Victron and Signal K

Besides plotters and gateways, Manta connects to two kinds of systems on board: a Victron GX device for your energy, and a Signal K server for your instruments. Both are found on the boat's WiFi by themselves. In Settings, open “Connect your plotter” under Instruments to see what Manta has found.

Victron

Manta reads batteries, solar, shore power, generator and tanks straight from a Victron GX device, such as a Cerbo GX, Ekrano GX or Venus GX. The GX runs alongside your plotter or gateway, so the energy picture sits next to wind and depth. Values the GX also sends to the NMEA 2000 network are counted only once.

The GX has to let Manta in once:

• Venus OS 3.80 or later: turn on pairing on the GX under Settings → Integrations → MQTT Devices → Pairing mode, or press its button twice. Pairing stays open for two minutes, and Manta connects by itself.
• Older Venus OS: Manta connects when MQTT is switched on and the GX uses the “Unsecured” security profile.

While you record, the live view shows your battery and where the energy flows. Every trip keeps its own energy overview afterwards.

Signal K

A Signal K server gathers everything on the boat's network and shares it over WiFi. It can be Venus OS Large on a Victron GX, OpenPlotter on a Raspberry Pi, an iKommunicate or any other server. Manta takes it as its instrument source in place of a gateway: position, wind, depth, speed through the water, heading, heel, batteries and tanks.

Manta looks for the server under its usual names and on port 3000 across the local network. If it isn't found, enter its address under “Manual configuration” and choose “Signal K (boat server)” as the protocol.

When security is switched on in the server, Manta asks for read-only access. Approve “Manta” once in the server's admin page under Security → Access Requests, and the data starts to flow. Manta only reads and never writes to your network.