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Now that's a good question Mark. Here's what I wrote in my initial post:

I would like to monitor some key parameters over time (graphically) to see if there is a trend vs just looking at current values. For instance, I would like to graph over time the engine cooling water temperature, engine oil pressure, wind velocity, temperature, boat roll and pitch, etc. I'd also like the system to notify me when the parameter gets out of tolerance (e.g. oil pressure too low). Maretron N2KView does this, but it's pricey and seems to be loosing support while Maretron transitions to MConnect.

In addition, I'd like to be able to be able to access this information remotely. I currently can access instantaneous wind speed and direction, depth and position remotely with my Predectwind DataHub, but a graphical representation over time would be better.

It seems like a PC running that collects NMEA2000 data with SignalK records it with InfluxDB then displays it with Grafana is one way to do it. I just want to avoid something too techy. The Maretron DSM displays seem like a good solution, but I wouldn't have the remote capability. Maybe that's not too important, and gives me a solution that's easy to implement and off the shelf.

Richard Nye

Untethered, 57-22

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/MV_Untethered/

my initial goal is to log "voyage" instrument sensor values at one minute intervals, then review and summarize that data in various ways, ideally with an SQL-like interface.

data points of immediate interest:

engine hours, oil pressure, temp

RPM, turbo boost psi, GPH, speed through water

LAT, LON, SOG, COG

depth

roll, pitch, heave

wind speed, direction

battery voltage, current

rob

Roadrunner

2007 Selene 49 deep hull 48-029

Hey Rob,

I posted this question on TrawlerForum also (yes, I post there too when I think y'all have had enough of me). HERE'S the link. Blue Yonder posted the same solution you did (PC > SignalK > InfluxDB > Grafana). You may want to message him for more details. mikehar said he's working on a product that would make it very easy. I haven't made any progress on my end, I've got other projects to keep me busy for now. But I am very interested in what you discover.

Richard Nye

Untethered, 57-22

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/MV_Untethered/

I'm sitting here on the hook in Nova Scotia waiting out some weather and finally have time to play with NMEA 2000 data logging and retrieval/display of that data. The route I am going is open source with Signal-K, InfluxDB2, and Grafana on a Windows laptop we keep in the pilothouse, connected with an Actisense NGT-1 hardware to bring in NMEA2000 over USB. Starting from scratch it's been a day of reading to understand the architecture and data flow, getting the Signal-K server and Influx database running on the Win10 laptop, and now messing around with Grafana.

Are other folks doing this? If so would be fun to talk privately about it.

The laptop is one part of our electronic cartography system (we are running four complete systems), so when we're underway the laptop is up and running. Bringing in the NMEA 2000 data doesn't interfere with the laptop's navigational work and I'm expecting that historical instrumentation data will be a useful addition to Roadrunner.

rob

Roadrunner

2007 Selene 49 deep hull 48-029

Richard - clearly lots of ways to skin this cat. Answering your 7 identified needs - you can do all of that with a pair of DSMs (they support line graphs). Each DSM supports 16 screens and 40 alerts but is limited to SMS for remote communication which is currently unavailable due to obsolescence of the SMS100 and failure of Maretron to release a functional replacement SMS 4G/5G Module (under development for years now with no formal announcement on availability).

At the 2011 West Coast Rendezvous, I presented an Introduction to Vessel Monitoring using N2K Tech -I will send you a copy. Key 2X2 breakout is defining your needs for Monitoring and Alerting against your desire for such on-board vs remote. This helps guide your initial investment and as you note this tech is easily expanded over time. If you have full time WAN via cellular or Starlink then remote monitoring and alerting is easy but not supported by the DSM and likely never will be. I still appreciate my DSMs as on-board displays around the boat, FB, PH, MSR bedside. But the DSM currently won't do remote alerting.

As mentioned, I have currently no concerns over the longevity of N2KView largely because it is built on Air and that someone other than Adobe is now in charge of ongoing maintenance and support. The N2KView product foundation has already outlasted numerous proprietary platforms - every vendor’s black box is subject to obsolescence- consider Furuno NavNet 3D - released about the time I installed N2KView (2008) with the last software update published in 2013 and replacement systems vanished long ago.

