NMEA Connect

NMEA Connect reads your boat’s instruments over the boat’s WiFi. You see the AIS traffic around you on the chart, can use the boat’s GPS for your position, and can read speed, depth, wind, and heading in one place. NMEA Connect is part of OceanPulse Elite.

What you need#

• A WiFi gateway or server on the boat that sends NMEA 0183 over TCP or UDP, or a Signal K server. See Compatible devices.
• Your iPhone or iPad on the boat’s WiFi, the same network as the gateway.
• Local Network access for OceanPulse. iOS asks the first time you connect; if you said no, turn it on in the Settings app › OceanPulse › Local Network.

OceanPulse doesn’t read NMEA 2000, Bluetooth, or USB directly. An NMEA 2000 network works through a gateway that turns it into NMEA 0183 over WiFi, or through a Signal K server.

Add a connection#

Open Settings › NMEA (or the gear in NMEA Connect) and tap Add Connection. Choose the type your equipment speaks:

• NMEA 0183 (TCP) for most gateways. Enter the gateway’s address and port; most use port 10110.
• NMEA 0183 (UDP) for gateways that send UDP, whether to the whole network or to your device’s address. Enter the port the gateway sends on.
• Signal K for a Signal K server, on port 3000 unless it was changed. Signal K servers on the network are listed under Found on This Network: tap one to add it. If the server asks for a login, turn on Allow Readonly Access in its Security settings.

Each connection shows whether it’s connected and how many messages a second it’s receiving. Your connections sync to your other devices through iCloud.

With more than one connection, the one higher in the list wins when two send the same reading. Tap Edit and drag to reorder.

Your position#

Position chooses where your position comes from, for the chart and every other feature:

• Automatic uses the boat’s GPS while it’s sending a position, and falls back to this device’s GPS.
• This Device always uses this device’s GPS.
• Boat GPS only uses the boat’s. With no position from the boat, the app has none.

The chart’s speed and course card says Boat GPS while the boat’s position is in use. Position is set per device, so an iPad at the chart table can follow the boat’s GPS while your phone keeps its own.

Instruments#

NMEA Connect › Instruments shows each reading, such as speed through the water, depth, apparent and true wind, heading, and water temperature, with the instrument it came from. A reading greys out when its instrument stops sending.

AIS on the chart#

Coastal Charts shows every AIS target your connections hear:

• Vessels are drawn as their hull, in orange, pointing where they’re headed: solid under way, paler when stopped. Up close they’re drawn at their real size. Tilt the chart and each ship’s superstructure stands up in 3D.
• Predictor vectors show where each moving vessel will be in the next few minutes, longer for bigger ships. A faint trail shows where it’s been.
• Aids to navigation are drawn as the IALA mark they report, in the colors of your region. A virtual aid has a dashed ring.
• A vessel that stops reporting draws with a dashed outline, then disappears after 20 minutes.

Tap a target for its details: name, type, flag, range and bearing, its closest approach to you, speed and course, size, and destination.

Chart Display has the AIS switch, and can hide Class B vessels, vessels at anchor or moored, and aids and base stations. These only thin the chart; the target list always shows everything heard.

The target list#

NMEA Connect › AIS Targets lists every target, sorted by risk (the closest approach first), range, or name, with search and filters. Tap a row to fly the chart to it.

Vessel details#

For vessels in US waters, a target’s details add its registry particulars: official number, year built, tonnage, hailing port, service, and, for commercial vessels, the operator. Many have a photo from Wikimedia Commons, credited to its photographer. If the vessel has been renamed since the photo was taken, the photo says so.

The details come from the US Coast Guard’s vessel register and the FCC’s ship licences, matched to the vessel’s MMSI by OceanPulse. A note under them says how they were matched; a match by name alone says it may be a different vessel.

OceanPulse includes these details offline, so they show with no signal (photos need a connection). The app checks for newer details once a quarter, when the Coast Guard updates its register; tap Check for Update under Vessel Details in Settings › NMEA to check now.

Close approach alarm#

Turn on Close Approach Alarm in Settings › NMEA and pick a distance. When a vessel will pass within that distance in the next 15 minutes, OceanPulse sounds an alert and draws the vessel in red on top of the others, even if a filter would hide it. Tap the alert to see the vessel on the chart.

The alarm is quiet while your boat is stopped. While it’s on, NMEA Connect keeps listening with the app in the background, which uses more battery. The alarm needs notifications: if they’re off, Settings › NMEA says so.

Your own boat#

Enter your boat’s MMSI on the Vessel page. Your own transponder then never shows as a target, even when another receiver hears it.

Try it ashore#

Turn on Demo Boat in Settings › NMEA to play a recorded passage off Point Judith, Rhode Island, with simulated AIS traffic. It works anywhere, with no boat.

Troubleshooting#

• No data: check your device is on the boat’s WiFi, not cellular or another network, and that Local Network access is on for OceanPulse.
• Connected but nothing shows: open Raw NMEA Feed in Settings › NMEA. It shows every line as it arrives, with any that failed their checksum in red. If it’s empty, the gateway isn’t sending on that port.
• UDP shows nothing: make sure the connection’s port is the one the gateway sends on.
• Still stuck: use Contact Us in the app. It attaches the latest data each connection sent, so we can see what your boat sends.

Compatible devices#

Any device that sends NMEA 0183 over WiFi, or runs a Signal K server, works with NMEA Connect. These are known to, from their makers’ manuals.

We test NMEA Connect on a Raspberry Pi running Signal K with a dAISy AIS receiver, and with Demo Boat.

Not compatible:

• Raymarine Axiom and other LightHouse displays don’t send data over WiFi. Add an NMEA 2000 WiFi gateway.
• Garmin chartplotters use WiFi only for the ActiveCaptain app. Add a gateway.
• Standard Horizon GX6000 and GX6500 use WiFi only for their wireless microphones. Wire them to a WiFi multiplexer.
• Bluetooth and USB devices, such as the Digital Yacht NavLink Blue, Actisense NGT-1, and Yacht Devices YDNU-02.
• Raw NMEA 2000 output, such as a gateway set to RAW or to Actisense’s NMEA 2000 formats. The gateway works once set to NMEA 0183.