SIGNAL K

[jimh]

The latest in marine electronic data communication protocols is SIGNAL K. SIGNAL K is a very interesting development. It is an initiative undertaken by a group of people who want to develop a marine data communication protocol for shipboard electronic devices that is an OPEN SOURCE project. This is the antithesis of the existing dominant protocols, the NMEA-0183 and NMEA-2000 protocols. Those NMEA protocol are protected quite vigorously by the NMEA organization, and access to the information about them requires purchase of expensive written documentation. In the age of the internet when hundreds of pages of documentation can be shared in a download that takes but a few seconds, the notion of a so-called open standard that requires one to invest thousands of dollars in purchase of its documentation seems quite dated. SIGNAL K appears to intend to follow a different course. It has already posted documentation about its protocols. It has already provided software for development and testing. All for free download.

A good indicator of the interest in SIGNAL K as an alternative to the current dominant marine electronic protocols can perhaps be judged by the results of a KICKSTARTER campaign to fund development of a NMEA-2000--SIGNAL K gateway. For those unfamiliar, a kickstarter campaign is a public funding mechanism in which a developer solicits funds for a project, promising the investors some sort of reward for their support when the project is completed. The kickstarter for the SIGNAL K gateway project hoped to raise $20,000 over a investing period of about 60-days. Interest in SIGNAL K and support for the development of this project has been so great that the kickstarter campaign is already subscribed to $93,000 with 38-days remaining in the subscription period. I'd say that represents a very impressive interest and financial funding of this early SIGNAL K project. It seems to me like SIGNAL K is off to a very impressive start.

[Don McIntyre - MI]

If my interpretation is correct, the kickstarter campaign is to fund an [application program interface] between the NMEA standards and the Signal K standards? If so, your right about gauging the amount of interest regarding how much over the initial investment needs ($20k)--it's gone. By the way, the experimental aviation community is doing much the same, i.e. with interfaced software and the push for some standards within said group.

Don

[jimh]

The kickstarter project is to create a piece of hardware that can connect legally to NMEA-2000. The SIGNAL K guys probably already know how to translate the NMEA-2000 parameters to the SIGNAL K parameters. They need a legitimate device that can connect to NMEA-2000 only for the moment, that is, for the development stage of SIGNAL K. At the moment there are plenty of devices supporting MNEA-2000, and very few devices--really no commercial devices--that support SIGNAL K. In order to get some real-world data to test with SIGNAL K, the easiest way is to just connect some NMEA-2000 devices to the gateway. Now you'll have plenty of SIGNAL K signals to work with. Also, NMEA-2000 will be around for a while, and even if SIGNAL K takes off like gangbusters, it will be nice to have a NMEA-2000 <--> SIGNAL K gateway to connect legacy NMEA-2000 devices to SIGNAL K experimental devices.

The over-subscription of the kickstarter campaign--it is about five times the requested amount--just shows that there is some real momentum to this SIGNAL K stuff.

By the way, I love the name, SIGNAL K, and their logo, the signal flag for the letter K. The flag means "I want to communicate." That is perfect for this project.

[Jefecinco]

I believe the potential benefits of Signal K for all boaters is virtually limitless. Open source can allow low cost innovation by a great many persons. It may be a stretch to compare the development of smart phone applications to future Signal K devices but maybe not such a long stretch if/when Signal K takes off.

Compare the popular but somewhat expensive Microsoft Office software to the open source and free OpenOffice software for an example of the power of open source development.

I use OpenOffice and recommend it for your consideration.

[jimh]

The most impressive example of open source is the hyper-text mark-up language or HTML, which is the basis for the modern world wide web and graphical web browsers. When HTML was developed, it was completely open. And all browsers provided an option to see the source code that created the HTML page being viewed. This allowed for very rapid adoption by others, leading to a complete global spreading of the protocol. HTML is a great success and being completely open and transparent played an enormous role in that success.

[jimh]

VIsitors to the Miami International Boat Show later this week will get to see Signal-K in action. Digital Yacht is going to have a working model of their iKommunicate NMEA-to-Signal-K gateway at the show, according to the annoucement at

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/16 ... ts/1483962