I already posted line graphs on Underway Metrics for engine, temps, etc. Have a look at the attached N2KView screenshots - they depict everything in your list.

Regarding the MConnect - An onboard solution today with a number of limitations and promises and User Interface designs that I find unappealing. Watch the videos to judge for yourself. Will it get finished, how far, and by when... - there is some risk I suppose in selecting either platform, but all of your investment in sensors around the boat of course will work regardless of your decision or moving to a different platform in the future.

Contact me directly if you'd like a Zoom/FaceTime tour of the installation or see a demonstration on how simple it is to edit a screen component etc.

Carl

MV Ellipsis

Selene 5906

PS - I highly recommend adding water sensors to your list for early detection of fluids in key locations - e.g. genset pan, under stabilizers, under pumps, bilges, etc. For us, these have been the most redeeming sensors for thwarting small leaks from becoming larger issues.

Carl and Mark,

You are both way ahead of me and my mechanical engineering brain. My needs are pretty simple, and I don't have the time (or probably the ability) to do many of the things you do with your systems.

I've been trying hard to identify my needs (as I know them today) so I can select a system that fulfills my needs. It seems like N2KView would do that, but I don't want to spend a lot of time and money on a system that may not be supported and potentially go obsolete in the next 5-10 years. Also, I don't want to do a bunch of Raspberry Pi, Signal K, Grafana manipulations, I just want a pretty simple, off the shelf system I can customize and build on to meet my simple needs.

As I see them now, my needs are:

1. Engine data: Take data off my Cummins QSM11 (J1939) and display it, chart some variables (oil pressure, temperature, etc), and create alarm limits to notify me.

2. Weather: Create a weather page that shows temperature, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, charts this data, and displays the highs/lows since the last reset.

3. Monitor boat attitude: Chart roll and pitch, display max values since last reset.

4. Monitor tanks: Show current levels of fresh water, black water and fuel on one screen. Display an alarm when limits are reached.

5. Monitor bilge pumps: Display that power is applied to bilge pumps, record the number of times they have cycled, and total time since last reset.

6. Engine hour meter: I'd like to create a page that has the number of hours remaining until service is needed for the main, wing and generator for oil changes, transmission oil, filters, etc.

7. Electrical: I haven't given this too much thought, but I'm sure I can dream up many things to monitor on the electrical system.

Remote monitoring and alarms would be nice, particularly for weather, bilge pumps and electrical.

I like that the Maretron systems can grow over time. I don't have the time to install everything at once, so I would prioritize and install the sensors and build the system over time. I also don't know what I don't know, and the system is pretty flexible to adapt to evolving needs. My biggest concern with N2KView is investing in a system that becomes obsolete. But from what you say Carl, that may not be an issue.

I'm also considering installing some Maretron displays (DSM410 and/or DSM570) on the overhead, but they look pretty limited in what they can do.

Thanks for your input. It's amazing that our little Selene family has such expertise in this area.

Richard

I mentioned bus connected logging device that I used for about 2 years - it was a VDR100 - extremely slow to extract data, issues with USB recognition, it generated a LOT of additional bus traffic. I can not recommend that product. I am not even sure if Maretron sold it anymore.

I want to address a misconception presented regarding Adobe Air, a runtime layer used by thousands of applications (many for Enterprise) and of course, Maretron’s N2Kview. Adobe transitioned support and development of Air to HARMAN, a subsidiary of Samsung in 2019-20. Harman has continued to maintain and update the runtime with the latest version released just this month (July 2025). Harman even completed a port for the Mac M series using Apple Silicon. There is no clear reason or evidence today to suggest that development and support for Air will cease. There’s a reported 32,000+ companies using and/or licensed with Harman for continued support for AIR.

Is HTML-5 a better path for the future? Probably - but the real question is what is here now and able to be fully exploited?

As for Maretron migrating all of the N2KView features to MConnect - I’ve never heard such by anyone at Maretron. Regardless, there are a slew of undocumented and lesser known features that I am very certain will never make it. If you really want to use MConnect it could be a long time before you are able to most of what these other solutions offer now, if ever. How far will Maretron go with MConnect and when - hard to say especially given the hot potato ownership they have suffered.

