📡 Which feeder box do I need?

Telltale runs on crowdsourced data — boats sending their own track, and shore stations catching the whole fleet. The hardware is cheap, off-the-shelf, and you only need one of these. Here's the honest comparison.
The one rule: a boat sends its own position (your race track); a club shore station catches everyone. Most boats want a boat feeder below. A club sets up one shore station. That's it.
is this complicated?

Honestly? No — we did the hard parts

If you can join a WiFi network and paste one line, you can feed Telltale. No coding, no marine-electronics degree, no account hoops.

✓ Firmware's already written & tested — you just flash it, or buy it pre-flashed. No code to write.
✓ One command, not a project — the bridge is a single copy-paste line.
✓ The shore station is a one-liner — provision.sh installs everything.
✓ Your feed key is instant — self-serve, no waiting on an admin.
✓ It looks after itself — logs every fix locally, uploads when it finds internet. Nothing to babysit at sea.
✓ Works with what you've got — any NMEA/AIS gear, any spare Pi, phone or laptop.

⏱️ Most people are fully up and running the same evening the box lands — 10–20 minutes for a plug-in option, an evening if you're soldering a kit from scratch.

⛵ Boat feeders — send your own track

Three ways, cheapest to most plug-and-play. More money = less fiddling.

 1 · DIY gateway2 · Buy-a-box3 · All-in-one
Cost ~NZ$28 kit · ~NZ$70 assembled
+ N2K plugs if needed		 ~NZ$26 + a spare PC/phone ~NZ$300
What it is ESP32 + CAN transceiver — flash & wire it, or buy it built Elfin EW11 (serial→WiFi) + our free bridge script Matsutec AR-12 — one USB box
Soldering Kit: 3 wires · Assembled: none None None
Needs a computer aboard No — it uploads itself Yes — any Pi/old phone/laptop Yes — a laptop/tablet
Gives your GPS position Yes (from your instruments) Yes (from your instruments) Yes — built-in GPS
Needs existing instruments Yes — taps N2K/0183 bus Yes — taps NMEA 0183 out No — works on a bare boat
Best for Tinkerers; cheapest possible No-solder, still cheap A boat with no electronics
solder it — or don't

1 · DIY gateway

~NZ$28 kit · ~NZ$70 assembled
  • ESP32 + SN65HVD230 + buck
  • Taps the N2K/0183 bus, serves NMEA over its own WiFi & uploads itself
  • + ~NZ$115 in N2K connectors if plugging a Micro-C backbone
  • Don't want to solder? Buy one assembled & flashed (~NZ$70) — just power it up
  • firmware · guide
⏱️ Up in an evening (kit) · ~10 min (assembled)
no solder

2 · Buy-a-box

~NZ$26
  • Elfin EW11, an industrial serial→WiFi server (9–36 VDC)
  • Two wires to your NMEA 0183 out; one command on any spare computer
  • Buffers at sea, uploads ashore — no Starlink needed
  • bridge script · setup guide
⏱️ Up in ~15 min
plug & play

3 · All-in-one

~NZ$300
  • Matsutec AR-12: GPS + dual-channel AIS in one USB box
  • Nothing else needed — works on a boat with no instruments at all
  • Plug into a laptop/tablet, done
  • Also sees the fleet around you as a bonus
⏱️ Up in ~10 min

🏟 Club shore station — catch the whole fleet

A different job: one box at the clubhouse records everyone, 24/7. This is what makes “just go back to the date — the race is already recorded” work.

~NZ$260
RTL-SDR Blog V3 (~NZ$160, antenna included) + any always-on PC, or a Raspberry Pi (~NZ$100).

One-line install: provision.sh. Set it once, forget it — nothing to do on race day.

⏱️ Up in ~30 min, once — then it runs itself forever
Not sure? Quick guide:
• My boat has instruments and I'll solder → #1 DIY gateway (cheapest)
• Has instruments, don't want to solder → #2 EW11 buy-a-box
• Bare boat, nothing aboard → #3 AR-12 all-in-one
• I run a club → the shore station (once), so every race is auto-recorded

Ready? Get your free feed key →

Prices are realistic all-in estimates — parts, shipping, and the odd extra cable, mid-2026, in NZD. You'll often beat them buying direct or in bulk. All parts are commodity off-the-shelf — Telltale is device-agnostic, so anything that outputs NMEA 0183/2000 or AIS works.