12vdc Marine Computers

[dave777]

My second-hand impression is that the Rasberry Pi is fantastic for hardware tinkerers & experimenters. I think if you look at the full cost of deploying a PC on a boat, there might be better alternatives with less work involved.

Last year I was using an old IBM touchscreen kiosk like was used in restaurants, running Linux using 12V and an SSD drive, with 2 Gig ram. Nice, but I've got GAS (gear acquisition syndrome)

Now have just purchased a LIVA tiny PC, that runs on 5V. Currently, I have a 12V to 5V transformer for some things, but when I install the LIVA i'll change it for a $4 eBay regulating 5V supply which has a few capacitors to help smooth out the voltage. Why not protect the PC. I'll spray it all with some clear-coat to act as a conformal coating. The IBM was voltage sensitive, and your power sags all the time on a boat. Do you want your PC to crash? My old Raymarines loved to crash when the fridge came on for an instant. There is a lot of headroom between 5V and 12V, so in the unlikely event of a 5V PC crashing, there will be other problems going on.

So far, I'm strongly recommending the LIVA which was about $100 USD on special at newegg.

• 32GB eMMC Storage
• 2GB DDR3L RAM
• Dual Graphics Display
• Low Power Consumption (5V / 15W)
  
  
  Ubuntu 14.04 is booting reliably, OpenCPN running great, beautiful on a 12V LED and RS422 working fine, some hiccups getting bluetooth/wireless working, and the serial driver. The actual power usage is may be a bit lower than the rated amount, to be seen, but 15W is pretty minimal. OpenCPN runs fine alongside Firefox with a couple tabs open. I hope to test out the Lowrance/Navico radar as it's all going through the same RJ45 router.
  
  The LIVA is advertised Win8 compatible, but I wouldn't run Windows on a boat. I've got marine specific plotter at the helm, but can't imagine other than a real PC at the Nav station. This tiny box is much more powerful than my current laptop which is 6+ years old, and more snappy than my prior desktop. The eMMC is a little faster than your average HD, slower than a SSD. But the whole thing is silent, no fan. Configuring at home, will carry to boat to use, can carry back home in a coat pocket! Can't imagine going back.

[mvandervoort]

Hi,

I just would like to share with this community that I'm developing a powerful and flexible Maritime Instrument & Display Controller (MIDC). It's focussing on OpenCPN and future SignalK.

The design goals for this MIDC were quite extensive:

• suitable for small crafts (22" min) as well as the bigger ones
• low power consumption (<= 12 W - based on 10' display)
• sunlight readable screen ranging from 10' - 15'
• large operating temp. range -10 / +60 Celcius
• electrical interfaces for serial RS232, RS422, USB, RS485 and CAN (NMEA2000)
• Bluetooth LE suitable for IP/Internet tethering
• dual OS: Linux and Android
• On board integrated Wifi, AP capable
• low cost AIS reciever optionally integrated (w/o dongle) and external antenna
• DIY to be built under € 500 with one 10' touch display sunlight readable

It will be based on UDOO Neo SBC.

Please have a look at https://www.hackster.io/mvandervoort...lay-controller for more information.

[rgleason]

Some great installations and ideas here. Thank you.
LIVA Various models, attach to back of monitor. $120-185
Asus Vivo PC VM40B Looks pretty powerful 12vdc $170-240
Shuttle Global SXV36V4 Fanless heat pipes - good! 19vdc $183
Avantech Arc-1120-3S50 Fanless $485
Stealth Ultra Small Mini PC 12vdc Fanless
Stealth Waterproof WPC-525F 12vdc sealed fanless waterproof IP67 $1695
Stealth 8" Water resistant monitor $1900 -get a Marine Chartplotter!

Result of a search for "Waterproof Tablet"
MobileDemand pretty impressive demo. Don't know costs.
MobileDemand xTablet T1600 only IP65, rugged, sunlight viewable, optional GPS

[petter5]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Some great installations and ideas here. Thank you.
LIVA Various models, attach to back of monitor. $120-185
Asus Vivo PC VM40B Looks pretty powerful 12vdc $170-240
Shuttle Global SXV36V4 Fanless heat pipes - good! 19vdc $183
Avantech Arc-1120-3S50 Fanless $485
Stealth Ultra Small Mini PC 12vdc Fanless
Stealth Waterproof WPC-525F 12vdc sealed fanless waterproof IP67 $1695
Stealth 8" Water resistant monitor $1900 -get a Marine Chartplotter!

