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Looking for suggestions on my planned setup
#1
Hi!

Spring is here! Smile

Getting ready to upgrade the electronics on my boat, from old ST60 instruments to new NMEA2000/SignalK/PC based stuff. Basically going to scrap all existing stuff and start over. It should be noted that no lives are at risk if my electronics setup should fail in any way  Tongue I sail on lake Champlain. Everything is line of sight, there are almost no dangers to navigation, and I've been on the lake almost 10 years now so know it very well. I could sail with 0 instruments and not be in any danger. (on the off chance someone worries I'd risk being stuck in the middle of the ocean or something) I'm just doing this because I find it fun Smile

Here's the plan so far:
  • New combined Depth/Speed/Temp Tranducer, NMEA2000
  • New Wind anemometer at top of mast, NMEA2000
  • B&G VFH for AIS receive over NMEA2000 (already have this, though AIS is not important for me right now as I'm on a lake. 99% of boats here don't have it.)
  • iKommunicate to take NMEA2000 data and make it SignalK.
  • I have a 3 port wifi router to connect ethernet/provide wifi/WAN.
  • a Raspberry Pi 3 running 24x7 with OpenPlotter acting as SignalK Server among other services (GPSd for example)
  • A second Pi with the official 7In touchscreen in the cabin (Can view Kip/etc from inside cabin)
  • Various ESP8266 based sensors sending readings via SignalK. (Fridge Temp, Engine monitor, Battery Monitor, IMU, Bildge monitor, etc)
  • Inside Cabin nav planning etc done on existing Laptop.
All that is pretty much ordered/started/done. That said I still need to finalize the helm/cockpit instruments plan.

Plan so far:
1) Two small 7" touchscreens side by side for instruments mounted to pedestal rail via RAM mounts. (idea being that you can rotate one/both of them around to face forwards if needed, like if on autopilot or something) Looking at M7 touch
2) A larger screen (12" or maybe 15") below the 2 7's on the pedestal for chartplotting/watching movies in cockpit/whatever. Looking at faytech 12
3) Use the 3 screens with a UDOO x86. It can support 3 screens, and runs Windows 10. makes it easy to move content across the 3 screens, and just one keyboard/mouse if needed (vs having 3 pi's or something). Why Windows? Mainly compatibility. I love linux but windows has it's place.

I haven't ordered these parts yet, as there's still some stuff I need to figure out. Here's where I'm hoping to get some suggestions Smile

Mainly my worries center around the connections to the monitors. They need HDMI and USB and Power, times 3. That's 9 cables I need to get from the monitors to the PC. I could pass them all through cable grommets, but that's a lot of grommets. Also as the displays are waterproof, the cables do not disconnect from them. If I want to remove the displays when I leave the boat (might make a tempting target for thieves in a marina) I need to disconnect from the PC side and remove the whole thing. Troublesome if they pass through a grommet. If I want to keep everything outside of the boat, that means I need to somehow waterproof the UDOO, though heat becomes an issue then. Or I can see about flush mounting the displays into some instrument pods so they're bolted down, but then you loose the flexibility of moving them to different angles, not to mention yet another cost. So many ways to do it each with pros and cons. Tongue

So, I'm hoping to see if anyone has any suggestions/comments for how I can get all that figured out!

Thanks!
Reply
#2
When I was working in the industry, we used this sort of thing when we needed a multi-conductor, waterproof connection.
http://www.cliffuk.co.uk/products/cliffcon/ip68.htm
In your case, you'd have to cut the cables to your monitors and connect them through waterproof connectors. HDMI has a LOT of pins, so that might be a challenge.

L-Com in the US is a great source of all sorts of connectors and cables http://www.l-com.com/.
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#3
(2018-03-27, 09:31 PM)mxtommy Wrote: Hi!

