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Getting Around the Dashboard

In managed mode, AIS-catcher hosts a dashboard: a web interface from which you set up, monitor and run your complete station — input device, decoder settings and all outputs — directly from the browser. All settings live in a JSON configuration file that AIS-catcher creates and maintains itself; there is nothing to edit by hand.

Opening the Dashboard

Managed mode is simply AIS-catcher started with the -E option — the same program, serving its own dashboard. Each installation ends with AIS-catcher already running this way, so you can open the dashboard right away in a browser on the machine AIS-catcher runs on: http://localhost:8118

From another device on your network, use the receiver's address instead, e.g. http://raspberrypi.local:8118 or http://192.168.1.50:8118 — this requires AIS-catcher to be reachable from the network and a password, see Remote Access and Security.

On first use, a short setup wizard walks you through configuring your station.

The Map

The dashboard shows the vessels you are receiving live on a map, so you can see at a glance that your station is working and what your coverage looks like.

Note

The dashboard map is a simplified view for monitoring your own station. For a full-featured, customizable map that you can share with others, add a web viewer as an output.

Controlling the Receiver

The receiver is started and stopped directly from the dashboard — there is no need to restart the program or touch the command line.

After changing any setting, press Save, then restart the receiver for the changes to take effect.

Settings Menus

All configuration is reached from the menus in the bottom bar of the dashboard:

  • Input — the receiver: device type, channels, tuner gain, sample rate and high-sensitivity mode. See Input Settings.
  • Output — where your data goes: the community feed, UDP, HTTP, MQTT, TCP and web viewers. See Output Settings.
  • System — dashboard and system settings, such as remote access and the password.

Every underlying setting is documented in detail in the Settings reference.

Starting Managed Mode Yourself

Each platform's installation normally leaves AIS-catcher running in managed mode, so starting it yourself is rarely necessary — typically only after a manual installation or when running AIS-catcher from a terminal.

Managed mode is not the default: it must be enabled explicitly with the -E switch, which takes the configuration file and the address the dashboard listens on:

AIS-catcher -E /etc/AIS-catcher/config.json 127.0.0.1:8118

When any other command-line option is supplied, AIS-catcher runs in manual mode instead and behaves as the classic command-line tool: it executes exactly what you type, and neither the dashboard nor its configuration file is used.