Thanks for this plugin / how can I help?

[ZeroInn1]

Hi! I am currently setting up my boat system and have just installed a NMEA2000 -> Wifi box. I have this working now, but wanted to use the DashboardSK Plugin rather than the built in dashboard, as DashboardSK seems better and more versatile.

I started a thread at https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f134/display-nmea183-data-on-dashboardsk-nsk_pi-plugin-296033.html that may be of interest.

I would like to help expand the NMEA sentences that NSK converts. I have worked with JSON in the past, but I haven't used Github and I am not a coder. I have worked with software teams as a PO. I will likely have time over the coming 6 months to help, but I will be away from my boat. Please let me know if I can do anything...

[nohal]

Adding new NMEA 0183 sentences to this plugin is quite simple and described at https://github.com/nohal/nsk_pi?tab=readme-ov-file#adding-a-new-sentence-translation - If you are tech savvy enough to be able to set up the development environment (https://opencpn-manuals.github.io/main/opencpn-dev/index.html, if you are a Linux user, than that sure is by far the easiest platform to set up for OpenCPN related development), you should be able to add any that you need by just copying the code from one that is already implemented and adapting it to the new one.
Contributing your changes back is also quite uncomplicated and there are many decent guides on the internet, for example https://www.dataschool.io/how-to-contribute-on-github/

I can of course help you if you get stuck somewhere, but first try and actually get stuck so we can see which "somewhere" it is ;)

[ZeroInn1]

Thanks nohal! I use Linux for my OpenCPN.

I did read through the documentation. I guess it is just out of my league unless I spent a substantial amount of time learning the process plus the code plus NMEA and SignalK. I wish I could do more.