AYAP

[nimbusgb]

One step up from a YAPP. A Yachtie Android Project.

I have a bit of time on my hands so I'm going to restart a project I started a while ago.

A boat monitor. ( Tada! Yet another boat monitor! YABoM or maybe GoogleBoat )

What it should do .......

Monitor my shore power mains connection
Monitor house and engine battery states.
Monitor ( smartly ) a couple of bilge pumps
Monitor temperature and humidty

Provide monitoring of several inputs ( hatch and Pir )
Control a couple of outputs

Provide remote connectivity and control for all of the above.

Possibly additional interface abilities ( Bluetooth or similar Man overboard monitoring, seatalk interface for autopilot control ( and possibly to read local wind conditions ) , internet/local track log function )

Approach:

Building a sophisticated system like this based on completely custom hardware is expensive unless it's just a prototype. I've designed and manufactured all sorts of stuff from target acquisition hardware on tanks to data loggers in aircraft, I know.

Trying to squeeze all of this into machine code or some low level language is a pain, updates are difficult etc.

So we get to Android ..... Cheap smart mobiles provide a touch screen interface, Google accessory API allows us to interface to hardware, we get connectivity thrown in, we can work on a high level language upload and change software and if we open it up to everyone we might get some novel ideas.

A PAYG sim can provide up to a year of connectivity for a few pounds.

That's the way I'm going.

Development:

For development I'm using a Hudl 2 but I have also got a cheap £60 Sony Experia E1 and a handful of other platforms. I'm still using Eclipse as a dev environment but may transition to ADT on this one.

The idea is to use a cheap smart device for intelligence, UI, communications ( £80 to £150). A Google interface board, ( £35 ) and a hardware platform ( Initially cobbled together but aim at < £80 if I build a board ) so a completed cost of around £200.

Anyone else interested in following along?

I'm going to kick off with contact monitoring, mains monitoring, temperature and humidity monitoring and the remote SMS part of it.

 

[Barbican]

Interesting project. Can't help with any of it but would be very keen to see the outcome. Would be great to have that kind of facility........

 

[sarabande]

would that include some form of burglar alarm or even picture sending/monitoring via internet ?


I'd be interested .

 

[nimbusgb]

would that include some form of burglar alarm or even picture sending/monitoring via internet ?


I'd be interested .

Easy enough to implement. The great thing about Android is being able to retask the device provided there is the hardware there.

What constitutes a burglar alarm?

A couple of contact monitors ( Main and fore-hatch mechanical contacts and perhaps 2 others for PIR sensors?)

A Siren output?

Fairly simple really to tie it together.

Bluetooth or some other remote to disable the alarm on entry? A keypad entry to turn it off ( entry delay style?) and perhaps to enable it on leaving.

SMS remote messaging ( also turn off the alarm function to allow someone to access the boat ? )

Perhaps the ability to take a photo, listen in to the Mic or even talk to the scrotes? Which could perhaps be done via the smartphone?

SMS not capable on the Hudl so it would have to be another Android device with 3g connectivity of course.

 

[roblpm]

Sounds good but just a quick question. Why not a pi amd Linux?

Could also do this
http://www.stripydog.com/kplex/examples/piap.html

Which includes nmea multiplexing and wifi.

One device does all?

Anyway just my halfpenny worth.

Im sure you have a good reason for choosing android??

I would rather linux with a wifi link to any phone or tablet

 

[nimbusgb]

Yup, i have good reasons for Android.

For one the adaptor board has hardware level support for analog io, pulse width generation, I2C peripherals etc. On a Pi all that takes additional hardware.

Trying to do everything on one platform is risky. Single point of failure and all that. That having been said using the Android device's GPS as a source for a DNSS radio would be possible.

 

[Cuan]

Yup, i have good reasons for Android.

For one the adaptor board has hardware level support for analog io, pulse width generation, I2C peripherals etc. On a Pi all that takes additional hardware.

Trying to do everything on one platform is risky. Single point of failure and all that. That having been said using the Android device's GPS as a source for a DNSS radio would be possible.

The depth and breadth of knowledge on this forum is truly astonishing!

 

[brokethebox]

I'm going to follow along, sounds fascinating!!

J

 

[nimbusgb]

Got a bit of code running that monitors a contact and will send an sms on status change.

That didn't take long!

Planning an enable/disable dialog and a bit of timing stuff and we have the start of an alarm!

Need a config screen to set up the target sms number, the place we'll send messages to, an email address target and option as to which to send when.

