Getting Started

Signal K Server is a NodeJS application which can be installed on a variety of devices and operating systems.

It is available for installation via:

  1. NPM package
  2. Docker image
  3. GitHub repository

See the relevant section below for instructions based on your target system.

Prerequisites:

Signal K server requires NodeJs version >= 18 be installed on the target system prior to commencing installation.

Raspberry Pi Installation

Install Signal K Server on Raspberry Pi outlines the process for getting Signal K Server up and running (including supporting services) on Raspberry Pi OS.

Using Docker

Signal K Server is available as a Docker image on Docker Hub and cr.signalk.io/signalk/signalk-server.

To simply run a Signal K Server with some sample data on a device with docker installed, enter the following into a terminal:

docker run -it --rm --publish 3000:3000 signalk/signalk-server

This will start an instance of Signal K Server on port 3000 which you can then access via the web based Admin UI by pointing your web browser at http://localhost:3000.

If you are wanting to use docker to deploy Signal K Server on your vessel you will need to:

  1. Specify a location to persist the server's configuration so it is not lost between restarts
  2. Run the instance as a background process

Example: Run as background process and store server configuration in the current folder:

docker run -d --init --name signalk-server -p 3000:3000 -v $(pwd):/home/node/.signalk signalk/signalk-server

You are ready to now configure your installation and connect data from devices on your boat.

Installation via NPM

Signal K Server can be installed directly using NPM.

Windows:

Linux / macOS:

sudo npm install -g signalk-server

Once installation is complete, enter the following in a terminal window, to generate a settings file and configure the server to start automatically:

sudo signalk-server-setup

If you choose not to use signalk-server-setup you can start the server by entering the following in a terminal window:

signalk-server

Installing on Windows

Please use the Signal K installer for Windows to install Signal K Server on a Windows device.

Install using Git

Installation from the GitHub repository is useful when developing plugins and components.

To do this enter the following commands in a terminal window:

# Copy the files to your device
git clone https://github.com/SignalK/signalk-server.git

# change to the folder containing the downloaded files
cd signalk-server

# install the dependencies
npm install

# build all packages in the repository
npm run build:all

To start Signal K Server with a sample configuration file and some sample data, enter the following into a terminal: To use NMEA0183 sample data:

bin/nmea-from-file

To use NMEA2000 sample data:

bin/n2k-from-file

The server will start playing back data from the specified sample file that can be viewed using the Data Browser in the Admin UI (http://localhost:3000) or via REST API / websocket connection.