Introduction

• Moving Vessel / Map display with vessel Heading / Bearing and True Wind / Apparent Wind lines.
• Charts: display including both online and locally hosted.
• Resources: List and filter Routes, Waypoints, Notes and Regions.
  • Add / Edit / Delete resources
  • Set active route
  • Import resources from GPX files.
• Alarms / Notifications: Displays both visual and audible notifications.
  • Anchor Watch
  • Depth
  • Crossing Vessel / Closest Approach
  • Hazardous Region entry
• Instrument Panel: allows you to select from the apps installed on your Signal K server for display.
• Other Vessels: display other vessels on map.
• History Playback: replay timeseries data from the Signal K server.

Signal K Server

• Resources API: for the storage and retrieval of resources
• Course API: to set a destination or activate a route
• Autopilot API: to enable autopilot operations

• resources/routes, resources/waypoints, resources/notes, resources/regions - Serve resources as well as accept and persist resource data submitted to these paths.
• resources/charts - Serve chart resources.
• navigation/anchor, notifications/navigation/anchor - Serve and accept `position`, `maxRadius` values as well as calculate `currentRadius` and serve notifications.
• notifications/environment/depth - Serve notifications for belowKeel, belowSurface and belowTransducer.
• notifications/navigation.closestApproach .
• Standard Alarms - Serve notifications for notifications/mob, notifications/sinking, notifications/piracy, etc.
• navigation/course (Signal K Course API) - freeboard makes use of the course API to set a destination or activate a route.
  It is expected that the server will initiate any subsequent calculations and related value updates.

Node Server Plug-ins:

Display

• signal_wifi_statusbar_connected_no_internet_4 No server messages: Indicates messages are not being received from the server — either the connection has closed (for example the server was stopped or restarted), or nothing has arrived over an open connection for the last 8-10 seconds. It clears when the connection is re-established.
• directions_boat Vessels hidden: Indicates vessels are not being displayed.
• local_offer Notes hidden: Indicates notes are not being displayed.
• compare_arrows Course hidden: Indicates course information is not being displayed.
• visibility_off Wake lock off: Indicates that the device wake lock is off.

• menu Main Menu: Displays the main menu. (See menus for more.)
• warning Alarms: Displays the alarms screen to raise / clear alarms. (See alarms for more.)
• layers Resources: Provides access to resources such as Charts, Routes, Waypoints, etc. (See resources for more.)
• edit Draw Menu: Provides access to options that allow the drawing / editing of resources. (See menus for more.)
• navigation Heading / North Up: Toggles between Heading / North Up mode.
• Center & Follow Vessel: Turns on Follow Vessel mode, centering the vessel on screen and keeping it there. The button is highlighted while follow mode is on; press it again to turn follow mode off, leaving the chart where it is.
  The vessel is held exactly centered for a couple of seconds before easing out to your Offset Vessel Center setting, so a second press straight away leaves it dead center — press twice to simply center the vessel.
  Note: this option is disabled when vessel position is not available.
• more_horiz More Actions: Provides access to the following options:
  • Clear / Refresh Vessel Trail: When trail is available from the server selecting this menu item will reload the trail from the server.
  • Stop Navigating: clears the active destination or de-activates an active route.
  • Clear Course Data: clears the current course data.
  • Trail to Route: create a route from the current vessel trail.
  • Show / Hide Course Data: Toggle the display of course data.
  • Show / Hide Vessels: Toggle the display of other vessels.
  • Show / Hide Notes: Toggle the display of notes.
  • Show weather forecast data. Weather forecast data from the weather station closest to the vessel location. (Requires Weather API enabled in Server Admin -> Plugin Config -> Freeboard-SK)
  • Settings: Open the Settings screen.
  • What's New: Open the Feature Browser to browse and search everything Freeboard can do.

