cheaper large instrument displays - mast mount

1) numbers wise, we have a small amount of interest although it seems to be attracting more interest daily

2)I would really like to use the wiki, although i guess it depends on the concencus, is every one happy to check 2 sites?

3)I hope this is a given, v1 wil have to be prototype with the expectation that we will have issues, if we can base most of it in firmware we should be able to resolve issues with code

4) me too :-)

I agree, we need to write the tech standards and requirements document to capture all that has been said on here in an easy to read set of requirements (putting my day job hat on it would be a project charter and technical specification document) I am happy to crack on with this initially unless someone else is more suited or wants to...I would love to start getting to grips with programming and learning as well as housings

Anyone want to volunteer for the following:

Specification and technical requirements
Project charter, urghh but best to have it
Electronic hardware specs/choices
Housings and case manufacture
Stm32 coding
Pcb design
Pcb manufacture
Wiki maintenance
Project management
R&d
Technical writing
Instructions writing

I am quite happy to work on any or all, it would be nice to get away from the day job and progress on the housings and electronic solutions is taking more time, I look forward to the coding but don't think there is anyway I can do more than a small portion of it

If anyone else can think of anything to add to the list, or wants to take part then please volunteer


Jabamusic said:
I just wanted to state my interest and willingness to do what i can for this project.

I have been following it since its origin and am happy to contribute - most likely in terms of testing and R & D.

4 things:
1) Have we any idea of how many people are interested in this as we stand? i.e. numbers who would stump up for a first go? That would give us an idea of how many on a first run of orders of casing, pcb, etc.
2) Are we going to take this out of the PBO forum (to the wiki) or double post on each site. I just want to know which to follow and make sure I'm not missing out on something!
3) It strikes me that we will be very lucky indeed to get this right the first time, so we need to invest in some trial (and errors).
4) I have a particular interest in wireless tech on the boat. It resolves some issues (although creates new problems as well).

Should we begin to establish a tech standard that we work towards on Model 1 ?

Just some thoughts !!

Jaba
Click to expand...
 
Me too. I could contribute translating manuals, instructions etc into German. I'll see if I can wake interest here in Germany via sailing forums etc, I'm sure sailors will be interested in this project.
 
ShaunG said:
Specification and technical requirements
Project charter, urghh but best to have it
Electronic hardware specs/choices
Housings and case manufacture
Stm32 coding
Pcb design
Pcb manufacture
Wiki maintenance
Project management
R&d
Technical writing
Instructions writing
Click to expand...

You need to agree on software toolchains and hardware utilities like JTAGs as well. In addition to the software tools I've already listed I suggest DesignSpark for schematic and PCB design. It's also free. It's not just the toolchain, but the version that needs standardizing too. The latest is not always the best.
 
sarabande said:
technical authoring

instructions etc.



What about a float of say £20 as a token gesture ?
Click to expand...

Before sending in money probably would be good to first define what's the target setup for this project. Is the framework going to be:
1) open source hardware http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_hardware
or
2) crowd-funded project with possible lead into a commercial venture. If so, then something like http://www.kickstarter.com/ could provide ready made setup to manage it

I'm personally interested regardless of which model gets chosen, mainly just interested in getting the end result i.e. affordable mast display to my boat...
 
Hi all, sorry for the delay in replying to everyone, I am afraid the day job has got in the way

Angus, any possibility you could advise on toolchains and utilities?

Does anybody have any views on crowd sourced vs open source hardware, to be honest at the moment the crowd sourced idea sounds great to me but its easy to get carried away

On another note, on returning home from work yesterday by development stm32 has arrived, got to do the usual house domestics first but then I guess it's time to start playing :-)

I hope we can keep the momentum going, like others have said we probably need to define exactly what the first goal is and begin to spec it out :-)
 
Only to offer a statement rather than a suggestion (these threads can often run more sideways than forwards :-) - lets move to the Wiki as I think there are enough references in footnotes from contributors that show the place to go for interested parties and the Wiki provides greater flexibility in terms of sharing info, files, work in progress, pictures etc.

