2019-05-17, 02:01 PM
I think some of the hardware that Sailoog is offering (and has in the works) has the same goal, and many are clearly very happy with it. I agree that having a professional case with waterproof glands and good cooling (mutually exclusive?), and a board with lots of I/O would be a great benefit. I struggle with enough USB connectors for things like RS422, GPS pucks, DAC (for Squeezeplayer), SSD, thumbdrives (for updating charts or transfering logs), WiFi and phone USB tethering. I also think protected, filtered, 12-14v power is very important. While I understand why a lot of cases have the 4 USB connectors exposed to the outside, I worry about things that are plugged in.
So, my wish list would be:
- fused, filtered 12-14V power. Provision of power to the RPI via GPIO pins and not the micro-USB
- internal screw terminals for multiple isolated NMEA 0183 RS 422 inputs (and perhaps CAN Bus?). These can easily feed into the RPI via USB.
- internal screw terminals for I2C, also isolated
- onboard GPS with connector for external antenna (with an sma connector on the outside of the case)
- onboard SDR for AIS (with a BNC connector on the outside of the case)
- powered USB hub with vertical connectors *inside* the box. I like vertical connectors because it's often difficult to plug in larger usb devices horizontally side by side. The box would need enough free space to accommodate, and enough waterproof glands for entry. The case would probably need as much as 6-10cm behind the USB connector for the USB device and good cable management.
- Onboard IMU / compass. I don't think internal humidity/temperature would be very effective.
- Connector for external display. This isn't the HDMI, I'm talking about a small information display that can be configured and mounted remotely.
- and since I'm wishing, a place for an SSD, with USB controller!
- a single button power off / power on with GPIO pins for controlled shutdown.
- a small battery or supercapacitor for controlled shutdown on unintentional power failure.
- and of course, a good quality plastic case for it all, with mounting ears. Metal cases are nice, but cut the WiFi signal.
If you can do all that for $60 Euros, I'll buy one!
So, my wish list would be:
- fused, filtered 12-14V power. Provision of power to the RPI via GPIO pins and not the micro-USB
- internal screw terminals for multiple isolated NMEA 0183 RS 422 inputs (and perhaps CAN Bus?). These can easily feed into the RPI via USB.
- internal screw terminals for I2C, also isolated
- onboard GPS with connector for external antenna (with an sma connector on the outside of the case)
- onboard SDR for AIS (with a BNC connector on the outside of the case)
- powered USB hub with vertical connectors *inside* the box. I like vertical connectors because it's often difficult to plug in larger usb devices horizontally side by side. The box would need enough free space to accommodate, and enough waterproof glands for entry. The case would probably need as much as 6-10cm behind the USB connector for the USB device and good cable management.
- Onboard IMU / compass. I don't think internal humidity/temperature would be very effective.
- Connector for external display. This isn't the HDMI, I'm talking about a small information display that can be configured and mounted remotely.
- and since I'm wishing, a place for an SSD, with USB controller!
- a single button power off / power on with GPIO pins for controlled shutdown.
- a small battery or supercapacitor for controlled shutdown on unintentional power failure.
- and of course, a good quality plastic case for it all, with mounting ears. Metal cases are nice, but cut the WiFi signal.
If you can do all that for $60 Euros, I'll buy one!