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NEW OP /OCPN Hardware
#1
Photo 
Hello OP / OCPN users
After reading this forum and noticing an increase in the Node-red usage, I have been working on some Hardware that might be interesting to some of you guys. This post is to see what the interest is among the OP / OCPN users is and I would like to receive some feedback just to see if it is worth continuing the development of this hardware. I have been in contact with Sailoog and he was very happy with the initial approach and was okay me sharing this with you all on the forum. These are items that I developed and tested so far:  (picture on the bottom of the threat)

-          Dedicated I/O board for Analog and Digital signals. These boards are stackable and can be directly connected to the Raspberry pi GPIO. We will be able to stack; 2 Analog boards or 1 analog and 3 digital or 6 digital boards. The Analog boards are based on the MCP3008 and have 8 inputs. The Digital board has 8 inputs and 6 relay outputs. All board have a 5V DC power supply to supply the RPI. Input Voltage is 9 to 36VDc, fused and reverse polarity protected.
-          Serial input board. This board can also be stacked on top of the RPI but doesn’t use the GPIO. Instead it will use the Pi’s USB connectors. This board has 4 NMEA RX and TX I/O’s with the FTDI USB to serial chip. We have added on each port an RS422 isolator. Again, this board is 9 to 36VDC DC and 5VDc RPI supply.
All these boards have connectors that make it easy to add / remove sensors.
-          Rudder feedback. I have developed a Rudder feedback, 9 to 36V in and RS422 NMEA our ($xxRSA). The system is based on a Hall sensor so no wearing parts!
Under development:
-          Windsensor. Also, 9 – 36 VIN, RS422 NMEA out. We have already put it together, it just needs some more testing. Again system is based on a Hall sensor.
-          Marine Monitors: 12, 15 and 19” touchscreen monitor. The 19” is finished and is being tested. The 12 and 15” will be ready in the next few months. We will try to make a Waterproof model as well.
-          Keyboard. I was thinking to develop a dedicated OCPN keyboard however, is there any interest in such a thing? Please advise if you would be interested and if so, what keys would you like to have on this keyboard.
-          Signal Conditioning board; This board will be able to handle signals from the vessels switchboard. All signals will be optically isolated: DC, AC, current and frequency.

The timeframe on this project depends on my regular job, however I would like to have the boards ready in the next month or so. Please note that ALL these items are build IN-house. These are NOT bought in China and re-sold!
Some changes to the first boards need to be made as I found some mistakes but these should all be ready in the next few months.
We tested the Serial and Analog board and these are working like a charm!

Offcourse you are wondering… WHAT DOES IT COST??? To stay in line with the OP / OCPN project, these parts will be priced very reasonable… Being a (sail) boat owner myself we have enough costs and any penny we can save is a bonus. The Analog / digital boards will be around E80 / US$85 / C$115. The serial board will be slight more at around US$ 125.
I haven’t determined the cost of the RAI and wind sensor but as there is quite a bit of work to put these together, there will be price between US$150 and $300. Also, currently, the housing is made from plastic which I prefer to change to Stainless…

Needless to say, the monitors will be more expensive BUT will be priced much cheaper as any other Marine Monitor currently available. Again we make these in house!.

Please let me know what you all think of this. Any feedback, bot positive but even more important, negative is welcome.
Thanks
Henk
 
Pictures of some of the parts we have developed so far:
[Image: 5f9Rrd]
[Image: f1kwm7]


Attached Files Image(s)
               
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#2
(2017-03-20, 02:43 AM)henker Wrote: Hello OP / OCPN users
After reading this forum and noticing an increase in the Node-red usage, I have been working on some Hardware that might be interesting to some of you guys. This post is to see what the interest is among the OP / OCPN users is and I would like to receive some feedback just to see if it is worth continuing the development of this hardware. I have been in contact with Sailoog and he was very happy with the initial approach and was okay me sharing this with you all on the forum. These are items that I developed and tested so far:  (picture on the bottom of the threat)

-          Dedicated I/O board for Analog and Digital signals. These boards are stackable and can be directly connected to the Raspberry pi GPIO. We will be able to stack; 2 Analog boards or 1 analog and 3 digital or 6 digital boards. The Analog boards are based on the MCP3008 and have 8 inputs. The Digital board has 8 inputs and 6 relay outputs. All board have a 5V DC power supply to supply the RPI. Input Voltage is 9 to 36VDc, fused and reverse polarity protected.
-          Serial input board. This board can also be stacked on top of the RPI but doesn’t use the GPIO. Instead it will use the Pi’s USB connectors. This board has 4 NMEA RX and TX I/O’s with the FTDI USB to serial chip. We have added on each port an RS422 optical isolator. Again, this board is 9 to 36VDC DC and 5VDc RPI supply.
All these boards have connectors that make it easy to add / remove sensors.
-          Rudder feedback. I have developed a Rudder feedback, 9 to 36V in and RS422 NMEA our ($xxRSA). The system is based on a Hall sensor so no wearing parts!
Under development:
-          Windsensor. Also, 9 – 36 VIN, RS422 NMEA out. We have already put it together, it just needs some more testing. Again system is based on a Hall sensor.
-          Marine Monitors: 12, 15 and 19” touchscreen monitor. The 19” is finished and is being tested. The 12 and 15” will be ready in the next few months. We will try to make a Waterproof model as well.
-          Keyboard. I was thinking to develop a dedicated OCPN keyboard however, is there any interest in such a thing? Please advise if you would be interested and if so, what keys would you like to have on this keyboard.
-          Signal Conditioning board; This board will be able to handle signals from the vessels switchboard. All signals will be optically isolated: DC, AC, current and frequency.