Jaba
 
That would be wonderful Angus.....thank you (although not so good to hear you will be jobless..maybe we can make something more of this :) )

I have been rather taken away the last week with the day job so have not got much further than making a led blink on stm32 discovery board, although I have managed a bit of reading

I have putting quite a bit of thought into aesthetics, there are a number of 'leaders' is this area, with apple probably being at the forefront. Having been to SIBS I have to say I was not a great fan of the look of the new ray marine kit, b&g is industrial functional and understated, and does seem to have changed for the last 20 years. Any thoughts on a general aesthetic and who could be 'looked up to? Colour, look, feel, materials etc

As a side note I did notice that the majority are using 7 segment LCD's, any ideas why other than cost (they seem to be very very cheap but not very flexible and restrict user friendliness)

It seems we now have a number of forumites that have offered to help/take part...I think it is now time to step it up and actually start something that'll I'd not talk.. I am quite happy to write a spec and start working out who can do what, unless anyone else would like to volunteer for this one, shall we say 3rd October for any volunteers to come forward, I am sure some of you are better qualified than me :-)
 
AngusMcDoon said:
The CooCox IDE provides a lot of help. It doesn't support all the STM32 processors, but many of them it does. The paid for dev environments like Atollic TrueStudio cost £1000's.
Click to expand...
There's a free (unrestricted) version of Atollic TrueStudio. Oh no there's not, my mistake it's restricted to 32k like the Keil one. The Keil MDK_ARM suite is also free for up to 32k code size.

Boo2
 
Last edited:
Boo2 said:
There's a free (unrestricted) version of Atollic TrueStudio. The Keil MDK_ARM suite is also free for up to 32k code size.

Boo2
Click to expand...

Ooooo...the only versions of atollic I could find were restricted, any ideas what to search for?

I am finding coocox pretty good although more used to visual studio and the whole c thing is very new, never been a pro programmer, just a. Toe in the water kind of thing
 
ShaunG said:
Ooooo...the only versions of atollic I could find were restricted, any ideas what to search for?

I am finding coocox pretty good although more used to visual studio and the whole c thing is very new, never been a pro programmer, just a. Toe in the water kind of thing
Click to expand...

Atollic used to be unrestricted code size for C, restricted for C++. But they removed that freebie last year. Now it's restricted all the time. You can still download the unrestricted version from some places, but that won't help as you need a license from Atollic to get it to run, and they are not giving unrestricted licenses away anymore. The 32K limit is far too small to produce anything useful.

The user interface of Atollic and Coocox will be almost the same. They are both based on Eclipse. Anyone used to the Visual Studio IDE's will find an Eclipse one a bit painful at first.

Quite how Atollic and their ilk can charge so much when both the IDE (Eclipse) and the compiler (GCC) they supply they themselves obtain for free beats me.
 
Last edited:
Just signed up at Open Source Boat Electronics, it's a bit quiet! Perhaps nobody wants to be the first, so could I suggest a forum for introductions?

By the way Shaun, is that site going to cost you money? If so, I can offer free web hosting and a forum if you just register the domain. You can get an org.uk for £3.49 a year at 123-Reg.
 
Last edited:
to keep the discussion going here's what I'd currently need in terms of open source boat electronics:

1) One-way Seatalk-to-NMEA bridge
2) Instrument mast display
3) NMEA-to-Wifi module to get NMEA & AIS data to ipad & android tablet
4) Anchor winch chain counter - how about wireless transmit to iphone & other instruments, display chain out on that mast display?
5) MOB alert fob system, RFID?
6) Dual GPS heading sensor - i.e. no compensation needing GPS compass
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Other threads that may be of interest

Y
The Seafarer 700 and NASA clipper sounders saga
Replies
10
Views
442
Dellquay13
Dellquay13

Share this page

Top