Can SignalK be used as WiFi NMEA gateway for mobile apps
I have Cerbo GX with SignalK and NMEA2000 connected to my Garmin instruments on the boat. It is great for tracking trips with PostgSail SK plugin.
Is it possible for SK to act as NMEA gateway for other apps on local WiFi to provide realtime navigational data (COG, SOG,AWS, AWA...) to mobile apps like Navionics or Sailgrib WR?
4 Replies
Absolutely
@mpvader great. Do I need to enable some special plugin?
Pls check venus large manual
Hey @Lure I have a bit more time now, and reread that manual myself. Its a bit out dated here and there. I’ll update it.
Most important steps for making a GX a NMEA to LAN/Gateway on a Victron GX device:
1) get venus os large installed & signalk server enabled
2) login to its admin page
3) create an admin password
4) Complete the boat details under Server -> Settings -> Vessel base data.
5) setup connections to your nav instruments:
- When connected to N2K: nothing to do, since N2K data connection comes pre-installed.
- When one or more NMEA0183 serial connections are required, then now set those up.
6) Double check if there is data coming in by opening the Databrowser in the signalk admin page.
7) that should be sufficient. Now you can configure your nav apps, use the IP address of the device, type TCP and port 10110.
Good to know:
A) On the Signal K Server install on Venus OS, this gateway feature comes pre-installed and pre-configured.
B) For the Cerbo GX MK2, there is a bug in the default configuration of the CAN communication of Signal K Server. Fix it in the Signal K admin web page; change can0 to vecan0 in the data connection config. Background here: https://github.com/victronenergy/venus/issues/1314.
Further reading:
- blogpost describing what you’re looking for: https://svrenaissance.com/victron-cerbo-gx-on-steroids/
- Venus OS Large manual: https://www.victronenergy.com/live/venus-os:large
- Signal K documentation on exactly this topic: https://demo.signalk.org/documentation/features/navdataserver/navdataserver.html
😂 having re-read that last link: thats what you’re looking for, all is in there
Oh one more thing @Lure : I’ve meanwhile updated our docs
Its here: https://www.victronenergy.com/live/venus-os:large#first_use_configuring
Can you do me a favour, read that real carefully (or use it as your guide) and tell me what needs to be made different?
@mpvader thanks for fast response with all the details and updated documentation. I followed your new docs and they are clear to me. It seems I did not have vessel data entered. Probably as I have read Venus-Large docs only before installing Cerbo, but did not need the docs up to now as things are very straight forward.
Navionics now shows NMEA data and AIS targets for me. Still need to figure out how to get in SailGrib WR, but that is probably specific to that app.