Autohelm 5000 Upgrade

[TrailMutt]

I have an older Autohelm 5000 autopilot system on my 38' Irwin sailboat. It has a fully functional Autohelm linear drive unit controlled by an Autohelm control unit and I would like to update the control unit with something more modern to interface to my Raymarine C80 chartplotter/gps and Raymarine ST60+ instrument package. Would the Raymarine X-10 or X-30 corepack and one of the Raymarine control heads be compatible with my older Autohelm linear drive? Wasn't able to find much information on the Raymarine site.

Thanks in advance for the help. Have really enjoyed browsing Cruisers Forum in the past and just registered as a new member.

[j24jaded]

I also have a 38CC Irwin mkii '88.

My boat has a Autohelm 6000 and the Navigation Interface which used the signal from Loran C to guide the boat.
I am told that it will accept NEMA 0183 instructions, and translate to the course computer, although I haven't managed to do so yet. I did get it to link up once, but didn't realize till later that I had the breaker to the drive unit off by accident.

I'm courious to see what we can find out, as I think I will have to upgrade mine before long.
Thanks

[Olorin]

I have the Autohelm 5000 on my 40' sailing cat with the linear drive. I upgraded to a C90W chartplotter, AIS and Radar and it all amazingly worked together on four different generations of Seatalk.

When the control head/display packed it in a year ag I had to replace the control head unit with an X-10 and a display but the linear drive mechanism is still working.

[j24jaded]

I wish I had SeaTalk, mine is a pre ST version. (

[TrailMutt]

Thanks Olorin and j24jaded. That gives me some hope that I won't have to replace the linear drive also.