open plotter, Rpi, and me

[Techstyle]

I am almost worn out! Been trying for 2 weeks off and on to get my new Rpi4B 8g ram fully functional. No joy, only frustration. I have followed many different youtube videos, online instructions, and openplotter directions. I started out wanting to have a media center for stored music and movies on board my 30ft sailboat. I managed to get the pi running Raspbian and connect to home wifi, surf the web but had difficulty copying music from my windows desktop to the pi via VLC. I am now trying to download the opencpn using the "headless" install on openplotter II web info page. THe directions are not very well laid out and explained in a step by step manner. I have managed to load the micro sd card with the software, load into the pi, and access it as a wifi connection, then what? After I have connected my laptop to the pi I can't go search the web for more hints on what to do next because the pi doesn't have an internet connection! I get no prompts from the pi on my windows pc either. THe info on openplotter II page doesn't give any help for next step either. I was able to previously get the pi to boot from USB though following another inf how to page. I think part of the problem is that pi4B 8gb is fairly new? The latest Rpi version is new/different from the older tutorials? And, I am not a programmer! So, I have spent over $200 on something that just infuriates me! LOL. I bought a 2 Tera bite hard drive to store music and movies, 2 120gb usb sticks, sd cards, cables, etc. Can anyone point me in the right direction, or give useful advice? I am not an idiot, just not intuitive with regard to command line, computer jargon, etc. 
What I am looking to do is use opencpn as a backup or primary chart plotter and play my cd's and dvd's from a low power consuming digital source. I have laptop computers but was wanting something less power hungry. Is this doable? I would also like AIS receive and some of the other wizbang the pi is supposed to be capable of but hell, I can't get it to do much of anything so far. thanks from the new pi guy Oh, I also bought a newberry digi + dac hat for quality music when and if I can get it to work. at first I as using an old monitor, mouse and keyboard at home but would rather just use a laptop or tablet for control/access on board the boat.

slow down!  and don't buy anything else until we get you up and running.

first of all did you follow these instructions:
https://openplotter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/getting_started/installing.html

personally, I would install the "openplotter starting" version from the link below, especially if you are going to watch DVD's and play music from Pi - I have the Pi connected to my boat stereo and via HDMI to the TV
https://openplotter.readthedocs.io/en/la...ownloading

set up the SD card using the instructions above, but don't switch it on just yet

are you trying to do the install at Home or on the boat?  do you have a screen, keyboard mouse - if at home grab a network patch cable and connect the Pi into your home network access point/router.  if you can't and need to use WIFI, you need to create a file called 'wpa_supplicant.conf' using Notepad, copy the code below into this file:

Code:

country=US
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1

network={
scan_ssid=1
ssid="your_wifi_ssid"
psk="your_wifi_password"
}

change the country code GB for UK.
add your SSID and password to the file and then copy this file to the root directory of the SD card

put a blank file named "SSH" in the root directory of the SD card.

Boot up the Pi

if you don't have a screen, keyboard, mouse follow the instructions under the "Connecting via SSH" section of the page below

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ras...,6028.html

let me know when you have this all up and running!