Result of a search for "Waterproof Tablet"
MobileDemand pretty impressive demo. Don't know costs.
MobileDemand xTablet T1600 only IP65, rugged, sunlight viewable, optional GPS

IP68 waterthight, 15,6' bonded display,Intel SSD, Integrated UPS hardware dimmer, Transas overstock proffesional equipment: Boats for sale Norway, boats for sale, used boat sales, Chandlery For Sale 15,6' Multi-Function waterthight plotter - Apollo Duck

[rgleason]

mvandervoort your post looks very promising and covers a very broad area:

Please have a look at https://www.hackster.io/mvandervoort...lay-controller for more information.

I hope you get lots of assistance from this forum. I would like to build one.
It is quite impressive what you have done. I like the idea of a very low power processor coupled with a wifi access point! At this point using Ubuntu Linux makes great sense to me.

Can the Display be made to be near IP67? -The display enclosure work really captured me. Do you think someone will take up the task of making and selling those? Would a plastic 3d printer enclosure be adequate structurally? Can we get a good seal with the 3d printer plastic and the sealants available? How much display heat is there expected and will it need to be dissipated?

Is the enclosure for the Arduino UDOO NEO going to be sealed I hope?
How much programming and electronic work is going to be needed? For me those would be hurdles.

Please keep us appraised. Thank you for posting.

In addition to SignalK these links are quite interesting too:
Panbo by Bill Bishop -article on SignalK
Panbo by Ben Ellison - Bill Bishop K entry
Raspberry Coffee page - Marine- Raspberry_pi, Signal K, small data display to reduce power usage, opencpn.
Open Sailing Processor More iteresting ideas here in the formative stage.

[rgleason]

I think Sean will like this one
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects.../posts/1335935

[skkeith]

I am having a go at using a Banana Pro with debian. It has video acceleration and wifi, about the same size as a raspberry pi. Runs off 5V, and has a ribbon cable attached 7" touchscreen which runs off the 5V. OpenCPN and plugins installed trouble free off distros with almost no trouble. I started with debian wheezy, but there is a new jessie release of bananaian out which should be even easier... I have not added up the power cost yet but I will report once I get it all together...

[verkerkbr]

The BananaPi and Pro work well with OpenCPN beta 4.1.818.

I'am running Debian8 Jessie Banana version from the Cubie board with kernel 4.1.2. (Called Armbian).

It is a raw version, just as the latest Bananian. You have to install Xorg and LXDE, add user etc. yourself. And you have to unlock dialout and tty and the sudo option with users rights.

Installed the fbturbo graphic driver, which gives a better performance.

Installing the hardware acceleration however still not working.

I'am now trying to get a touchscreen monitor working.

Bram

[stevehalter]

12 volt computer at MITXPC.COM click on mini solutions. They built me 12volt no fan for about $500 3 years ago. still working and fast. with 22 inch 12v lcd tv screen combo uses little over 3 amps. So now my NAV is on big screen.

[verkerkbr]

Costs BananaPi/Pro is € 40,- plus a plastic enclosure € 9,-. And you need an SD 16 Gig (10) memory card.

A lot of small boards are coming on the market now with simple 5 volt 2 Amp USB power requirement.

Banana has an HDMI connector with 1080P resolution and a very low power consumption and works well with OpenCPN.

A wireless keyboard or touchscreen recommended.

[mvandervoort]

@rgleason

I've read all your questions regarding my MIDC project. I'm vey sorry to say that I've spend more than an hour to answer on it very extensively. However this forum has a timeout mechanism with the net result that my very, very extensive post has gone with the wind

Right now I don't have time to retype is all again (with all layout and URL's). I think it would be better to have a telphone conversation if you would like a fast response. Otherwise, I'll take time later on to type again

[skipgundlach]

I've found that I have web-based @#$%^&()(*^## disappearances adequately often that I have taken to doing all my composition off-line if it's going to be more than a sentence or two.

It's why I detest web-based stuff, preferring mailing list mode by several orders of magnitude. The demise (well, very ill health) of usenet marked my gradual disengagement for all but the most pressing issues, as I simply don't have the time or bandwidth to sort through all the web-based stuff.

That said, CF is the very best of the many I 'subscribe' to.

[rgleason]

Mvandervoort
I a m very sorry to hear your work was lost. I know how frustrating it can be. If you can write some shorter posts sometime in sequence when you have time/ inclination it would be great so others can follow. Meanwhile I will check back to your website for developments. I liked your 3d printer container for screen and all the boards and think it can be made watertight with gaskets, yet accessible for tinkering and improvements. Thanks for sharing!

[mvandervoort]

Originally Posted by rgleason

mvandervoort your post looks very promising and covers a very broad area:
I hope you get lots of assistance from this forum. I would like to build one.
It is quite impressive what you have done. I like the idea of a very low power processor coupled with a wifi access point! At this point using Ubuntu Linux makes great sense to me.

