cheaper large instrument displays - mast mount

ShaunG

ShaunG

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I have been looking at a number of the larger instrument displays for mast mounting, Tacktick Maxi, B&G 20/20, 30/30, Nexus and NKE. I have astounded at the price, £750 - £2000 per display seems to be the starting price for what is essentially a NMEA repeater.

As a result its got me thinking in the Angus Mcdoon YAPP style. Not sure i have the skills to manage it but a quick scan as yielded a couple of options that would mirror 4 displays for a lot less

A 10" waterproof TFT mounted on the mast with either a C# application driving this as a 2nd monitor or maybe something like a raspberry Pi (i have no linux programming skills but guess i could learn) Or maybe even a PIC

Ok, ok, ok, power i hear you say. There are 2 options, a waterproof TFT (IP67 rated) drawing 20 W, sunlight readable is about £725, waiting on final pricing. Or the newer tech http://pixelqi.com/ displays that require no install, take power and graphics display from a USB (1 cable only) and use 2W @ 5V...couldnt ask for better, i am waiting on costs for a waterproof display using this tech

A PIC driving indivdual displays, it seems that there are a number of colour, sunlight readable and waterproof displays to be had for around £50 each, i have a small amount of dabbling with PIC's but not a lot. This is more standalone and would not require a PC to be running, although power may be about the same and would require housing's etc...


All in all it seems there may be two valid options, anyone have any comments, good and bad on my little foray into this area, anyone fancy joining in, and playing as well???

shaun
 
Last edited:
Can't fault you for having big ideas :)

Using larger displays is attractive, however you need to ask what information it is you want to display - resolution/colour depth/ refresh rate and so on, when considering what to drive the display with.
10" screens require a fair wad of RAM to refresh them with data at an acceptable non flickery rate. A PIC or Arduino is capable of driving that size of screen (with driver libraries) , so long as you are happy updating several numerical fields - not the whole screen at once. To go that route you really need something ARM based (32 bit) . Raspberry Pi will I think find it's way into this kind of project in the near future. Real world interfacing for the Pi is coming along as people work with it.
Waterproof and visible in daylight... hmm that's also a challenge, and some of why commercial stuff is so costly.
How much less that £2K do you want to spend??

I'm just pootling about with 3" touchscreens and microcontrollers, reading analogue wind inputs and doing some on-the fly GPS calulations. That's stopping my brain going rusty all by itself ;)
 
£2k is better than £6k for 4 x B&G 20/20 and nearly £9k for 30/30....there are a few monitors about for the £750 Bracket....that are waterproof and visible. The pixel QI could really change this part of it, they are cheap and low power, in the longer term they are intended to power the OLPC project


I was thinking raspberry pi style for a montior size display, and maybe a PIC for 4 x indivdual displays, aka...a mimc/copy of what is already on the market.

Display info would be most things from a stadndard NMEA network, SOG,COG,TWA,TWS,DPT,RMA,RMB,RMC, etc etc...i would have thought each segment, in a 4 up configuration could have a selector to choose which data it shows

i would love to use the PI/ARM route but i am no programmer, with the exception of some C# and playing with Pics/Ardunios a while ago

It feels like the Kit is almost in range, so near...yet at the same time so far as it probably needs 2 or 3 heads to get together. In my day Job i am a Application Development Project Manager, does not give me any coding abilty though :(
 
pagoda said:
Can't fault you for having big ideas :)

Using larger displays is attractive, however you need to ask what information it is you want to display - resolution/colour depth/ refresh rate and so on, when considering what to drive the display with.
Click to expand...

Must it be a visual display on the mast?

Go for head up display, or bluetooth headset doing text-to-speach to get the info to you ;->

"Siri, Remind me to put in a reef if the true windspeed stays above 25 knots for more than 30 seconds."
 
The idea of a waterproof, touch screen monitor whicg might be a way forward for such a project is currently being worked upon (with an update on progress pending as we speak).
There is a current discussion group/project (mailto:DIYSR@yahoogroups.co.uk) which might be worth keeping an eye on.

Jaba
 
why not a couple of Google Nexus 7 tablets, NMEA over wifi/bluetooth, off-the-shelf NMEA display software from Play, plus some plastic casing and sikaflex to make it all waterproof?
 
Interesting topic.. I would be interested.
We have had an old B&G 3 FD on our mast, which now died because of water intrusion :) Have been looking at other units to replace it, but as said, they are so expensive. All the data we need is speed, heading and maybe a graphical head/lift-trend. It's all there via NMEA, just needs to be displayed.
Rockbox (Rockcitymarine) and Velocitek ProStart do show this and more, but they are real expensive.
 
