Navman plotter/gps aerial

[Vara]

For reasons I don't quite understand I have 2 Navman 5500 plotters, both fed by one Navman GPS mushroom thing on the aft rail which is fed through a Navbus.

In the quest for redundancy in the system I would like to separate them.

The plotter has what looks like an SMA connector on the back.

Can I just disconnect plotter #1 from the gps feed on the navbus and plug in a generic aerial as sold on E-bay for about a tenner? Or is it all a bit more complicated than that.

 

[Refueler]

Does your Plotter have NMEA in / out ?

Most do and that means you can feed GPS data similar to when you feed a PC ... by NMEA from a handheld GPS, fixed etc. etc.

I have two RS232 sockets next to my DSC radio ... one is NMEA in for DSC from any GPS I want to use at that time, other socket is NMEA out to feed PC or any other item I care to have GPS data to.

Here's a photo of the temp test rig to trial before making up full shelf unit ...

I use old mouse leads ... like most people I have a few mice that have stopped working ... so I cut of the leads and put them to use ... The lead you see connected in the photo is from my Lowrance plotter ... the RS232 to left of it is the data out. I've made sure that connections are same whatever GPS I use ... my eTrex, Magellan or Lowrance.