Raymarine forum

I have a RL80c in the cockpit, which works perfectly after a recent upgrade from an RL70 that didn’t.
Have now also come across a RC530 that I would like to put inside at the Nav station.
Question is, does it need the hsb cable to run, or can I just plug in the power and nema, then use it as a plotter? I don’t really need the radar at the chart table
Thx

Hello Mark,

You can use the RC530 as a standalone chartplotter with just power, a chart card and a source of GPS data (Seatalk or NMEA0183.) I would always use Seatalk instead of NMEA0183 if at all possible: 0183 is long outdated and is much less flexible than Seatalk and harder to connect correctly.

There are actually 3 different key variants of RC530 (HSB1, HSB1 with partial software compatibility with HSB2, and HSB2) and for an HSB connection between your two displays to work they'd need to be the same variant. Telling which was which was not a trivial task, the part number and badge on the front were not reliable indicators. Simplest to leave HSB disconnected as you say.

Regards,
Tom