Anyone built a 12V PC?

[G12]

I was thinking of trying to build a 12 Volt PC for installation onboard. I know there are many IT oriented folk here so I thought I'd ask you all if there is anything I should specifically look out for/avoid doing.

What I want is to be able to run Winlink, some GRIB viewing software, Firefox for a spot of browsing and that's about it. I don't need a big display either, I want the whole thing very efficient and preferably passively cooled. I plan to only fire it up for getting weather/sending emails over HF and maybe browsing when in a wifi area.

I would happily use a Raspberry Pi but unfortunately I can't run winlink on one of those as far as I'm aware.

All ideas/info greatly received.

 

[White_Belle]

I have one that I removed from my boat . . . . . .

 

[rogerthebodger]

I made up a mini ITX case and mini itx motherboard The only thing to consider is the power supply is to ensure you get one designed for a Vehicle that can handle the increased voltage you get from an alternator charging.

I run NavMonPC , OpenCPN, Chrome . EMail and is connected to boat instrument input, GPS and AIS.

 

[prv]

There are lots of industrial PCs available that are small, run on 12v, and are generally well-suited to installing into a yacht. Some are passively cooled and/or ruggedised. They often have several physical serial ports which is good for things like interfacing to NMEA0183 or HF radio controllers.

At work we use Commell products extensively, though to be honest I think that's mostly out of habit and what we have in the parts system, rather than because they're particularly good. Consider this an example, not a recommendation.

I wouldn't be trying to build one myself.

Pete

 

[GHA]

I would happily use a Raspberry Pi but unfortunately I can't run winlink on one of those as far as I'm aware.

Does now apparently.
Pat :: A modern Winlink client

Nothing comes anywhere near close to openplotter for a one stop boat nav computer imho.

This is mine onboard, Pi 4 running gqrx with a usb fun cube dongle pro plus receiver, at the same time it's running signalk in the background broadcasting bat data over wifi, hosting a network and logged onto another network and logging all nmea and other data to an influxdb database as well as running realvnc. Powerful little devices >

 

[JumbleDuck]

There are some very nice USFF ThinkCentre desktops by Lenovo coming onto eBay from the corporate market for, typically, £100 a pop. They have external power supplies, so are probably quite easy adapted to 12V running.

 

[anoccasionalyachtsman]

I've made a couple using ordinary itx boards and one of these neat little 12V psus from mini-itx.

I'm supplying their website link but absolving myself of any responsibility for the amount of cash you might spend there.

mini-itx

Edit - the psu just plugs straight into the main board - saves a ton of space.

 

[Hoolie]

I wouldn't be trying to build one myself.

I agree - there are loads of miniPCs available that almost universally run off 12v. Years ago I built a miniITX computer that was fine for a while especially after a motherboard/processor update. But TBH I think that's yesterday's technology and there are better devices about.

I bought one of these, though at a slightly lower price. The hardware elements are used on quite a number of mid-range laptops so performance is pretty good. Runs fine off boat 12v supply without regulation

 

[Norman_E]

I built one using a 12 volt Gigabyte Brix mini computer as its base, plus a 12 volt 14 or 15 inch monitor bought secondhand off e-bay. The photo shows it on test at home in 2016. On the boat it is driven by a buck concerter that outputs a stable 12 volts.
I have since found that a better specified Brix that runs on 19 volts actually works perfectly well off the boat supply that varies in voltage up to 14.8 volts when the battery charger is on. Ther Brix takes a 2.5inch hard drive or SSD. I have loaded both Windows 10 and Linux on to two separate SSB drives and run my boat computer from either of them. No internal drive is fitted and thus no personal information remaind on the boat.

 

[G12]

Lots of good info guys, thanks very much.

GHA - I've got a pi connected to my IC7300 here at home - I'll see if I can get that version of winlink to run later. It doesn't look like it has the GRIB data facility on it but I'll find out. If it does then I'm sorted. Your setup is quite impressive!

 

[GHA]

Lots of good info guys, thanks very much.

GHA - I've got a pi connected to my IC7300 here at home - I'll see if I can get that version of winlink to run later. It doesn't look like it has the GRIB data facility on it but I'll find out. If it does then I'm sorted. Your setup is quite impressive!

For grib I use Opencpn to display, and receive gribs from sailmail as email attachments offshore, not heard of any other way to receive gribs over HF. Fldigi works fine for rtty & wfax, plus all the non sailing stuff like psk31.

 

[dankilb]

Yup, helpful info and good to see some working examples.

It's a shame there aren't more dedicated 12v PSUs available. I'd really like to build a higher-spec PC that could run a half-decent basic graphics card, but that'd require a PSU putting out something closer to 500w.

 

[lustyd]

You could get a Surface Go and install a USB socket on the boat to power it, that would tick all of the boxes and would be pretty cheap. I just got a USB C socket for the boat which will happily charge my 13.5" laptop while in use. The Go also has exceptionally good resolution for the size/price

 

[ip485]

Follow the link to car PC's are there are quite a few offerings at prices that hardly make it worthwhile buying and assembling the components.

 

[Martin_J]

Intel NUCs run directly off the boat 12v supply. They come in a whole range of performance options if you're looking for a simple PC/Windows solution.

As to receiving gribs via HF email, I've just used Winlink and a simple email client... I thought that for occasional use that Sailmail wasn't worth the time and effort to pursue.

 

[EugeneR]

Have a look at:

Fanless Mini PC - www.hystou.com E.g. $150 for a new and decent 12v PC...

You can get them via Amazon locally, so you are sort of protected since they do come from China.

I have a few of their more powerful yet fanless ones running 24x7 as servers e.g i7 processor, 64GB memory... and 12V at 16W max

 

[G12]

For grib I use Opencpn to display, and receive gribs from sailmail as email attachments offshore, not heard of any other way to receive gribs over HF. Fldigi works fine for rtty & wfax, plus all the non sailing stuff like psk31.

I'm trying to avoid paying for sailmail - I used them before in 2016 and found the service excellent over HF (P4 modem) - better than my iridium GO infact which I sold when I got back. I'm basically being a cheapskate and not wanting to pay the (much larger than it used to be) fee.
I can get GRIBS from Winlink by selecting from a chart area as you do with AirMail and then display them with GribView. I am hoping to be able to drop thm on a card and persuade my Raymarine plotter to look at them too but that method is untested as yet.
It's interesting that you use Open CPN with your GRIBs, I'd not thought of that. I used it years ago but then ended up with an off the shelf plotter.

Follow the link to car PC's are there are quite a few offerings at prices that hardly make it worthwhile buying and assembling the components.

I had a good rummage on the site - LOTS of options!

 

[GHA]

I'm trying to avoid paying for sailmail -

Sorry, meant saildocs. Free. Opencpn will create the email for you with tickboxes.
Opencpn can also display both synoptics and gribs over a chart which is a nice feature, and a plugin will even decode a wfax coming in from a radio. Very powerful program.

 

[TernVI]

I used to play with mini-itx PCs, but recently junked the last one I had as being Win10 incompatible and overtaken by Pi, android and laptop.

 

[G12]

OK, that definitely looks like just the ticket on the software front. I like the synoptic overlay - I often miss those with plain old grib data.

Now to sort out the hardware! The consensus here seems to be to buy something rather than build it so I'm going to have a good look through the suggestions above and see if I can find something that fits the bill.