 

[fixh1]

Which IO-board are you using?
And what interface is used to connect to the phone?
I'm currently using bluetooth poststamps, to connect NMEA to android, than convert it to TCP/IP to distribute it to all apps, works very good, and cheap.
Perhaps a PIC-controller and a poststamp would be enough for IO....

 

[BruceDanforth]

What will the power consumption be?

When Angus proposed his as a yapp a long time ago:

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?332443-YAPP-boat-tracker-and-anchor-watcher&highlight=yapp

his device was only pulling about 10mA?

Some of his circuits are pulling less than a micro amp - have you improved on this?

Charging my android phone from flat seems to take about 5% out of my 110Ah battery but I guess you have solved this?

Or is it the power consumption that is a step up from a yapp?

One step up from a YAPP. A Yachtie Android Project.

I have a bit of time on my hands so I'm going to restart a project I started a while ago.

A boat monitor. ( Tada! Yet another boat monitor! YABoM or maybe GoogleBoat )

What it should do .......

Monitor my shore power mains connection
Monitor house and engine battery states.
Monitor ( smartly ) a couple of bilge pumps
Monitor temperature and humidty

Provide monitoring of several inputs ( hatch and Pir )
Control a couple of outputs

Provide remote connectivity and control for all of the above.

Possibly additional interface abilities ( Bluetooth or similar Man overboard monitoring, seatalk interface for autopilot control ( and possibly to read local wind conditions ) , internet/local track log function )

Approach:

Building a sophisticated system like this based on completely custom hardware is expensive unless it's just a prototype. I've designed and manufactured all sorts of stuff from target acquisition hardware on tanks to data loggers in aircraft, I know.

Trying to squeeze all of this into machine code or some low level language is a pain, updates are difficult etc.

So we get to Android ..... Cheap smart mobiles provide a touch screen interface, Google accessory API allows us to interface to hardware, we get connectivity thrown in, we can work on a high level language upload and change software and if we open it up to everyone we might get some novel ideas.

A PAYG sim can provide up to a year of connectivity for a few pounds.

That's the way I'm going.

Development:

For development I'm using a Hudl 2 but I have also got a cheap £60 Sony Experia E1 and a handful of other platforms. I'm still using Eclipse as a dev environment but may transition to ADT on this one.

The idea is to use a cheap smart device for intelligence, UI, communications ( £80 to £150). A Google interface board, ( £35 ) and a hardware platform ( Initially cobbled together but aim at < £80 if I build a board ) so a completed cost of around £200.

Anyone else interested in following along?

I'm going to kick off with contact monitoring, mains monitoring, temperature and humidity monitoring and the remote SMS part of it.

 

[nimbusgb]

Power consumption will be significantly more, governed mostly by what the android phone of choice is, but it only needs to maintain charge not continuously give it full pelt. At the moment with a basic system running, my phone ( 5 year old HTC desire HD ) screen in dim mode, not sleeping, I am getting about 40ma draw from 12v. The HTC was about 95% charged at the time. My boat has 200w of solar panels available. Even in mid Greek winter i'm nett power positive.

The IOIO board uses very little itself but does have an onboard charger for the attached phone. Little point in using the bluetooth interface although one could, as the phone needs to be kept alive to do the processing so a usb cable is fine.

If your phone is using 5.5 ah out of your main batteries you must have a seriously inefficient charging setup. This particular HTC phone has a 1250mAh, 4.55 w/hr battery. Takes about 2000ma/hr to charge it from flat.

 

[BruceDanforth]

So that is 2 Coulombs per second per hour?

I wonder where it will all end?

Power consumption will be significantly more, governed mostly by what the android phone of choice is, but it only needs to maintain charge not continuously give it full pelt. At the moment with a basic system running, my phone ( 5 year old HTC desire HD ) screen in dim mode, not sleeping, I am getting about 40ma draw from 12v. The HTC was about 95% charged at the time. My boat has 200w of solar panels available. Even in mid Greek winter i'm nett power positive.

The IOIO board uses very little itself but does have an onboard charger for the attached phone. Little point in using the bluetooth interface although one could, as the phone needs to be kept alive to do the processing so a usb cable is fine.

If your phone is using 5.5 ah out of your main batteries you must have a seriously inefficient charging setup. This particular HTC phone has a 1250mAh, 4.55 w/hr battery. Takes about 2000ma/hr to charge it from flat.

 

[nimbusgb]

Another handy side effect of having an Android device permanently installed on the boat is that you get the ability to store music and use it for handy apps like 'Checklist', great for the winterization, the weekly layup processes or 'what to do in an emergency' processes!

 

[nimbusgb]

I've started to put some info where people can get to it at https://github.com/umfundi/YOYOYacht/wiki