Boat data monitor - what next.....

  • Thread starter Thread starter GHA
  • Start date Start date
st599 said:
Can you not use a Max233 and get rid of some of the extra componentry?

Will you be making the design available, or offering entry on to a job lot from the PCB fab?
Click to expand...
Could save 4 capacitors at $0.01 each and pay $51 more by using max233 so maybe not :)
Not sure of the difference between max232 & max3232 but the max232 seems to work fine outputting 3.3v when Vcc fed with 3.3v so will stick with that as it works and is a basic part offered by JLCPCB so no extra charge.
Project will be on github in same repository as before >>
boatybits/boatymonpy
Though this is very much a personal project to do lots of useful stuff on one particular boat it seems the thing to do to put in a little extra effort and have it available for all. Setting up the Pi isn't that hard and should be able to upload a signalk file to configure that and yet to try, but might even be possible to burn the code onto the esp straight from the Pi with some jumpers done with a node red dashboard button. Then changing ESP code can be done over wifi.
 
First, great project!

You could use a tps54531 dcdc converter for the raspberry pi. The datasheet has a 5v example in section 9.2. A tps54060 would cover the 3.3v but you can probably get away using the rpi's 3.3V converter for the esp - it has a bit of margin.

For the rs232 you could use a ft4232 to connect them to the rpi using USB, although that's inconvenient for the pi zero.

You could throw in some CAN interface to have the n2k option!

If you'd switch to a more recent rpi or a rpi compute module they'd surely have the power for grafana on board?
 
While at it, you could add a m590e cheapo 2g GSM module to it - £5 on ebay.

Oh, all the things one could do... :)
 
since the thread came up again (lost it last time and forgot to read past the first few messages...)

+1 for MAX232, worked fine on a couple of installations getting N0183 in and out. For the cost, I personally wouldn't bother with anything else (not that I'd know v.well how to go about :-) )
I also built (following GHA early posts back in 19) a batch of 10 100x100mm single sided boards (first time in my life designing them, good fun!) have 5 in operation onboard my mobo, still improving SW :cool:
They all have el cheapo buck converters so they get N2K 12-15VDC in drop it down to 3V3 for the teensy 3.5s I'm using.
Bought off farnell a series of components hoping to create a v.2 of the board with through hole coils/capacitors/whatever for a powersupply, haven't yet bothered to design v2.0 so not gone that route yet.

GHA, you're mentioning mounting everything onboard, is there an ESP (pref 32) ver that is surface mounted and that JLCPCB are happy to install for you?
Not too keen on ESPs as ADC are (imho) crap, but interested to know if that would be an option as I'm planning on creating a V2 of my N2K board that will mainly drive a half decent 5-7in touchscreen
Pity I've not found any IP65 or thereabouts touch screen sun readable at 5-7in with decent interface that doesn't need a degree in computing to sort out... (I mean should have arduino drivers!)

V.
 
Kaiqr said:
While at it, you could add a m590e cheapo 2g GSM module to it - £5 on ebay.

Oh, all the things one could do... :)
Click to expand...
kaiqr, depends really on what you want to do, but there is a point where signalk is the way forward without having to reinvent the wheel. Really impressed with it especially now that all my teensies pump an awful lot of data to the N2K bus and now all are on my mobile/desktop via grafana.
 
Out of curiosity, what would you think of one of the epaper esp32 boards? (Google lilygo esp32 e paper).

Those should be good in sunlight, 4.7" for 30$. Obviously the refresh rate is not good but I don't think that matters too much for most things. I've seen them mentioned in other boat related projects.
 
vas said:
GHA, you're mentioning mounting everything onboard, is there an ESP (pref 32) ver that is surface mounted and that JLCPCB are happy to install for you?
Not too keen on ESPs as ADC are (imho) crap, but interested to know if that would be an option as I'm planning on creating a V2 of my N2K board that will mainly drive a half decent 5-7in touchscreen
Click to expand...
Yep, esp is available from jlcpcb. I never use the onboard adc, ads1115 is crazy accurate & doesn't cost much. Check out this design >>
Home
Very :cool:
With isolated canbus interface for nmea 2k.
 
  • Like
Reactions: vas
Kaiqr said:
Out of curiosity, what would you think of one of the epaper esp32 boards? (Google lilygo esp32 e paper).