• av_timer Instrument panel: The instrument panel is used to display selected Web App(s) installed on the Signal K server.
  The default instruments shown are @signalk/instrumentpanel
  Use the Settings screen to:
  • Select the Web App to display
  • Select one or more Favourites that can be switched into view by using the arrow_back_ios and arrow_forward_ios buttons.
  • You can also open the displayed Web App in it's own window by clicking the open_in_new button.
• volume_off Web Audio Off: Displays if browser audio is NOT activated. If displayed then no alarm sounds will be audible.
  Click this button to enable web audio to hear alarm sounds.
• fullscreen Fullscreen mode: Displays application in fullscreen mode.
  Available only on supported devices.
• science Experiments: Provides access to experimental features which are being considered for inclusion into the main application. See experiments for more.
  
• videocam Video: Displays the video stream that has been configured in settings.
  Available only on supported devices.
• zoom_in_map Constrain map zoom: Limit minimum and maximum zoom levels to the zoom extent of the selected charts.
• invert_colors Invert Map feature text label color: Toggle the text label color of features to improve visibility on dark map backgrounds.
• vertical_split Split view: Opens a second chart beside or below the main one; press again to close it. Shown when Enable split view is checked in Settings. See the Feature Browser → Split View.
• Display Autopilot console: Available when the Autopilot API is detected on the server. Displays the autopilot console enabling operations permitted by the Autopilot API.
• add_location Drop Waypoint: Place new waypoint at vessel location.

	Heading
	bearing
	True Wind
	Apparent Wind

Navigation

1. Activate a Route: Once activated, select a point along the route.
2. Go To Waypoint: Select a waypoint as a destination.
3. Navigate to here: Right click anywhere on the map and select the option from the menu.
   

Once a destination has been set the following actions are available:
 
The course data panel can be dragged to another part of the screen (on a touchscreen, press and hold it first). See the Feature Browser → Following a Route.
 
Click to display the Course Settings screen.
From this screen values such as Arrival Circle can be set.
replay Click to restart course calculations from the current vessel position.
multiple_stop When a route is active click this button to reverse the direction of the route point sequence.
Autopilot status indicator.
skip_next When a route is active click this button to advance to the next point in the sequence, steering straight to it from the vessel's position.
skip_previous When a route is active click this button to advance to the previous point in the sequence, steering straight to it from the vessel's position.

A waypoint can be set as the target for which navigation data is to be displayed by clicking the Navigate To button in either:

• A waypoint card in the Waypoint List
• The pop-up displayed when a waypoint is clicked.

Autopilot

• Engage / Disengage the autopilot
• Setting the operation mode e.g. compass, route, gps, etc.
• Setting and adjusting the target heading
• Dodging obstacles

RADAR Overlay

• Switch the RADAR between Standby and Transmit.
• Show / hide the RADAR and its range rings on the map.
• Set the RADAR range and the opacity of the overlay.
• Display / Set all of the controls the RADAR offers.
• Draw and edit the RADAR guard zones.

layers Resources / Layers

• category Resource Groups

• layers Overlays

• directions Routes: Displays a list of available Routes.

• Filter Routes: Type into the text box to filter the list of routes.
• Display Route: Check the checkbox to display the route on the map.
• Delete Route: Click delete and you will be prompted to delete the route.
  
• Points: Click flag to view a list of route points where the following actions can be performed:
  

• near_meNearest: Activate the route starting at the point nearest the vessel.
• clear_allClear: De-activate the route.
• Start at / Set the selected point: Click near_me next to the point to set as the current destination along the route.
• Re-order points: Use the handle to drag points to a new position in the list.
  Note: If points of the Active Route have been re-ordered then you will not be able to set the destination point until changes have been applied.

• Notes: Clicking local_offer displays a list of Notes associated with the route. From this screen you can add, edit or delete notes.
• Start: Clicking near_me sends a message to the server to set this route as the Active Route.
  The start of the route is set as the current destination.
  Use the Previous and Next point options in the more_horiz menu to select the destination point.
• Stop Navigating: Clicking clear_all sends a message to the server to clear the Active Route.
• Edit Properties: Click edit to edit route Name and Description.
• Add to Group: Click category Add route to a Resource Group.

You can also click on a Route on the map to display an information window with additional actions.

• Move: Clicking touch_app allows route points to be re-positioned.

---

Trail to Route
You can create a route from the current Vessel trail by selecting the option from either the context menu or the more_horiz menu.

