The pilot speaks SeaTalk1, so it reaches Zora through a Raymarine
E22158 converter. That converter is the only part Zora ever sees. Wire it
wrong and it never appears, so the autopilot menu stays empty and nothing says why.
The three sockets
Colour
What goes in
If it is wrong
Yellow
The SeaTalk1 bus the pilot and its control head are already on
The pilot appears in Zora and ignores every command
White
A SeaTalkNG spur: the drop to the Zora server, or to a NMEA 2000 adaptor
No pilot in the list
Blue
The SeaTalkNG backbone, or a terminator at the end of it
No pilot in the list
Yellow carries data only, so it can never be the
reason a converter has no power.
What has to be true
1
The SeaTalkNG backbone is powered and terminated
Why
The converter draws its power from SeaTalkNG. The 12 V cable in the kit is what puts power on the backbone in the first place, rather than a feed to the converter, and a run with open ends is electrically dead whatever is plugged into it. The kit ships two terminators for this.
You see
No pilot in the autopilot menu, on a boat where the SeaTalk1 side is perfect.
Fix
Power cable to a live fused feed, a terminator in the blue socket at each end. Converter plus Zora is still a backbone and still needs both.
2
Zora hangs off that same backbone
Why
The server takes a white spur. Where the boat's backbone is standard NMEA 2000, a SeaTalkNG-to-DeviceNet adaptor joins the two, and that backbone needs its own power and terminators.
You see
Nothing at all on the bus, not only the pilot.
Fix
White spur to the server, blue for whatever continues the run.
3
The SeaTalk1 bus lands in yellow
Why
This is the only path the keystrokes take. Zora sends them to the converter and the converter puts them on SeaTalk1.
You see
The pilot is listed and selectable, the commands are accepted, and the boat does not turn.
Fix
Any free junction on the SeaTalk1 bus will do, since it is daisy-chained.
4
For wind hold: a wind instrument on SeaTalk1
Why
The pilot looks for apparent wind on its own bus before steering to wind. This is the pilot guarding itself, not Zora refusing.
You see
Heading hold and the trims work. Wind hold never confirms.
Fix
An ST60-class wind head on the SeaTalk1 bus is what is known to work. Where the bus carries no wind at all, Zora sends wind data for the converter to pass down, though no boat has yet confirmed a pilot taking wind mode on it.
When it is right
The autopilot menu lists Raymarine E22158, which is the converter's name
rather than the pilot's. That is normal, and it means the whole chain is up. There is no model
to pick and no address to type in.
Standby, heading hold and the ±1° / ±10° trims all work from Zora, and the pilot's own control
head keeps working beside it. In wind hold, read the wind instrument: the angle Zora shows is its
record of what you asked for, since this pilot never reports the angle it holds.
A converter that loses power goes quiet and nothing announces it. The pilot stops being in
the list. If a pilot that worked yesterday is missing today, check the backbone's power before
suspecting the pilot.