Those should be good in sunlight, 4.7" for 30$. Obviously the refresh rate is not good but I don't think that matters too much for most things. I've seen them mentioned in other boat related projects.
Click to expand...
I've spent a couple of weeks to get my crappy cheap 7in touch screen to show what it should. Attrocious driver support, awful refresh, a real mess. Touch wood it still works on the lower helm!
Decided I wont buy another touchscreen unless I check driver support for the platform I'm using (arduino IDE)

not familiar with the one you mention, main prob with epaper displays is that they don't integrate touch (at least last time I checked!) nor do the ones you point to.
8s full refresh is horrendous, I guess partial refresh can be done so when (and IF) there's a touch version one could have some reasonable feedback that yes I did press the button!
Also not at all keen on paying for things I wont use, wifi on a fixed screen on the dash of my boat with a zillion cables behind is a tad pointless... One of the reasons I initially had a go with ESP32 was the ability to upload code OTA, never worked, had too many issues, scrapped them...

V.
 
vas said:
. One of the reasons I initially had a go with ESP32 was the ability to upload code OTA, never worked, had too many issues, scrapped them...
Click to expand...
Micropython on ESP32!! Works a treat uploading over wifi, even when main program hits an error. Not as fast as C but oh so much nicer :cool:
Feel a bit ill now if having to do some code in arduinoland......
 
Kaiqr said:
Out of curiosity, what would you think of one of the epaper esp32 boards? (Google lilygo esp32 e paper).

Those should be good in sunlight, 4.7" for 30$. Obviously the refresh rate is not good but I don't think that matters too much for most things. I've seen them mentioned in other boat related projects.
Click to expand...
Just starting to have a play with one of these >
Red 4.2" inch e-Ink Display Module 400x300 for Arduino,Raspberry Pi
Looks very promising for fixed always on display on a wall somewhere for battery/weather or whatever stuff where update frequency doesn't matter much, gonna try esp8266 over wifi in deep sleep most of the time first so next to zero power draw.

ZuyTlph.jpg
 
just forget it, took me a couple of years to manage with the help of Timo's libs to do all the N2K stuff I want. There's no way in hell I'm changing to something that I wont even have all the N2K libs to work with...
Not to mention that stabilisation code is really tight and wants a lot of processing power (the less you know the more power you need obvs :) )

epaper displays would be interesting though once they become waterproof and have touch!
 
GHA said:
Just starting to have a play with one of these >
Red 4.2" inch e-Ink Display Module 400x300 for Arduino,Raspberry Pi
Looks very promising for fixed always on display on a wall somewhere for battery/weather or whatever stuff where update frequency doesn't matter much, gonna try esp8266 over wifi in deep sleep most of the time first so next to zero power draw.

ZuyTlph.jpg
Click to expand...
I'd be more interested on something like that:

TFT 4.3 inch LCD Module OPTL TouchScreen Display for MP4,GPS,480x272

dirt cheap! doubt the chipset and touch thingie are going to be straightforward in implementing though...
 
vas said:
just forget it, took me a couple of years to manage with the help of Timo's libs to do all the N2K stuff I want. There's no way in hell I'm changing to something that I wont even have all the N2K libs to work with...
Not to mention that stabilisation code is really tight and wants a lot of processing power (the less you know the more power you need obvs :) )
Click to expand...
You have my deepest sympathy stuck working with that cryptic nonsensical language ;) ;)
 
GHA said:
Anything I need to touch is in a webpage on a tablet or Pi :)
Click to expand...
we are soooo different!
mobile/tablet/pc is for remote monitoring.
onboard it's either one of the garmin plotters, or touchscreen on my custom 7in. alternative would be to have a series of hardware buttons which is inappropriate.
Latest (still unsuccessful!) project is to sort out switching instructions from N2K so that I get bilge alarms on signalk but also enable me to operate loads remotely or from other screens.
waiting for next October lockdown to finalise them :rolleyes:
 
GHA said:
You have my deepest sympathy stuck working with that cryptic nonsensical language ;) ;)
Click to expand...
:LOL:
first language I "learnt" programming was lisp in order to automate/customise AutoCAD instructions. At the time (90s) I thought it was brilliant :rolleyes:
next was VB which I never liked
so almost 30yrs later I get into this IDE which is a revelation, nothing cryptic in it ?
 
vas said:
nav lights, f/b lights, watermaker, generator, inverter...
Click to expand...
On your own there, nav lights etc too basic to not be stand alone with a chunky switch :)
Very different boats though, this one is for cruising where it needs to still be able to function just fine when nearly everything is broken a very long way from anywhere :)
All the rest is fun ,useful but far from essential.
 
not exactly my idea of leisure boating, although there is a chunky 70s toggle for nav lights/anchor and matching push button for the horn.
Just interested in the soft intelligent versions of them as well, that's all!
back to debugging one of the 5 chinacopy DS18B20 one-wire sensors that is occasionally going 85C (not had time to charge/check/calc apparently)
had enough trying to find a proper solution, so going for the hack approach (keep a rolling buffer, if one value is 10C away from the current average/mean discard and repeat, should work :cool: )
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top