• The Trail to Route screen is displayed and the route generated from the locally stored vessel trail is shown.
  
  
• Check the Include trail from server if you want to include trail data stored on the server.
  Recommended when the vessel trail comes from the server (Track source in Settings).
• Slide the tolerance control to vary the conversion algorithm in order to get the desired point distribution.
• Once satisfied with the generated route click Save to save the route to the Signal K server.

To make a route of just one passage of a track, see the Feature Browser → Route Planning.

• location_on Waypoints: Displays a list of available Waypoints.

• local_offer Notes: Displays a list of available Notes.

• tab_unselected Regions: Displays a list of Regions.

saveExport (to GPX)

• Click the layers Resources toolbar button and select the save Export option from the menu.

uploadImport (GPX, GeoJSON)

• Click the layers Resources toolbar button and select the upload Import option from the menu.

GPX File

GeoJSON Feature Collection

{
    "type": "FeatureCollection",
    "features": [
        {
            "type": "Feature",
            "geometry": {
                "type": "LineString",
                "coordinates": [..]
            },
            "properties": {
                "name": "myRoute",
                "description": "a GeoJSON route"
            }
        },
        {
            "type": "Feature",
            "geometry": {
                "type": "Point",
                "coordinates": [..]
            },
            "properties": {..}
        }
    ]
}

Draw Menu

• edit The Draw menu is where you will find options to:

uploadResource Set

• Select the uploadResource Set menu option.
• Select the desired destination path from the drop-down list.
  Note: only paths detected under `signalk/v2/api/resources` are listed.
• Click and select (or drop) the file containing the resource data.
• Click Load to upload the file contents to the server.
Important: Freeboard does not attempt to validate the file contents in any way so please ensure you are uploading appropirate content for the selected destination.

anchor Anchor Watch

When the server calculates that the alarm radius has been exceeded it sends a notification which triggers the alarm message.

An alarm message will be either just Visual or also Audible depending on the content of the notification from the server. An audible alarm can be muted by clicking the Mute button.

Acknowledging the alarm will minimise the alarm icon.
The icon will be displayed until the alarm has been cleared.
Clicking the icon will re-display the alarm message.

To clear the alarm and remove it from the screen click Acknowledge.

warning Alerts & Alarms

• Visual only (popup at the top of the screen)
• Sound only
• Visual & Sound
as specified by the notification message received from the Signal K server.

To RAISE an alarm:

• Click the warning button on the toolbar to display the Alerts List:
• Click the RAISE button and select the desired alarm type.

• Silencing the alert will mute any sound and the alert card remains visible.
• Acknowledging the alert will close the alert card and silence any sound. The alert remains an entry in the Alert List.

• The Alert is cancelled.
• The alert condition is returned to a normal state.
• The notification for the alert path value is null.

Vessels

Vessel associated Signal K "self"

Focussed Vessel

Vessel with stale data (>6 mins since last update)

Vessel marked as "Buddy"

Unspecified (AIS type 10-19)

Wing in Ground (AIS type 20-29)

Pleasure (AIS type 30-39)

High Speed Vessel (AIS type 40-49)

Special Vessel (AIS type 50-59)

Passenger Vessel (AIS type 60-69)

Cargo Vessel (AIS type 70-79)

Tanker Vessel (AIS type 80-89)

Other (AIS type 90-99)

• Show / Hide Vessels layer on the map
• Providing the ability select which Vessels to display.

To Show / Hide the Vessels Map Layer:

• From the more_horiz menu select either:
  • visibility Show Vessels
  • visibility_off Hide Vessels

To Select Vessels:

• From the menu menu select directions_boat Vessels.

• Filter Vessels: Type into the text box to filter the list of vessels.
• Display Vessel: Tick the checkbox to display the vessel on the map.
Freeboard by default will display all vessels

• info_outline Info: Click this button to display the vessel properties.
• center_focus_weak Focus: Click this button to set this vessel as the active vessel and direct all actions to this vessels path on the Signal K server.
  Note: Actions may fail if the Signal K server does not support PUTs to paths other than `vessels/self`
• clear_all Unfocus: Click this button to reset the active vessel to self.

