XDR support

[Jim Gurley]

Does the SignalK android app understand XDR tank levels?  I'll be installing an vYacht device,  whose SignalK server will hopefully pass XDR sentences onto the wireless.

If not, I think I could implement my own app using Android Inventor, but I'd rather have just one app for everything.

[Steve Mitchell]

Jim,

Are you using NMEA 0183?  It sounds like it given the XDR reference. 

I have several tanks that are reporting levels through SignalK natively on a linux machine, and iKommunicate.  However, they are using NMEA 2000 with PGN 127505. 

https://github.com/SignalK/n2k-signalk/issues/9

https://www.nmea.org/content/nmea_standards/messages_pgns.asp (search for 127505)

I couldn't find any info on vYacht tank level senders in an offhand Google search.  I would be surprised that any company selling a current product wouldn't have support for both NMEA 2000 and 0183. In that case, if you used 2000, it would be supported.

[Jim Gurley]

Sort of overly complicated.  I have Maretron Nmea 2000 level sensors, but I had to buy a proprietary USB adapter in order to configure them.  The USB adapter outputs XDA sentences to my laptop, where I currently monitor levels using an AutoIt3 script. The  vYacht device is a wifi access point that reads Nmea 0183, 2000, and Seatalk1 data, and sticks it on wifi, supporting the Signal K server within.  I think the AP translates everything to 0183 for raw wifi transmissions, when SignalK isn't used. My plan was to remove the USB adapter (saving it in case I have to configure a new sensor) and use my android as a tank monitor.  My Garmin chartplotter talks 0183 and 2000 already, and it also bridges data (but the doc'n is sketchy), so I'm not really sure how the level data will arrive at the wifi AP.  Might come on both networks? The boat is 500 miles from home, so research is hit or miss :)  If Signal K for Android doesn't display tank levels, I can grab the raw TCP data over wifi using Android Inventor.

[Teppo Kurki]

On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 7:37 PM, Jim Gurley <jjgu...@gmail.com> wrote:

Does the SignalK android app understand XDR tank levels?  I'll be installing an vYacht device,  whose SignalK server will hopefully pass XDR sentences onto the wireless.

This is not really a Signal K question, as it is easy enough to say that "Signal K supports tank levels". 

However (especially XDR being what it is, a manufacturer specific generic format) this is really two questions
- does vYacht support conversion of XDR produced by your specific equipment & setup to SK

- does a specific Signal K client support SK tank levels

I suppose you are referring to https://github.com/itemir/signalk-mobile with your Android comment? Despite the name it is not an "official" Signal K client, but an individual effort. Not that it matters much.

If I were you I would contact vYacht directly and if you refer to the Android app I listed above contact the author directly or add a support issue at https://github.com/itemir/signalk-mobile/issues.