Get your boat on the map

Add your boat

In the app, go to Settings → Boats → Add boat. Every report is matched to a boat, so it has to exist before Node-RED can send anything — but you don't need to copy any IDs: the node fetches your boats and lets you pick one by name.

Download the node package

It's a small packaged Node-RED module — a .tgz file you install straight into your own Node-RED. No npm registry, no app store.

⬇  Download the Node-RED node

node-red-contrib-boattracker-0.4.0.tgz · ~20 KB · MIT licence

Import it into the palette

In the Node-RED editor, open the menu ☰ (top-right) → Manage palette, choose the Install tab, then click the upload button — the small ⬆ tgz icon next to the search box. Pick the file you just downloaded and press Upload.

Prefer the command line? Copy the file onto the machine and install it into your Node-RED user directory instead:

cd ~/.node-red
npm install /path/to/node-red-contrib-boattracker-0.4.0.tgz
# then restart Node-RED (e.g. node-red-restart, or restart the service)

Drop it in a flow & configure

After the restart, find Track My Boat in the palette (left sidebar, under the network category) and drag it onto your flow. Double-click it and set:

• Mode — MQTT (one persistent connection) or HTTP POST (per fix).
• Host / Port (MQTT) — trackmyboat.co.uk, port 8883, Use TLS on. Local dev: 1883, TLS off.
• URL (HTTP) — https://trackmyboat.co.uk/api/owntracks.
• Username / Password — your Track My Boat account email and password.
• Boat — pick it by name from the dropdown. It fills in from your account once the server details and password are in; press ⟳ to reload it.

Wire your GPS source into the node's input. It expects a msg.payload with at least lat and lon; speed, course, altitude and battery are used if present. Deploy — and the boat goes live on the map.

Lost the internet? If a fix can't be delivered — no signal, broker unreachable — the node buffers it and retries when the connection returns, holding fixes for up to 30 minutes. Because each fix keeps its real timestamp, the track fills back in at the right time rather than jumping. The node shows buffered N while a backlog waits.

// adapt a typical GPS reading in a function node
msg.payload = {
  lat: msg.payload.latitude,
  lon: msg.payload.longitude,
  speedKnots: msg.payload.sog,  // speed over ground, knots
  heading: msg.payload.cog,
};
return msg;

Read your stats back out (optional)

The same download includes a second node — Track My Boat query — that reads data back off the server: miles travelled, moving time, locks passed, raw GPS fixes, your boats and your saved waypoints. Handy for a gauge on a dashboard, a weekly summary email, or a display at the helm.

Drag it onto a flow (it's under network, next to the other one), double-click it and set:

• Server — https://trackmyboat.co.uk.
• Username / Password — the same account email and password as step 4.
• Data — Trip summary for the headline numbers, Daily breakdown for one row per day, or Raw GPS fixes for the track itself.
• Boat — picked from a list the node fetches from the server once your details are in, so there's no ID to go and look up.
• Period — Today, Yesterday, This week, Last month, All time … or your own dates.

It runs whenever a message arrives, so wire an inject into it — or tick Also query on a timer and let it poll on its own. Both work together if you want a scheduled refresh and a manual one. The answer arrives as msg.payload:

// Data: Trip summary · Period: This month
msg.payload = msg.payload.totals.distanceMiles.toFixed(1) + " miles this month";
return msg;