Playback History

• menu Main Menu: Access the history Playback History option from the Main menu.

From the History Playback screen select:

• Context: to choose vessel(s) data. self or all
• Start Date: Date of playback stream start
• Start Time:Time of playback stream start
• Playback Rate: Rate of playback. 1= real-time, 5= 5 x real-time

Click Start to start the data stream.
Click Cancel to re-start the real-time data stream.

settings Settings

• Dark Mode Setting: Use this setting to control the display theme (Light or Dark).
  
  • Use OS Setting - Selecting this option tells Freeboard follow the preferred display mode set by the hosting system.
    Note: This uses the prefers-color-scheme CSS media setting, if the browser does not support this feature then the Light theme is selected.
  • Use Signal K Mode - Set the display mode using the value of the environment.mode path. Dark theme is used when value is "night".
  • On - Turn Dark Mode on.
• Auto-set Night Mode: Check this box to have the display dimmed when environment.mode value is 'night'.
• Action Button: The action button is permanently displayed at the lower right of the screen. Use this setting to select the button function.
  
  • Waypoint at vessel - Selecting this option will create a waypoint at the vessel's current location.
  • Person Overboard - Selecting this option will raise a Person Overboard alarm.
  • Autopilot Console - Opens and closes the autopilot console.
  • Radar Overlay - Shows the radar on the chart and opens its control panel.
  • A plugin's button - Any button added by a plotter extension plugin, listed by the plugin's name and the button's title.
  See the Feature Browser → Action Button for details.
• Allow Device to Sleep: Check this option to disable the devices WakeLock function which will allow your device to enter sleep mode.
  Note: this setting is only available on devices / browsers which support WakeLock functionality.
  When this option is selected a visibility_off icon appears at the top right of screen.
• Enable split view: Check this box to show the vertical_split Split view button, which opens a second chart beside or below the main one. See the Feature Browser → Split View.

• Live ETA at cursor: Check this box to show the bearing, distance and ETA from your vessel to the point you are pointing at in the status bar.
• Reference Boat Speed: The speed used to estimate the ETA when your vessel is stopped (at anchor, hove to) and there is no speed over ground to calculate from.
• Tap Fade Speed: The number of seconds the marker left by a click or tap on the chart takes to fade away. The readout stays held on that point until it does.

• Instrument Panel App: Select from a list of installed applications the one you wish to be displayed in the Instrument Panel.
  Note: The application selected should be responsive to display correctly within the space afforded by the instrument panel.
• Parameters: Enter parameters that will be appended to the Instrument App url.
• Halt App on hide: When checked the selected Intrument Panel App will be stopped when the Panel is hidden.
  To save resources on your device when the instrument panel is hidden clear this checkbox.
• Favourites: Use this to display a list of Web Apps installed on the Signal K Server which can then be selected as a Favourite.
  These selected Web App can be "switched in" for display in the Instrument Panel.

• Do not Play Sounds: Check this box if you do not want any sounds played. (Overrides ALARM_METHOD in notification message.)
• Show DEPTH Alarm Messages: Check this box if you want received DEPTH notifications from the Signal K server to be displayed as an alarm message.
• Alarm Smoothing Time: Once the DEPTH alarm message has been acknowledged and the notification state has returned to Normal, this is the length of time that the notification must remain in Normal state before the alarm is re-triggered.

• Feature label zoom level: Select the zoom level at which labels for features on the map appear. Labels will be hidden at zoom levels below this value.
• Offset Vessel Center (%): Where the vessel sits on screen while in "Follow Vessel" mode, so you can give yourself more visible chart in the direction you care about. Each value is a percentage of the distance from the center of the screen to its edge, and both are measured relative to the screen, so the offset holds its spot whether the vessel is underway, drifting, or at rest.
  • Vertical: moves the vessel up or down the screen, so 50 places the vessel half way between the center and the bottom edge, showing more chart ahead. A negative value looks behind the vessel instead.
  • Horizontal: moves the vessel left or right. A positive value shifts the map to the right, showing more chart to the right of the vessel; a negative value does the opposite.
  You can also set both by eye: with Map Pan When Following set to Set Follow Offset, simply pan the chart to put the vessel where you want it. Panning the vessel off screen instead turns follow mode off.
  