The timeframe on this project depends on my regular job, however I would like to have the boards ready in the next month or so. Please note that ALL these items are build IN-house. These are NOT bought in China and re-sold!
Some changes to the first boards need to be made as I found some mistakes but these should all be ready in the next few months.
We tested the Serial and Analog board and these are working like a charm!

Offcourse you are wondering… WHAT DOES IT COST??? To stay in line with the OP / OCPN project, these parts will be priced very reasonable… Being a (sail) boat owner myself we have enough costs and any penny we can save is a bonus. The Analog / digital boards will be around E80 / US$85 / C$115. The serial board will be slight more at around US$ 125.
I haven’t determined the cost of the RAI and wind sensor but as there is quite a bit of work to put these together, there will be price between US$150 and $300. Also, currently, the housing is made from plastic which I prefer to change to Stainless…

Needless to say, the monitors will be more expensive BUT will be priced much cheaper as any other Marine Monitor currently available. Again we make these in house!.

Please let me know what you all think of this. Any feedback, bot positive but even more important, negative is welcome.
Thanks
Henk
 
Pictures of some of the parts we have developed so far:
[Image: 5f9Rrd]
[Image: f1kwm7]

I am really excited with this. This was the spirit when we started OpenPlotter project and we are committed to fully support these boards on the software side.

We would love to have some feedback, so share this post on other forums if you like it!

Thanks!
Reply
#3
Hi There. I have also been wondering about other hardware.  I find these new kodi/android boxes very interesting. They operate on the same arm processors as the pi but some have much better performance.  The new S912 processors will reportedly run at up to 2.0 ghz and have 2 or 3 gigs of ram and 16 or 32 gigs of emmc memory.  They also have fast Gpu video.   Here are some links for Armbian, which is a Debian ( or ubuntu ) installation which some people have installed on these kodi boxes.  The obvious drawback to using these is of course the lack of gpio header but I think a simple serial connection to an arduino board would give you all the i/o you could want. 
    Disclaimer:  I really am a linux Noob.  It appears from what I've read, (balbales150) that this should work.  Does anyone here know if I'm right or maybe even how I would get OP installed on one of these Debian installations?
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#4
Hi
Yes I'd be interested in the rudder sensor and the nmea boards

rgds

Keith
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#5
I'm developing a new version of the serial board. I want to incorporate a USB multiplexer on the board. This way there is only one USB cable going into the PI.

We'll start a few RAI transducers in the next few weeks. I want to make a few upgrades on the internal PCB (fuse / rev. pol. protection) before we sell these.

(un)fortunately, boating season has started here in Canada and I'm getting my (new) boat ready....

I will post an update once ready!

henk
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#6
Looking forward to seeing these changes. Have a happy sailing.
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#7
I'll be interested to see the specs for the screens, am looking to flush mount something about 12"
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#8
Can you tell us an approximate price for the 12 inch monitor and some data more?
Also shipping costs to Germany? Close to my home is someone interested to change from a Windows solution to Openplotter.
AIS receiver and GPS exists. 99 % river in Netherlands. I was asked for a suggestion of the monitor. I use an old TV with 21 ''
7'' is to small.

Hmmm I am not sure which version of Openplotter to suggest.

Gesendet von meinem SM-G900F mit Tapatalk
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#9
(2017-05-14, 08:38 PM)tocan Wrote: Can you tell us an approximate price for the 12 inch monitor and some data more?
Also shipping costs to Germany? Close to my home is someone interested to change from a Windows solution to Openplotter.
AIS receiver and GPS exists. 99 % river in Netherlands. I was asked for a suggestion of the monitor. I use an old TV with 21 ''
7'' is to small.

Hmmm I am not sure which version of Openplotter to suggest.

Gesendet von meinem SM-G900F mit Tapatalk

All the monitors we're working on will be for indoor use only. The specs will be as follow:
- touchscreen
- 500 nits brightness
- 0 - 100% Back light dimmable' Great for night use
- 12VDc with AC/DC adapter
- 12", 15" and 19" 4:3 screen size
available as of late summer 2017
Price range: E300 to E900
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#10
(2017-05-14, 08:38 PM)tocan Wrote: Can you tell us an approximate price for the 12 inch monitor and some data more?
Also shipping costs to Germany? Close to my home is someone interested to change from a Windows solution to Openplotter.
AIS receiver and GPS exists. 99 % river in Netherlands. I was asked for a suggestion of the monitor. I use an old TV with 21 ''
7'' is to small.

Hmmm I am not sure which version of Openplotter to suggest.

Gesendet von meinem SM-G900F mit Tapatalk

All the monitors we're working on will be for indoor use only. The specs will be as follow:
- touchscreen
- 500 nits brightness
- 0 - 100% Back light dimmable' Great for night use
- 12VDc with AC/DC adapter
- 12", 15" and 19" 4:3 screen size
available as of late summer 2017
Price range: E300 to E900
[/quote]
It's not for a sailing boat it's inside a Netherlands traditional boat. I will give yours info away. Thanks for so fast answer.

Regards Wilfried

Gesendet von meinem SM-G900F mit Tapatalk
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