The Maretron MConnect is a new product designed to connect to your NMEA 2000 network and provide visibility into the data on your boat. I've been using the MConnect for over 6 months now, and it has become one of my go-to devices aboard, but with some caveats.
It turns out you can also export individual screens which could be really cool for sharing with others who want a starting point. I’ll work on exporting a few of mine, and maybe even create a thread specifically for that so we don’t clutter the comments here.
I was one of the early adopters, but got stuck on the data instancing issue. That’s pretty much a deal breaker for me, until they fix it. I see a lot of potential, once they resolve that and the lingering lock-up issue. Tailscale is great, until the unit locks up. Once that happens I have to wait for my next trip to the boat to reset it. I suppose I could put it on a Control By Web relay (cellular), but really shouldn’t have to…
It has actually only locked up a couple of times since the upgrade, which is far better than the 2 or 3 times per week with the initial release.
I have 2 Victron smart shunts and I can’t seem to get MConnect setup to track them separately. Curiously, I have multiple tank sensors and it seems able to keep those separate.
I also use Ruuvi temp/humidity sensors which are exposed via Victron. I can see those via signalK, but not through Mconnect.
One interesting note; The Mconnect runs on a Raspberry Pi.
Hi Steve. Great to see you getting more reviews posted on boat tech! We always enjoy these! Regarding MConnect, do you think this would be useful for remote monitoring of vessel fleets that are using Mastervolt DC power and solar setups? Victron has the remote monitoring nailed with VRM but I can’t seem to locate anything contemporary to work with Mastervolt remote monitoring. Happy cruising!
This is almost assuredly the device instance vs data instance problem that Maretron have more-or-less ignored for years. I’m going to guess that both of the BMVs have the same device instance. You might be able to get things to work better by changing one of them to a different instance number.
I have a lot of Ruuvi sensors as well, and I can see those on my NMEA 2000 network, but I believe I am using Signal K to put those on the network. I’d have to go back and look since I have quite a few things on my network
I don’t think it’s the first thing I would look at to use to monitor Mastervolt. Right now, MConnect is better for real-time monitoring while on board the boat, not necessarily longer term data analysis and alerting.
I’d consider things like Signal K + Grafana + Influx if you want to go open source, or even some of the commercial remote monitoring solutions for general boat health. The key is going to be getting the Mastervolt data you want to see on a network that something else can monitor, such as the NMEA 2000 network.
It would really depend on what you want to monitor, if you want longer term data graphs, and then the type and nature of alerts you’re looking for.
Thanks for the response Steve. There is fleet of a particular model of catamaran that has always been Victron onboard. So remote support, especially as a fleet, is easy with VRM. Now the builder is switching to Mastervolt, primarily because of the partnership with Integrel E-Drive but will be losing their ability to remotely monitor their new Mastervolt equipped fleet. I was thinking about the Signal K + Grafana + Influx approach but am hesitant to get into too much custom work. They will definitely need remote (cloud based) alarming and realtime monitoring of Masterbus, NMEA and CZone data at some point. Just enough data to be proactive when faults occur and/or look at enough logged parameters to figure out whats going on (bms, batteries, solar, charging, etc). To bad that isn’t a third party or commercial grade solution out there already. Or maybe there is, I just haven’t found it yet. Thanks again for all the great forum topics and reviews. We are an avid follower.