Spring is here! Smile

Getting ready to upgrade the electronics on my boat, from old ST60 instruments to new NMEA2000/SignalK/PC based stuff. Basically going to scrap all existing stuff and start over. It should be noted that no lives are at risk if my electronics setup should fail in any way  Tongue I sail on lake Champlain. Everything is line of sight, there are almost no dangers to navigation, and I've been on the lake almost 10 years now so know it very well. I could sail with 0 instruments and not be in any danger. (on the off chance someone worries I'd risk being stuck in the middle of the ocean or something) I'm just doing this because I find it fun Smile

Here's the plan so far:
  • New combined Depth/Speed/Temp Tranducer, NMEA2000
  • New Wind anemometer at top of mast, NMEA2000
  • B&G VFH for AIS receive over NMEA2000 (already have this, though AIS is not important for me right now as I'm on a lake. 99% of boats here don't have it.)
  • iKommunicate to take NMEA2000 data and make it SignalK.
  • I have a 3 port wifi router to connect ethernet/provide wifi/WAN.
  • a Raspberry Pi 3 running 24x7 with OpenPlotter acting as SignalK Server among other services (GPSd for example)
  • A second Pi with the official 7In touchscreen in the cabin (Can view Kip/etc from inside cabin)
  • Various ESP8266 based sensors sending readings via SignalK. (Fridge Temp, Engine monitor, Battery Monitor, IMU, Bildge monitor, etc)
  • Inside Cabin nav planning etc done on existing Laptop.
All that is pretty much ordered/started/done. That said I still need to finalize the helm/cockpit instruments plan.

Plan so far:
1) Two small 7" touchscreens side by side for instruments mounted to pedestal rail via RAM mounts. (idea being that you can rotate one/both of them around to face forwards if needed, like if on autopilot or something) Looking at M7 touch
2) A larger screen (12" or maybe 15") below the 2 7's on the pedestal for chartplotting/watching movies in cockpit/whatever. Looking at faytech 12
3) Use the 3 screens with a UDOO x86. It can support 3 screens, and runs Windows 10. makes it easy to move content across the 3 screens, and just one keyboard/mouse if needed (vs having 3 pi's or something). Why Windows? Mainly compatibility. I love linux but windows has it's place.

I haven't ordered these parts yet, as there's still some stuff I need to figure out. Here's where I'm hoping to get some suggestions Smile

Mainly my worries center around the connections to the monitors. They need HDMI and USB and Power, times 3. That's 9 cables I need to get from the monitors to the PC. I could pass them all through cable grommets, but that's a lot of grommets. Also as the displays are waterproof, the cables do not disconnect from them. If I want to remove the displays when I leave the boat (might make a tempting target for thieves in a marina) I need to disconnect from the PC side and remove the whole thing. Troublesome if they pass through a grommet. If I want to keep everything outside of the boat, that means I need to somehow waterproof the UDOO, though heat becomes an issue then. Or I can see about flush mounting the displays into some instrument pods so they're bolted down, but then you loose the flexibility of moving them to different angles, not to mention yet another cost. So many ways to do it each with pros and cons. Tongue

So, I'm hoping to see if anyone has any suggestions/comments for how I can get all that figured out!

Thanks!

I'm working on something similar. Here is what I found: http://a.co/3NjPG1Z
Reply
#4
(2018-03-28, 03:48 PM)1jollymon Wrote: I'm working on something similar. Here is what I found: http://a.co/3NjPG1Z

I've seen some of these, my issue with them is that while it keeps the water out of the boat, it does not keep the water out of the connection itself. Something like the ip68 abrin-line connectors abarrow mentioned would be nice, but the ones he linked only go up to 9 pin, where HDMI needs 19 :O
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#5
(2018-03-28, 04:41 PM)mxtommy Wrote:
(2018-03-28, 03:48 PM)1jollymon Wrote: I'm working on something similar. Here is what I found: http://a.co/3NjPG1Z

I've seen some of these, my issue with them is that while it keeps the water out of the boat, it does not keep the water out of the connection itself. Something like the ip68 abrin-line connectors abarrow mentioned would be nice, but the ones he linked only go up to 9 pin, where HDMI needs 19 :O

I think this solves the problem: http://a.co/gI7fAVa
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#6
Seems like stashing the UDOO somewhere at the helm (perhaps enclosed behind one of the screens) solves more problems than it creates and lets you drill fewer and smaller holes in your boat.

Also, router may not be necessary, and there is a canbus dongle solution for Openplotter, but I don't know how well it works.
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