replace Simrad wheelpiot with ray marine evolution

has anybody replaced a Simrad WP32 with a raymarine evolution, please?

Is it possible to replace only parts of the old unit in order to save money and work?

(I have to go down this route since old parts for the Simrad  - in my case the inner guide ring which is broken - cannot be found any where in UK)

hat jemand bitte Erfahrung mit dem Austausch eines alten Simrad Autopiloten WP32  Gegen einen Autopiloten Evolution  von raymarine ?

thank you!

vielen Dank!

Wieland

I have done this in my 342 some years ago. I have good news and bad news: The bad news is that you cannot re-use anything of the old WP32 unit, just throw it away or try to sell it. The good news is that you get a better autopilot with a great display and a very accurate heading sensor. You have to drill a couple of holes in the pedestal for an aluminum pin which fits into the rear of the drive unit, otherwise it's easy to install. The EV-1 sensor unit can be placed everywhere below decks, the ACU-100 likewise, but you'll need some free space on your pedestal instrument pod for the p70 control head. All 4 units must be connected by SeaTalk ng cables, creating a mini SeaTalk ng network. It you later decides to replace the Simrad instruments with Raymarine as I have done you'll then already have a SeaTalk ng backbone to which the new components can be connected.

regretfully there's a huge difference in system complexity between the Simrad and Raymarine wheelpilots. It might be that you'll need professional assistance to install the EV-100, depending on your experience in this field.

If your Raymarine i60 wind instrument is connected to the i50 speed display (to calculate true wind) then you have a small SeaTalk-ng network already in your pedestal instrument pod, but in order to install the EV-100 you need a lot more. A Seatalk-ng network consists of a backbone cable (blue plugs) and spur cables (white plugs) branching out from the backbone. You need to install a backbone cable from the instrument pod, through the pedestal and down below decks where the EV-1 and ACU-100 units have to be mounted, ref. picture below. Both units shall be connected to the backbone by a spur cable, and the backbone itself shall be terminated with a special termination plug in both ends.

In the pedestal instrument pod you'll connect the p70 instrument to another spur cable from the backbone.

You also need to supply separate 12 volt power to the ACU-100. On my 342 there's a dedicated autopilot power cable running in the black tube above the Raymarine units. I cut this cable, connected 12 volt supply from switchboard to the ACU-100, while the driver output from the ACU was connected to the remaining part of the cable leading to the pedestal. Then I connected the far end of the cable to the wheel drive's power cable.

I'm not sure of what exactly you'll need of cables, but I suppose you'd better get the complete kit include wiring, like https://hudsonmarine.co.uk/products/raymarine-evolution-ev-100-wheel-autopilot-with-wheel-drive-and-p70s-control-t70152.

Hope this helps a little bit.

Regards, Gunnar

To my Simrad IS20 wind instrument + Garmin 551s Chartplotter which displays all data on other instruments. All connects easily with the correct adaptors.

here is my update:

Just as I was ready to indeed give up on  the old Simrad WP 32 and have a new Raymarine evolution 100 installed (following Gunnar's advice), I realized that my pedestal has no free space for the Raymarine control , the surface being taken up completely by the chartplotter. So back to the drawing board, so to speak: Hudson marine (very helpful indeed) said that there should not be a problem connecting the old Simrad control ( conveniently located on the side of the wheel ) with a Raymarine evolution 100  drive unit. To be sure I rang Raymarine who said (somewhat categorically) "no mixing of Raymarine devices with Simrad possible!. This afternoon I went to talk to our local very good chandlery (Fox's)  - They kindly unpacked a complete set of the Raymarine evolution 100 and looked at the drive unit, to find that it has a very simple electrical plug in for the power and would react to simple   - "right left", or  "steady"  impulses (which is all I get (and want) from the simple Simrad control). So their answer: Yes it would most likely work and they would sell me the drive unit only (Ca 650 Pounds). To make sure, they would within the next few days use one of their contacts at Raymarine to verify.

So far so good - I will keep you posted  - - - 

Wieland