NMEA 2000 to computer

[lolaa]

Hello,

My passion is sailing and technology so I bought myself a small monohull (NMEA2000 network onboard) and I would like to have access to all the instruments (at least the basic ones like the windspeed, GPS, sea depth, …) from my computer (Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04 or Windows 10). This way I will be able to see everything from my computer (and my goal is one day be able to control my boat from my phone but for now let’s be realistic and start from the beginning haha).

I have made lots of researches recently to learn about how to get data from NMEA2000 to my computer but I am having a hard time to find an inexpensive (max $150) and efficient solution as NMEA is a closed protocol.

I have found Signal K (A free and OpenSource universal marine data exchange format) which I find to be an incredibly good idea! So I looked at the installation guide and their different start packs which you can find on this link : Signak K » Installation . I am software developer, so I like to make system without buying already made devices (such as iKommunicate: iKommunicate – The Gateway to Signal K ). Therefore I would like to understand more in depth how I could implement the “Advanced Starter Pack 2” (Signak K » Installation ) or “Expert Starter Pack ” (Signak K » Installation ) on my boat (you can find the schemas below):

Starting with the first schema (Advanced Starter Pack 2):
It seems that I can connect the instrument on my NMEA2000 network to a raspberry Pi using a NMEA2000 Gateway. I found that this NMEA2000 Gateway could be Actisense NGT-1 which is an intelligent NMEA 2000 gateway able to precisely Transfer messages to and from the NMEA 2000 bus. However, I find it too expensive (more than $100). So, are there solutions cheaper to Actisense NGT-1 available online? If not, any knows how I could make a home version of this device?

Now, looking at the second schema (Expert Starter Pack) :



I would like to know what device (least expensive) could be used as the Signal K Smart Gateway in the diagram? Or are there any other solutions that could be used to connect directly to my computer?

In this post I talk about Signal K to collect data from my instruments on my NMEA2000 network, but I am open to other solutions of course. Has anyone used Signal K or has some experience with trying to get their instruments’ data on their computer or phone or on their Raspberry?

I hope my question was clear, if not don’t hesitate to let me know. And I will try keep up to date anyone who wants to follow my adventure of trying to fully connect my boat and maybe one day control it from my phone ?!

 

[GHA]

Check out openplotter for the raspberry pi, they do a can/usb adaptor. Then signalk will see that and can do various conversions.
Sailoog Shop
Strong argument to using a raspberry pi as the boat computer, low power, very cheap and openplotter comes with everything preloaded.
I've been running it for years, signalk is just fantastic. Logging everything to a database for plotting is gold dust. It will run headless, I've a monitor but usually just use the laptop either over vnc (so you can access the Pi from anywhere over the web) or mostly using a web browser as signalk and the database viewers use a web page as a gui.
If you are on windows at home then give signalk a go, download the installer and double click -
SignalK/signalk-server-windows

Also, for more advanced monitoring there are numerous cheap accurate sensors for pressure/temperature/voltage/current which can attach direct to the Pi or to a esp32 microprocessor which will send the data over wifi.

Some logged voltage/current >

 

[lolaa]

Check out openplotter for the raspberry pi, they do a can/usb adaptor. Then signalk will see that and can do various conversions.
Sailoog Shop
Strong argument to using a raspberry pi as the boat computer, low power, very cheap and openplotter comes with everything preloaded.
I've been running it for years, signalk is just fantastic. Logging everything to a database for plotting is gold dust. It will run headless, I've a monitor but usually just use the laptop either over vnc (so you can access the Pi from anywhere over the web) or mostly using a web browser as signalk and the database viewers use a web page as a gui.
If you are on windows at home then give signalk a go, download the installer and double click -
SignalK/signalk-server-windows

Also, for more advanced monitoring there are numerous cheap accurate sensors for pressure/temperature/voltage/current which can attach direct to the Pi or to a esp32 microprocessor which will send the data over wifi.

Some logged voltage/current >

Thank you for your response I will look into OpenPlotter and get back to you as soon as I have made some improvements!

 

[Keith-i]

Or try an arduino with Timo Lapalainens code from his nmea2000 github.

 

[[70521]]

Just a matter of capturing the sentences and building an interface to display the data.
Having spent my working life in the use and abuse of major computer systems I am delighted not to need to get involved these days.