Mast displays

[Accablant]

Hi all,

I am considering upgrading old Raymarine mast displays to something that is actually readable in bright daylight, either with two 7 inch or single 10 screen. Garmin has some nice 7 inch options but I find it hard to justify myself paying 1500 eur on devices that essentially only need to replicate simple info like wind and boat speed, heading and perhaps starting clock for club racing. So opencnp based solutions look attractive. But I find it hard to find info on good screen alternatives. Any suggestions?

Best, Jani

[Moo]

Difficult. Decent screens are so expensive that it is hard to justify. What size boat? 7" Axiom displays can work pretty well on bigger boats.

[skipperearly]

there is some discussion with Kindle as display here: https://forum.openmarine.net/showthr...ghlight=kindle

seems like a economical way to go but needs some hands-on skills

[Accablant]

Ah, I was already wondering whether e ink would work. But kindle already has everything needed in a neat package. Thanks!

[Dsanduril]

I don’t know if it is a neat package, but it is a good starting place. There are some configurations you will have to work through that depend on the Kindle version. But the newer Paperwhites are “waterproof” and the visibility is great. We have used a Kindle display part time for about a year and I really like it but need to add a bit of functionality. That is my summer project this year.

[Moo]

Originally Posted by skipperearly

there is some discussion with Kindle as display here: https://forum.openmarine.net/showthr...ghlight=kindle

seems like a economical way to go but needs some hands-on skills

Paper white displays are quite cheap if you want to go that route. If you are going to make a kindle waterproof enough to go on the mast then you might want to consider building something from scratch - depending on how enthusiastic you are for a project and your skill level.

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by skipperearly

there is some discussion with Kindle as display here: https://forum.openmarine.net/showthr...ghlight=kindle

seems like a economical way to go but needs some hands-on skills

The first image in that thread is certainly interesting.

I guess they just take it down below to charge periodically?

[Accablant]

Originally Posted by Moo

Paper white displays are quite cheap if you want to go that route. If you are going to make a kindle waterproof enough to go on the mast then you might want to consider building something from scratch - depending on how enthusiastic you are for a project and your skill level.

My first idea was to build but for that I think lcd would probably make more sense, E-ink would need a separate light for night use. On a closure similar to this https://store.pine64.org/product/roc...box-enclosure/ but just with watertight connections. But then finding a display with a good power/visibility combination becomes a bit hard.

[Tehani]

Isn't the image refresh too slow on these E-ink screens?

[Dsanduril]

Depends on what data you want to watch. We still use a dedicated wind instrument because we find e-ink too slow, but for navigation data (COG, SOG, BTW, DTW, XTE), depth (99% of the time) and similar items we find it quite acceptable. For wind, wind speed is usually fine, but for watching wind angle it doesn’t work well (IME).

We use a one or two second refresh and it works. If you’re trying to get the last little bit out of the boat and doing a bunch of tuning faster is nice.

[jmh2002]

^^^ Useful info, thanks