As I implied in my prior reply, If you are a nerd and willing to get gritty, you can build a sweet solution on open source products like Signal K, Grafana, and InfluxDB.

If you are a bit technical, you can learn to customize and build your own screens, alerts, reports, and logs in N2KView.

Be careful that your solution isn’t so far from stock replacement and support that it becomes an impediment to resale.

Carl

MV Ellipsis

Selene 5906

Here is where I landed on my analysis....

N2KView is based on Adobe Air. That software was end of life in 2020. It's really old technology for web-based development. This was a bit of a red flag to me.

The mConnect is HTML5 based which is the new / correct way to do things but as was mentioned it "just" came out and doesn't have feature parity with N2KView. This is another red flag to me.

Porting software between major architectural / platform changes is really hard and it always takes longer than you think it will. If you are delayed in moving off of end of life software (as was the case here) it is a sign you aren't in very good shape to begin with. Catching up is really hard and if you aren't in good shape from the start then the signs are that you aren't going to be able to hit that feature parity in the new product anytime soon.

I think Maretron makes really great stuff but I am pretty concerned they don't have enough momentum to maintain the software base that they have based on these signs and because of the aquisitions / mergers with other firms over the past few years without any clear signs of capital investment in their software engineering tooling / products.

I am running a similar setup to what was linked...

1. I have a N2K cable attached to my cerbo gx

2. My cerbo gx publishes all messages to a MQTT broker

3. I have software that slurps up the MQTT messages and stuffs them in a timeseries database (InfluxDB)

4. I use grafana to visualize that data and set alarms on that data

All of the software in that pipeline are open source products that are widely used in the IT industry. As such, they are actively maintained and used for things outside of the Marine vertical which is a big plus from a logevity / feature perspective.

The downside is the setup. If folks are interested in this sort of thing I would be happy to chat / explore how one could make the setup / maintenance of this sorta thing "easier".

Question back for you, Richard - How serious are you about wanting to do predictive analysis? Like you, I hoped I could do some of that graphically. I have been capturing screenshots of graphs generated with N2KView while UNDERWAY since 2009 (examples attached) and it’s proven beneficial for confirming suspicions usually driven by other evidence - Not at all predictive. For example, after finding EEGT temps running hot, I could reference the archive to see that they didn’t run hot last season in similar conditions, etc. Predictive work, in my experience, necessitates logging the desired metrics to a database. With actual data values, I crafted some simple algorithms in a spreadsheet and this provided an interesting tool to drive investigations ahead of other surfacing evidence. Lately though, I have been packaging up subsets and feeding it to xAi along with a developing set of explicit queries to learn more. I anticipate commercial developments on this front in the not-too-distant future; the key though will be supplying the right amount of data ongoing to make this as predictive as possible.

So, what is the best way to capture and log NMEA2000 backbone data?

The most comprehensive, flexible, and cost-effective approach I am aware of is to log data into Influx-DB on a general-purpose computer (NUC or Raspberry Pi) which collects Bus Data using SignalK. You can then use Grafana to develop graphical outcomes on your dataset or export subsets for analytical work that I described above. Steve Mitchell has a good article on how to set up such a device. https://seabits.com/set-up-signal-k-and-grafana-on-raspberry-pi-with-pican-m-nmea-2000-board/ - for an overview of Signal K, see https://signalk.org/overview/

Currently, I use N2KView for data collection - Rather than capturing everything, I am able to do this on a modal basis (e.g., underway), and interval-controlled (every x minutes), and single events triggered with an on-screen “button”. The latter works great for sea trial data collection. N2KView writes the collective sets of named mechanical, thermal, and electrical metrics to named .CSV file(s) which can be opened directly for review and analysis in a spreadsheet or uploaded for Ai analysis. N2KView, of course, also generates graphical presentations of recent data and handles all the local and remote alerting.

So what about MConnect?

