Digital Yacht's veLINK maps Victron BLE telemetry onto NMEA 2000, reducing cabling

Digital Yacht’s veLINK is a compact Bluetooth Low Energy to NMEA 2000 gateway that maps telemetry and alarms from Victron BLE-capable equipment onto a vessel’s NMEA 2000 network, and it draws its power directly from the NMEA 2000 backbone so installers do not need extra power leads. The manufacturer says the unit supports up to eight Victron devices simultaneously and exposes each as a separate NMEA 2000 instance that can be named for display on multifunction displays.

The device supports broad Victron categories and specific models noted in trade coverage: battery chargers, battery monitors, SmartShunt shunts, MPPT solar charge controllers, Blue Smart chargers, Orion DC/DC converters and BMV‑712 battery monitors, provided the Victron unit broadcasts telemetry via Bluetooth. veLINK’s eight-device limit and per-instance naming let chartplotters treat each Victron piece - for example “Main battery”, “Engine battery” and “Solar panel port” - as individual instruments on the network.

Installation is literal plug-and-play for many retrofit jobs: veLINK simply plugs into a spare NMEA 2000 backbone port, eliminating the need to run new cables from Victron gear to the network. German coverage by Hauke Schmidt summarized that “Bluetooth instead of cable - installation in minutes [...] Power is supplied from the NMEA2000 backbone, so no additional cables are required,” and vendor copy repeats that “veLINK is powered directly from the NMEA 2000 network, so installation is as easy as finding a spare network port and plugging it in.”

Configuration and pairing are handled through a web interface that works on phone, tablet or laptop, independent of operating system. Compatible Victron devices can be paired using the connection key from the Victron Connect app via the veLINK web interface, and Digital Yacht states that “Once connected, data is immediately available on your compatible multifunction display.” Blog Getexperience described the unit as a protocol bridge, writing that “Digital Yacht’s veLINK acts as a protocol bridge: it pairs via BLE with Victron devices that already broadcast telemetry and maps selected parameters into NMEA 2000 PGNs so that chartplotters and displays see each device as a distinct network instance.”

Alarms configured on the Victron side are forwarded onto NMEA 2000 alarm channels so pop-up alerts appear on compatible displays; Digital Yacht highlighted this feature, saying “Most importantly, any alarms that have been set on the Victron devices are relayed to the NMEA 2000 network for pop up alerts on compatible displays.” Trade reporting framed veLINK as a simpler, lower-cost alternative for smaller installations that previously required Cerbo GX or complex wiring to integrate VE.Direct and VE.Bus devices into NMEA 2000, with Hauke Schmidt noting the new gateway “offers a simpler and cheaper solution for smaller installations where only the electrical data needs to be displayed on the plotter - without an additional app and without cabling on the Victron side.”

Digital Yacht has invited attendees to see veLINK at Boot Düsseldorf, Hall 10, Stand D16, and provided press media files named veLINK_ZDIGVELINK_2, veLink_ZDIGVELINK_4, veLink_ZDIGVELINK_3, veLINK_ZDIGVELINK_1, veLink_ZDIGVELINK_6 (1), veLINK_ZDIGVELINK_Interface_0, veLINK_ZDIGVELINK_Interface_1, veLINK_ZDIGVELINK_Interface_2, veLINK_ZDIGVELINK_Interface_3, veLINK_ZDIGVELINK_Interface_4 and veLink_ZDIGVELINK_5. Coverage appeared in German outlets by Hauke Schmidt and in a GetBoat technical brief; remaining open questions for installers include MSRP, full PGN mapping, BLE range and certification details, which Digital Yacht has not published in the supplied materials.