All-in-one boat computer

[jamos.tan@gmail.com]

Looks good. Some questions:

From your web:

Operating systems

AyeAye® is using the following open source systems, offering you extra interoperability and flexibility of the system:

    A custom distribution of Openplotter is running the operating system and applications.
    SignalK is configured for all data throughput and chart streaming.
    Pypilot is running the autopilot computer and motor controller.

Are OpenPlotter mods published anywhere?

Is this open hardware?

Can charts other than OpenSeaMap be uploaded?

thanks

Hey Sailoog!

Happy Easter (I know I'm late) and thank you! Glad to hear that from you. Sorry about my long answers in advance, to fairly simple questions. Just want to make sure I answer them as complete as I can. We are just so excited about it I don't want to miss anything.

We haven't published an image of the OS anywhere yet. We had to modify and fix some stuff within the default image before we could get all our hardware running simultaneously or keep them working after things like updates, etc. The software will remain open-source and we will most probably distribute it (through Github I suppose, or our own channels) once we are in production or have finished beta testing and the development which will most definitely come out as a result of that. If you have any ideas about that, I am most willing to contribute or share. 

About your question about open hardware, currently it is not. A few prototypes back (the proof of concept stage really) we did use some consumer modules but they where not open-source per se. We might change our focus at a later stage to disclose more but for now only the software is open-source. The PCB, internal electronics, connectors and cable assemblies and casing specifications we are disclosing soon but things like .gerber files or bom's will remain private. 

Charts supported by OpenCPN / plug-ins or SignalK apps are naturally supported, if you choose to use those tools. Through our own app (under construction) we make use of .mbtiles format which will come both pre-installed in a local storage device, and streamed online through the internal 4G LTE modem. There are several solutions to create your own .mbtiles, however at the moment they are sourced from openseamap, openstreetmap and we have ESRI and Google satellite streams available. The sat tiles are still a bit under consideration as there are fees that need to be payed to those services, unfortunately we cannot use them commercially for free so this is being discussed as we do see the benefit of having satellite images as a layer. We are also thinking of creating a download layer in our app through which you can update the offline charts, or choose to download only some of them. As it concerns potentially gigabytes of data it will take quite the effort to pre-deliver the offline charts, but we will try to make it work regardless of production effort. For charts or navigational / routing functionalities we also have some partnership opportunities however we will disclose them at a time it becomes concrete. So more will come, we hope. Anyway we thought it would save users a whole lot of time and effort if they would have a "complete" set of OSM charts to begin with and just start sailing. We are definitely open to supporting more "official" chart types, I guess it would be nice if you have some purchased ones laying around you could also integrate those too.

Anyway, glad to receive your questions!