Signal K and iKommunicate

P

pcg

Member
As I’m pondering the electrical design on my project boat I’ve realized that boat electronics, like the rest of the world, is going digital and even into the cloud. While searching for an inexpensive way to access the data on an NMEA 2000 network I came across Signal K. Many of you probably know about this as it’s been mentioned in sailing and yachting publications, so I’m hoping to start a discussion here where I can what you've learned! ;)

[Warning: nerdy rabbit hole ahead]

For the uninformed like me, Signal K is best described by this paragraph on the official website:
Signal K is a modern and open data format for marine use. Built on standard web technologies including JSON, WebSockets and HTTP, Signal K provides a method for sharing information in a way that is friendly to WiFi, cellphones, tablets and the Internet. A format available to everyone, where anyone can contribute, Signal K is the first truly open data format for the marine industry and is set to revolutionize how we consume and interact with data on boats.

[Take heart, this gets less nerdy from here on…]

So what does this mean to a non-programmer like me? First of all it means that there is a path for developing open source software for boat electronics, with the potential for INEXPENSIVE applications that cannot be gobbled up by corporations like Garmin - specifically, applications that access and display NMEA 2000 data.

Until now, if you wanted to take advantage of an NMEA 2000 network to view data you had to purchase an expensive chart plotter or MFD. I don’t mind paying for a chart plotter, but all I can afford is a little 7” display and there is only so much data you can arrange on that small display. I was excited when I learned that you can display data from the NMEA network on an iPAD (much larger display for much less money) via a WIFI connection to a chart plotter, until I learned that you can only mirror what is displayed on the chart plotter. Nice feature, but if you want to access data other than what is currently being displayed on the chart plotter, you have to purchase another MFD.

The formation of Signal K is the beginning of a movement to change this, but it’s a software standard. Someone has to develop the software and that also begs the question, who supplies the hardware to get the information off the NMEA network. The first company (as far as I can tell) to answer that need is Digital Yacht, who sells their iKommunicate NMEA 200 gateway for around $400. I’ve found it for half that price on eBay.

So now we have a standard for developing open source (read inexpensive) software and a company who sells a reasonably priced hardware enabler to get data off the NMEA 200 network, where are the applications? Well, they are starting to appear! Check this out! https://ikommunicate.com/signal-k-apps/

I realize that as a newbie, I’m probably late to the game and thus preaching to the choir, but I didn’t find out about this until after many many discouraging hours of investigating expensive MFD solutions. I’m somewhat excited.

Some more links:
http://signalk.org/
https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2018 ... on-energy/

Anybody here have any experience with this?
 
Here's a nice overview...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Toy9EmNtOc0

Active Captain is an early adopter of Signal K, but it's limited to using the iPad's GPS as its only source of external data. It has no access to the NMEA 2000 network.

The iKommunicate gateway device opens up a whole new world as it provides the iPAD (or PC, etc.) with everything on the NMEA 2000 network. And it comes with a free virtual Instrument Panel so you can display all kinds of data like motor trim, mpg, battery temp, etc.
 
That's all well and good, but the problem I'd like resolve is devices that use proprietary signal buses/formats.

For instance, my '07 Honda BF90D talks to the Honda brand instruments but does not do NMEA anything. Granted, newer Honda engines do talk NMEA, but it would be nice if there was away to interface (slightly) older Honda engines with modern chartplotters.
 
I have been following Signal K since Nov 2014 when Ben Elison (Panb0) did their first article on Signal K. There are probably 400 to 500 people actively involved.world wide with the project.

I agree that you have to like to run code, and be a bit of a "Geek" to be an early adaptor. To my knowledge Victron is the only commercial company which is facilitating integration of Signal K.

My problem is that not all of the NMEA 2000 applications "talk nice" to each other. You would hope that Signal K would get around that. (Furano sentencing is slightly different than Simrad, which is slightly different than Garmin etc. In otherworld all instruments would talk to each of the other brands. There are financial reasons that does not happed!

We have members such as Boris and Pat Anderson--two who come to mind, who like to fool around with Raspberry Pi, and using commercial products with the computer, alternate charting materials and integration of radar across brands. But for me--I'm still stuck in the LED and LiFePO4 world...

Let us know what you develop--and how we can use it!

Thanks for the update.
 
all fun things. when I first got my Lowrance MFD i tapped into the wifi NMEA 183 sentences. Built iOS app to grab the depth below transducer. it displayed depth and spoke it with a SIRI voice.

I find all of it and JSON really cool. It also is a big time vacuum.
 
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