IoT project help guidance

[Bora]

Hello all,

I'm new Open Marine and would appreciate your opinion on what path should I folllow.

I alredy bought a RPi 5.

I'm looking to have a system where I can monitor several sensors remotly, also have a nice customize dashboards like weather, wind instruments when sailing, useful info when anchoring.

I have Raymarine system Seatalk ng and would like to connect to the RPi system. (Looking at MacArthur)

The other path I found is using Home Assistant and connecto the on board systems with something like this.

It looks like some IoT app is coming for OP, there are some work arround with Signal K and Node Red, don't know if it's something complicated. The MacArthur HAT looks very promissing but I'm a bit lost.

Hope you can give some insight to clarify a bit what should I do.

Thanks

[opaezosu]

I am relatively new to OP too, started last season when I acquired my sailboat. I'm taking it step by step. I first installed the most recent versions of OP, my main initial goal was to have a chart plotter based on a Pi 4. OpenCPN solved that as soon as I downloaded the charts and connected to a GPS input. Initially I used a tablet for display, later I added a 10in touchscreen on the nav station. The boat came with old Seatalk 1 networked instruments, the next natural step was to add a connection to them. After several tries I was able to get all the ST instruments data into the SignalK server consistently. My next step will be to connect the autopilot (also old ST4000) to the Pi via its NEMA 0183 input port. I do not have the McArthur hat, so no experience with it, but given that you have a NEMA 2000 network it makes sense to go with it as it already have provisions for connecting several type of sensors.

Once you have input data flowing into the SignalK server, you may use several solutions to display gauges in a neat and customizable way (e.g. KIP), or you may develop your own gauges. The SignalK server is nice in the sense that once you get all (or most) your data into the server, any connected device may access it, making very flexible.

Good luck!