• Popover close with button: Select this option in order to a close a popover using a button rather than just clicking outside of it.
• Animate map movement: Glide the chart when it follows the vessel, turns in heading-up mode, or zooms with the zoom buttons, instead of jumping. On by default; turn it off on a slow device to save the extra rendering.
• Double click to Zoom: Select this option to enable zooming the map with a double click.
• Map Pan When Following: Choose what panning the chart does while "Follow Vessel" mode is on.
  • Set Follow Offset: Follow mode stays on and panning sets the Offset Vessel Center values above, so you can position the vessel on screen by eye. The offset is saved and used from then on.
  • Exit Follow Mode: Panning turns follow mode off. Choosing this reveals Resume Following After, which turns follow mode back on once the chart has been left idle for the selected period; each pan or zoom restarts the wait. Never (the default) leaves follow mode off until you turn it back on.
  • Do nothing: Follow mode stays on and the vessel returns to its usual position on the next position update.

• Graphics Style: Select this option in order to a close a popover using a button rather than just clicking outside of it.
• Boundaries: Select from Plain or Symbolized.
• Colors: Select from 2 or 4 colors.
• Shallow Depth: Enter the depth in meters.
• Safety Depth: Enter the depth in meters.
• Deep Depth: Enter the depth in meters.
• Layers: Select S57 layers to display (when avaiable).

• perpendicularPassed (the vessel has passed the line through the destination, perpendicular to the leg.)
• arrivalCircleEntered (the vessel has entered the arrival circle.)

• Vessel Icon: Select the icon used for your vessel (default vessel symbol, sailing monohull, catamaran or powerboat) and its size on the map. The default vessel symbol is the red sailboat, or a symbol provider's own-vessel icon when one is installed.
  Show vessel at actual size when zoomed in: Draw the vessel at its real length and beam when zoomed in closely. See the Feature Browser → Own Vessel Display.
• Fixed Location Mode: Select when operating from a fixed location e.g. building, etc.
  Selecting this mode will change the vessel icon to
  Enter the latitude and longitude of the fixed location.
• Display Wind Vectors: Select to display wind vectors for the vessel on the map.
• Display Laylines: Select to display laylines when navigating to a destination.
• Display Range Circles: Select to display a set of equi-distant circles on the map centered around the vessel. The distance between the circles will vary based on the map zoom level and is displayed next to the vessel.
• Heading Line Length: Select length of heading line displayed on the map.
  • Default: Calculates the length of the line displayed based on the vessel SOG and the map scale.
  • (x) nmi Length of the line to display.
• COG Line: Display a line to the predicted location based on the selected time and the vessel's current SOG.
• Display Vessel Track: Check this box to display the vessel trail (on by default). See the Feature Browser → Vessel Tracks for how the trail is shown.
  • Track source: where the trail comes from.
    • Auto (default): the server's recorded track when the server can supply one, otherwise a local cache on this device.
    • Server: the track recorded by the server's Track API (signalk/v2/api/tracks, Signal K server 2.33 or later with a track provider). Unavailable when the server has no track source.
    • This device: a local cache maintaining up to 5000 points at a 5 second interval, recorded while Freeboard is open.
  • Use the slider to set the length of track to retrieve from the server, in hours, or All (the last stop) for the whole recorded track. Time is relative to the current time.
    The Resolution settings set the finest spacing of track points requested from the server for the following time windows:
    • Last hour (default = 5 secs)
    • 1 hour -> 24 hours (default = 5 secs)
    • > 24 hours (default = 10 secs)
    Note: Selections will determine the volume of data transferred from the server which may impact performance.
    With a Track API (v2) server, the trail older than an hour is simplified by the server to suit the map's zoom, and fetched again when the zoom level changes. With the older track interface, Freeboard simplifies the trail itself, and the two older windows use 1 min and 5 min while left at their defaults.