ShaunG said:
I have been looking at a number of the larger instrument displays for mast mounting, Tacktick Maxi, B&G 20/20, 30/30, Nexus and NKE. I have astounded at the price, £750 - £2000 per display seems to be the starting price for what is essentially a NMEA repeater.

As a result its got me thinking in the Angus Mcdoon YAPP style. Not sure i have the skills to manage it but a quick scan as yielded a couple of options that would mirror 4 displays for a lot less

A 10" waterproof TFT mounted on the mast with either a C# application driving this as a 2nd monitor or maybe something like a raspberry Pi (i have no linux programming skills but guess i could learn) Or maybe even a PIC

Ok, ok, ok, power i hear you say. There are 2 options, a waterproof TFT (IP67 rated) drawing 20 W, sunlight readable is about £725, waiting on final pricing. Or the newer tech http://pixelqi.com/ displays that require no install, take power and graphics display from a USB (1 cable only) and use 2W @ 5V...couldnt ask for better, i am waiting on costs for a waterproof display using this tech

A PIC driving indivdual displays, it seems that there are a number of colour, sunlight readable and waterproof displays to be had for around £50 each, i have a small amount of dabbling with PIC's but not a lot. This is more standalone and would not require a PC to be running, although power may be about the same and would require housing's etc...


All in all it seems there may be two valid options, anyone have any comments, good and bad on my little foray into this area, anyone fancy joining in, and playing as well???

shaun
Click to expand...
I'd have thought a Kindle or similar would be a better display, if you could find a way of driving it with data.... Very low power, sunlight readable
 
Garmin GMI 10: yes, they're nice. But if programmed so that you have two lines of data on the display, they may be a bit small to read from the tiller when hanging on the mast. Do you happen to know the digit-size (when two lines are displayed)?
Our old B&G 3FD had 20mm digits, and that was on the border of being too small.
 
I'm full of admiration for you guys and this project for cheap(er) displays. :)


How do the big tv screens at racecourses, public gatherings, etc, work in daylight ? Could that technology be used, instead of trying to make a PC screen do something it has never been designed to do ?

Tiny pixel size is really not an issue, as what is needed is a number which can be easily read at say 5m distance.
 
The hardware and software to do this for a basic monochrome LCD display based NMEA repeater is cheap and easy. The hard and expensive bit is making a decent looking tough waterproof case for it to go into.

I've done the former part in the past, but never solved the latter problem.
 
ShaunG said:
anyone fancy joining in, and playing as well?
Click to expand...

If you can come up with a viable tough waterproof decent looking mounting box I can do the electronics and software in an afternoon.

You need to avoid anything USB or C# if you want to keep the price down. NMEA or even Seatalk interfacing is cheap and easy. USB is not.
 
Angus...What am i after?? are you thinking backlit LCD's with a PIC and each as an indvidual display (and therefore standalone) or a single 10" type monitor that uses VGA to connect to a PC. Or i guess the 3rd option would be a 10" display to connect to PIC

I will go of and find some sources for what we are after. I guess a screen and then a inch or so additonal depth to House the electronics

If we can get a spec together of what we are after i will go on the hunt, I have been looking at waterproof screens, displays, boxes, protatyping for quite some time and have built a reasonable contact list. I found a company in High Wycombe that would produce protatype waterproof housing similar to a B&G 30/30 for £80 based on a short run of 5.

Not sure on all the other costs but maybe sub £200 all in, sure beats £1500

in summary....what do we need to source and which route should we go down technology wise?
 
how about a waterpoof transparent cover industrial electronics enclosure, either in aluminium or plastic

vm-clear-cover-3.gif


but something bigger, a frame on top and some aluminium sheet metal for mounting to mast, in the end to make it look like this
NKE3133003_F.jpg


http://www.hammondmfg.com/1554FCLP.htm
 
ShaunG said:
Angus...What am i after?? are you thinking backlit LCD's with a PIC and each as an indvidual display (and therefore standalone) or a single 10" type monitor that uses VGA to connect to a PC. Or i guess the 3rd option would be a 10" display to connect to PIC

I will go of and find some sources for what we are after. I guess a screen and then a inch or so additonal depth to House the electronics

If we can get a spec together of what we are after i will go on the hunt, I have been looking at waterproof screens, displays, boxes, protatyping for quite some time and have built a reasonable contact list. I found a company in High Wycombe that would produce protatype waterproof housing similar to a B&G 30/30 for £80 based on a short run of 5.

Not sure on all the other costs but maybe sub £200 all in, sure beats £1500

in summary....what do we need to source and which route should we go down technology wise?
Click to expand...

AngusMcDoon & ShaunG,

I would be along, very interested in this. All I need would be an waterproof LCD-display with two or maybe three lines for repeating NMEA-sentences. Digits should be around 30mm height. For 200,- quid that would be a great achievement!

Regards,
Michael
 
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