I did a lot of work with one over the last 2 years - here’s why it is no longer hooked to my bus (aside from the fact that my bus is full):

1. It lacks the capabilities of doing any data logging and likely never will.

2. It lacks many critical features necessary for actual vessel monitoring, in particular alerts, etc.

3. It has a limited set of UI designs, none of which appeal to me - all too hard to read and/or gamey.

4. It has the ability to design your own UI if you are good at Photoshop and have dozens, if not hundreds, of hours to put in. But when you do this UI work, some of the controls become compromised, and some lose their more sophisticated functionality.

5. The development interface is very basic (barbaric) and requires lots of futzing to “get what you intend” as a result.

I worked hard on testing and helping Maretron write a converter for existing N2KView configurations. They know my N2KView design is very likely the most complex out there, and after many rounds, they were able to successfully convert about 90% of it. Impressive, but I didn’t care for any of the graphic UI presentations and am still surprised that none of those offered to mimic the original N2KView look.

While not marketed as such, it’s pretty clear MConnect was created to capture large volume boat manufacture (OEM) deals who, like auto makers, want to develop their own branded look for dashboards on their production boats. These companies have the talent or the money to finance the development of a one-time UI that is a unique look and feel to match their boats’ style.

N2KView isn’t just full-featured; the development aspects are far more accessible to the novice, and the UI complements the look of TZ Pro and Rosepoint CE. (See attached image)

Bottom line, N2KView lets me do selective data logging. Mode-driven, interval-driven, and manually driven. To do this and other more sophisticated monitoring, you need to run N2KView on a Mac or Windows-based NUC. I am not a fan of the BB devices for many reasons. As mentioned, an additional bonus with such is that you don’t need phone apps or to open and manage Internet ports, etc. - I simply log on to the NUC using a preferred Remote Desktop App that supports VNC, and I have instant access to everything - N2KView, CE, TZPro, Vessel Security System, Cerbo GX, and more all through a single portal. This works while aboard even without the Internet or remotely when the Internet is provided. I use a small, low DC-powered industrial-grade NUC as an always-on device running Windows. It’s able to host Signal K, N2KView, TimeZero, Rosepoint CE - so instant access to all sorts of planning and data while aboard via the LAN as well as remote via WAN. This avoids all the clutter and nuisance of a bunch of Apps on our phones and pads. This PC also acts as a first-line backup for Navigation if the larger Navigation Computer should fail while underway.

Happy to explain in more detail and help you craft the N2KView elements needed to log data.

Carl & Melody Gulledge

MV Ellipsis

Selene 5906

Hi Mark,

How did I know you would be the one with experience with both mConnect and N2KView AND provide an excellent answer with great information. Thanks for the thoughtful response.

I was ready to march ahead with N2KView, but I did a little internet research and it seems like N2KView may loose some support in favor of it's replacement, mConnect. The internet research I did confirms some of the pros and cons you outline. This can be a significant investment in time and $$, and I don't want to spend those limited resources on a dying product. So I may take a wait and see approach for now. It doesn't seem like mConnect is taking the boating world by storm. But I do think that a product like it would be very valuable to boaters, particularly if it had a good alarming system when parameters get out of specification.

A couple questions about mConnect if you don't mind:

1. Can you create line graphs in the screen editor (like wind speed over past 24 hours)?

2. If so, where is that data stored, in mConnect box storage?

3. Does the mConnect box have wifi connectivity to a router, or is it ethernet cable only?

I've read the mConnect manual, but it lacks a little detail, particularly about the screen editor.

Richard

Hello Captains and Crew,

Does anyone have experience with Maretron's relatively new MConnect system? It seems to be a replacement for N2KView with some benefits and some limitations (at least for now).

I would like to monitor some key parameters over time (graphically) to see if there is a trend vs just looking at current values. For instance, I would like to graph over time the engine cooling water temperature, engine oil pressure, wind velocity, temperature, boat roll and pitch, etc. I'd also like the system to notify me when the parameter gets out of tolerance (e.g. oil pressure too low). Maretron N2KView does this, but it's pricey and seems to be loosing support while Maretron transitions to MConnect.

Maretron transducers and monitoring modules seem to be a good way to get the data onto the N2K network, and MConnect seems to be a good system to build screens to display the data both locally on MFDs, tablets, phones, laptops, and over the internet. But some people report problems with the system. I'm looking for real world experience.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Richard

Untethered, 57-22