• Mark AIS Target inactive after: Maximum time (in minutes) elapsed between updates before the vessel is displayed as inactive.
• Remove AIS Target after: Maximum time (in minutes) elapsed between updates before the vessel is removed from map.
• Wind Vector Value: Wind True / Wind Apparent Value used to display wind vector for other vessels displayed on the map.
• Wind / Track Zoom Level: The minimum Zoom level at which other vessels' wind vectors are displayed. (Default=15)
• Show all tracks: Select to display the last 2 hours of the tracks of all other vessels in the map view, from zoom level 10. See the Feature Browser → Vessel Tracks.
• Picked vessel track length: How far back the track of a vessel picked with its TRACK button reaches (hours, default 12). Shown only while Show all tracks is off.
• Hide Moored: Select to hide vessels with a state of 'moored'. Note: Display is updated when next vessel update is received.
• Hide Anchored: Select to hide vessels with a state of 'anchored'. Note: Display is updated when next vessel update is received.
• COG Line: Select to show / hide COG vector for AIS vessels.
  Note: COG line length is calculated for 10 mins duration.

• Display Notes on Map: Un-check this box if you do not want to display NOTES on the map.
• Notes Zoom Level: Select the zoom level at which NOTES will appear on the map.
• Fetch Notes radius: Select the radius from the centre of the displayed map within which NOTES will be retrived from the server.
  A request to fetch Notes is triggered when the map centre moves more than 50% of this value.
• Notes Fetch Filter: This field allows you to specify a parameter string that will be used when fetching Notes from the Signal K server. This can be useful to reduce the number of Notes records returned or to only return Notes in a particular area.
  The string can contain %Tokens% to specify specific values.
  e.g. ?position=[%map:longitude%,%map:latitude%]&distance=%note:radius%
• Edit Group Names: By default the group attribute of a note will not be available in the note editor screen.
  Check this box if you want to be able to edit the group attribute.
• Position Group Note: By default adding a new note to a group will not prompt you for the psoition of the note.
  Checking this box will prompt you to place the note by clicking on the map.
• Single Click for Note Details: Check this box to have a single click on a note open its details directly, rather than first showing the pop-up options.

• map:latitude: Latitude at centre of Map
• map:longitude: Longitude at centre of Map
• map:zoom: Map zoom level
• note:radius: The value set in the Fetch Notes within field

• Fetch Radius: When set, will only fetch resource set features with a position that is within the specified distance from the current map center. Select 0 to retrieve all features.

• Vessels: Display vessels (other than your own) on the map. (Default is checked)
• Aids to Navigation: Display AtoNs on the map. (Default is checked)
• Aircraft: Display aircraft on the map. (Default is unchecked)
• Search and Rescue: Display SaR beacons on the map. (Default is unchecked)
• Meteo (Weather): Display weather stations on the map. (Default is unchecked)


• Max Distance from Vessel: Set the distance from your vessel that targets must be within to be displayed on the map.
  The distance represents the radius of a bounding box around your vessel.
  Selecting None (default) will display all received targets.

• Enable Video: Check this box to enable the display of a PiP video stream.
• URL: Enter the url of the video stream source.

tune URL Parameters

• Zoom Level
• North / Heading Up
• Move Map
• Signal K Host
• Port number

When one or more of these parameters are present, the supplied values will used to override stored configuration at start up.

Example: Start Freeboard-SK at zoom level to 15.
http://server:3000/@signalk/freeboard-sk?zoom=15

Example: Start Freeboard-SK in North up mode.
http://server:3000/@signalk/freeboard-sk?northup=1
or
http://server:3000/@signalk/freeboard-sk?northup

Example: Start Freeboard-SK in heading up mode.
http://server:3000/@signalk/freeboard-sk?northup=0

Example: Start Freeboard-SK in moving map mode (keep vessel centered).
http://server:3000/@signalk/freeboard-sk?movemap=1
or
http://server:3000/@signalk/freeboard-sk?movemap

Example: Start Freeboard-SK with moving map mode turned off.
http://server:3000/@signalk/freeboard-sk?movemap=0

Example: Connect to Signal K server at supplied address and port.
http://server:3000/@signalk/freeboard-sk?host=192.168.86.32&port=3100