Can the Display be made to be near IP67? -The display enclosure work really captured me. Do you think someone will take up the task of making and selling those? Would a plastic 3d printer enclosure be adequate structurally? Can we get a good seal with the 3d printer plastic and the sealants available? How much display heat is there expected and will it need to be dissipated?

Is the enclosure for the Arduino UDOO NEO going to be sealed I hope?
How much programming and electronic work is going to be needed? For me those would be hurdles.

Please keep us appraised. Thank you for posting.

In addition to SignalK these links are quite interesting too:
Panbo by Bill Bishop -article on SignalK
Panbo by Ben Ellison - Bill Bishop K entry
Raspberry Coffee page - Marine- Raspberry_pi, Signal K, small data display to reduce power usage, opencpn.
Open Sailing Processor More iteresting ideas here in the formative stage.

@rgleason New try. Thanks for your suggestion to partially reply again. That's what I'll start with now.

Can the Display be made to be near IP67?

That's the ultimate ambiton. Right now I'm building up a product through the development strategy of a MVP, i.e. a Minimal Viable Product. The wood currently used will result in a physical thing you can use, show and touch. And that combined with the soon to be released UDOO Neo can demonstrate the idea I'm realizing right now. See the attached images for the first MIDC cockpit display.

The current enclosure design is on the design board for version 3. Version 3 will object on IP65 and can be developed quite easily. IP67 might eventually the final step.

Do you think someone will take up the task of making and selling those?

Well currently I'm developing this project with a shared source approach. I've licenced the sources under: CC BY-NC-SA That means e.g. that you might use the sources for non commercial objectives. Your reponse and the other ones, might decide me to go commercial open source. That means that I'll share the source for non commercial applications and that a package and completed end user product might be for sale for makers and end users. I'vent decided yet, but getting this attention will give indication about the viability of prospected marked demand.

Would a plastic 3d printer enclosure be adequate structurally?

That's a very good question. Version 2 of the design has been STL-ed to make 3D printing posible. Sources available on https://www.hackster.io/mvandervoort...lay-controller
I've done some work in 3D printing and it's my expectation that with professional grade 3D printing services (like Materialise.com), that might be possible. There are some hurdles to tackle like UV resistance and waterproofness of the material itself. Besides that the object has to be finished to get a pleasant silk feeling surface. This altogether makes 3D Printing too expensive for small scale production, although personal manufacturing is quite well possible.

In my next Q&A chunck, I'll explain the route I'll take with vacuum or resin casting an enclosure. That are interesting techniques to produce low volume species of a high quality enclosure for the MIDC.

Oh, and for now please keep posting questions and remarks. It gives me the feeling that there is an interest from daily real boating life and it sharpens my own design and development process for the MIDC. So, thanks a lot.

[mvandervoort]

2nd Q&A post on my MIDC project.

The last question of @rgleason was about 3D printing the display enclosure. As I answered in my previous post about it, 3D Printing is possible, although economically not viablie if you want to small scale produce them. And that's the kind of area I'm currenty investigating. There are small scale production techniques called vacuum and resin casting which makes it possible to produce 10s of species of a particular thing. These techniques comes at a price. You have to make a very good mould to cast the end material in. And in order to make this mould you need to make a dianegative first, before you can make the second one which is diapositive. And to make things more complicated some silicone moulds last not that long, so you have to be able te replicate them.

Nevertheless, thanks to Additive Manufacturing/3D Printing hype, there are service providers that can make vacuum moulds for you based on a good 3D model. And with these services around and a excellent 3D model, you can start plastic casting for your small scale production. That's the route I'm investigating for a possible commercial release of MIDC in 2016.

In the mean time I'm releasing in the very near future a STL file for the display enclosure based on the sunlight readable screen, which is suitable for DIY/Makers among our boaters. Besides UDOO Neo, I'm also waiting on the 10' sunlight readable screen, as described on the hackers.io site.

Can we get a good seal with the 3d printer plastic and the sealants available?

Another good question again. In the DIY 3D Printing arena, the choice of materials is limited. I've seen some projects sealing e.g. PLA for some waterproofness. However marine grade IP67 is another cup of tea. When you investigate the materials avaible in industry of professional grade 3D Printing arena (materialise.com et al), you will discover that you can meet the IP65 requirements with polymer sealent combined with plastics. However I personally wouldn't invest in it (time, knowledge, further experience, etcetera).

I'll let 3D Printing up to the DIY/Makers community. There is really a lot of knowledge around for this field. My investments will be on resin and vacuum casting with all kind of it's specific challenges, but ending with a marine grade solution which could be produced on a small scale for an affordable price.

In the next Q&A chunk, I'll follow up the last questions.