The supported Raymarine radars are very easy to use with OpenCPN. All you need is a wired Ethernet connection.
You can add as many computers as desired, the system will allow operation from all connected MFDs (plotters) and computers.
Shared setup with a Raymarine MFD
The radars supported by the plugin are the old analog radars, not yet the digital and the Quantum generation radars. See table. Most of these radomes connect via a thick cable directly into a Radar display or an older MFD like the ``E Series Classic legacy Display''.
These have a Seatalk hs port, which is nothing else than Ethernet. The seatalk hs physical connection is a standard RJ45 jack with a weatherproof collar.
Connect an Ethernet switch and link it to the Seatalk hs port on your display.
From release 5.5.5 the support of Quantum radars is improved.
As of now only Ethernet connected Quantum radars are supported. To install: Connect both radar and Axiom MFD (if you have one) to a switch. The computer running OpenCPN with radar_pi should also be connected to that switch. For the switch you may use an original Raymarine or a third party model with standard RJ45 connectors. Better not use a managed switch, this adds a lot of complexity. In this setup, as soon as the radar functions on the MFD, it will function on radar_pi. The radar can be controlled from any device.
Quantum radar without a Raymarine MFD
Attention: the solution below has been reported as working several times, but is not not guaranteed to function in your case, like anything we say about Raymarine radars.
If you want to use the Quantum radar without a Raymarine MFD some additional actions are needed. For the radar to function it requires a DHCP server on the network. The Axiom MFD has a DHCP server operational. To operate the radar without a Raymarine MFD (like Axiom) you will need to supply a DHCP server on the network. On Linux based machines a software DHCP server can be added easily. On Windows this is less straightforward. But the simplest solution is not to use an Ethernet switch, but a router. A typical 20$ home router should do the job. And you may find a 12 volt model. It seems that no special configuration for the DHCP server is required. So the default setting should be OK. As it may take some time before the radar will refresh its IP-address power toggling the radar may help.
If you put you own DHCP server on the network, make sure that the DHCP server on the Axiom (or other plotter) is "off" or "automatic" (diagnose menu), there should never be more than one DHCP server.
In case your radar is WiFi connected to the Axiom we have no tested solution available. However you could try to connect the computer to the Raynet (Ethernet), as we expect that the Axiom retransmits the radar information on the network.