This forum uses cookies
This forum makes use of cookies to store your login information if you are registered, and your last visit if you are not. Cookies are small text documents stored on your computer; the cookies set by this forum can only be used on this website and pose no security risk. Cookies on this forum also track the specific topics you have read and when you last read them. Please confirm whether you accept or reject these cookies being set.

A cookie will be stored in your browser regardless of choice to prevent you being asked this question again. You will be able to change your cookie settings at any time using the link in the footer.

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
4000Mk2 drive?
#11
I don't believe Openplotter has ever gotten around to handling pulses from a wind or speed transducer. People do that with an Arduino, such as an ESP8266, and from there over wifi into Openplotter.

I don't think anyone has been able to do anything with a depth transducer, though, unless it had NMEA output.
Reply
#12
(2019-04-17, 08:51 PM)sjgharib Wrote: You guys are great - thanks for all the great information.  That actually really changes my plan.  I had assumed I could tie my ST60 into the zeus with the NMEA0183 connection, but now I need to re-think!

ok, one more question:

Has anyone reverse engineered the sensors that feed the ST60 instruments?  I.e., can I connect the signal wires from the depth, speed, and wind instruments to a "box" that would then output to SignalK, NMEA0183, or even NMEA2K?  Then I could theoretically get rid of my ST instruments totally.

Ultimately I could replace these with newer N2K sensors, but the wind one is particularly difficult considering it's 52' up on the mast, and the speed / depths are thru-hulls...

We've a similar setup, an older Raymarine ST 70 system (which uses Seatalk NG) and B&G Zeus 2.
In order to get the wind data of the old ST 70 vane on the Zeus 2 I had to replace the original transducer with a Raymarine iTC-5. The iTC-5 has inputs for older Raymarine depth, wind, speed, compass and rudder sensors and pushes the NMEA 2k PGNs on the network. The B&G can then see them just fine.

Originally I had planned to reverse engineer the protocol and build a N2K converter myself, but after a reality check how long this would take me I simply bought the iTC-5...
Reply
#13
ooh, that's it. it's expensive, but seems that it would do the trick - basically the sensor wires go into it, and then it connects to the N2K bus?

now I just need to find the right cable, of course ST-NG isn't the same connector as NMEA2k...
Reply
#14
I was just looking at the ITC-5. "Please note the ST40/i40/i50/i60 and ST60+ displays cannot calibrate the iTC-5. Only the i70 has full transducer calibration. The ST70/ST70+ can calibrate the Depth, Wind and Speed/Temp transducers (not Rudder or Compass). If you don't have an ST70/ST70+ or i70 in your system, then the ST40/i40/i50/i60/ST60+ displays must be interfaced directly to the relevant analogue transducers."
Reply
#15
Yes, I saw that too...

it's enough to make you want to rip everything out and start over. Hmmm... climbing a 52' mast is not on my to-do list.

So basically I need to keep the ST60+ stuff and then convert SeaTalk to SeaTalkNG, or get an adaptor for SeaTalk -> NMEA0183
Reply
#16
Your old ST60 gauges will be out the window - i70 can go there. It is a pretty decent display in its own right.

I have itc-5 and 2x i70.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Reply
#17
(2019-04-17, 07:17 PM)Saqqara Wrote: I don't like IR remotes, I'd love to get those little 4 button 433Mhz remotes working with Pypilot. I have that same relay board stuffed into my old AutoHelm controller. The remote hangs on a lanyard around my neck - it's a joy to be anywhere on the boat (say, on the foredeck with a flashlight) and adjust course. I don't even need to look at it.

Would Openplotter Actions be a useful way to bridge whatever buttons one might want to use to ask Pypilot to change course?

The IR remotes are unfortunately low quality.   At least there are a lot of tv remotes, and you can program pypilot to work with most remotes.

I did play with 433mhz remotes a little, and I found that the cpu usage of the pi monitoring the io pin was very high of 20-30% and even then decoding isn't perfect.   Despite filters, the automatic gain in the generic receivers makes it impossible to reduce cpu when there is no signal because the input is always changing.

   Maybe a kernel module could do better.   So I suggest an arduino or even attiny which can decode the 433mhz receiver more efficiently and accurately offloading this from the pi, and then it can communicate over serial, or io pins.    This same arduino could decode capacitive touch buttons and perform other functions like temperature or other analog measurements.
Reply
#18
Yes that's the conclusion I came to -

i70s + ITC-5 gets the analog stuff (including rudder position) into N2K, which can then be pulled into openPlotter, Pypilot (via shipmodul) and the Zeus2

They don't make this stuff easy...

I'm an engineer, so the stuff that guy was doing with the sailing instruments blog was really really impressive. Crazy math!

I would think it would be a popular product to basically provide a box like the ITC-5 but with the ability to calibrate the instruments and then output directly into NMEA0183 (Serial). I'm sure there are tons of folks with legacy sensors (speed, depth, wind, rudder) that don't want to drop $$$ for newer N2K versions?
Reply
#19
You could probably just take one of the relay boards and locate the decoded signal on the board that goes to the relay, but you are probably right. Berreizeta did one here, (https://berreizeta.blogspot.com/2017/01/...oller.html) that goes directly to a SeaTalk interface. I shouldn't be that hard to convert the Arduino program so it just brings GPIOs up and down.
Reply
#20
(2019-04-18, 03:22 PM)seandepagnier Wrote: The IR remotes are unfortunately low quality.   At least there are a lot of tv remotes, and you can program pypilot to work with most remotes.

I did play with 433mhz remotes a little, and I found that the cpu usage of the pi monitoring the io pin was very high of 20-30% and even then decoding isn't perfect.   Despite filters, the automatic gain in the generic receivers makes it impossible to reduce cpu when there is no signal because the input is always changing.

I believe I've misunderstood the IR remote implementation with pypilot. It seems from the wiki and videos that the buttons may be intended for scrolling through menus and making selections. It wouldn't be useful without being within line of sight of the Nokia display one way or another and so IR is good for that.

I was hoping to press buttons to issue direct steering commands like +1 or +10.

The web app on a mobile phone is probably my best bet currently.

Smartphones are great, but rather fiddly. Unlock the screen, make sure you are on the Openplotter wifi, open the browser etc etc.

What about a bluetooth game controller? I see some mini versions available. I don't know how waterproof.

https://ebay.us/ti9fem
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 2 Guest(s)