for NMEA output. You can configure which sentences go out with which ports, then lose them all again if the battery doesn't help hold the settings in memory.
I don't remember where in the menus to do this, but it's pretty easy to find.
Maybe one of the ports has a default configuration to send heading data? With 0183 you can have multiple listeners, so both APs could go to the same output on the sc50 if you have an output working for the AP26.

If it's important, perhaps add a SCX21 to the mix; it will have configurable NMEA0183 outputs like the SC50; it can use a GP39 for display and configuration, or a computer for configuration.

Thank you JP498. Forgive my slow acknowledgment, we have guests in town… so. And we are at anchor in Martinique.

-Battery does need replacing and I just managed to get a new one in St Lucia. Sadly he wouldn’t install it for me.
-So, I do get the autopilot 2 to work on output 3, but not AP1. In fact AP 1 IS THE ONLY THING NOT WORKING. I haven’t given up, and am becoming more comfortable with working with sentencing since I simply don’t have a choice, and will continue. One tech did manage to getAP1 up and running, but he is in Grenada… and we hadn’t considered at the time that all the sentencing would be lost if we turned off the breaker…. so that doesn’t help.

I haven’t given up, just a little confused.

-no idea what an scx21 is nor GP39, I will look it up.

THANKS AGAIN

 

[Les Voguer]

So, a new twist, and a mystery. We have 2 outlets for a SIMRAD AP27 remote auto pilot controller. We never use this, but I decided to discover which autopilot it works off of, and if off of AP2, we can use it on the flybridge. Sadly, it works off AP1..

So… when I plugged it in, and turned on AP1 it worked, and so was the AP25 which AP 1 works from, woooo hooo….
And interestingly, when I disconnected the AP27, AP1 lost its compass heading?

There is an answer here, I don’t know what it is, maybe one of you will….

James