Home made chart plotter

AngusMcDoon

AngusMcDoon

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I've had an idea for another home made project while listening to the gales rattling around the Irish Sea. There's the DIY autopliot, generator and oven, but what about a DIY chartplotter?

The software is already available and well known here, and pretty good it is too. I run it on a netbook...

http://www.opencpn.org/

But the problem with running it on a netbook is battery life, power consumption, and the vulnerability of a netbook at sea. However, it also runs on Linux, and there are small low powered quite cheap Single Board Computers with lots of goodies on that run Linux, for example the Hawkboard (which I use at work) for £65...

http://www.hawkboard.org/

This comes with a built in serial port (for NMEA input), a VGA output (for the display), a SD card reader (for the charts) and USB (for extra input).

Displays are the expensive bit, but for £130 (or £160 for a bigger one)...

http://www.allcam.biz/catalog/produ...id=99&osCsid=a360571f826e61192f6c39260d156348

which will plug straight into the Hawkboard. The touchscreen bit will need configuring in Linux, but would be fine for input to OpenCPN to start with.

So there you have it. Bung the whole lot in a box, get OpenCPN up and running on Linux. Charts on the SD card (£40 for whole of UK). Hide the processor box away somewhere and just mount the LCD display. Homemade chartplotter with all UK charts for about £240. No hard disks to fail. No keyboard to get wet. And power consumption 700mA.

Bit I wonder if Stipper Sku's SWMBO would approve?

Note: The first comment is going to be that the display is not weatherproof. I realize that. I expect a weatherproof one could be found for more wonga. It's only a DIY thing after all. It's not as though a major manufacturer of tillerpilots is good at weatherproofing anyway.
 
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Plus you could check the tides and the weather, browse the web, watch videos, listen to music, and everything else you can do on your home pc. As you say, the only difficulty is getting a waterproof display.
 
AngusMcDoon said:
I've had an idea for another home made project while listening to the gales rattling around the Irish Sea. There's the DIY autopliot, generator and oven, but what about a DIY chartplotter?

The software is already available and well known here, and pretty good it is too. I run it on a netbook...

http://www.opencpn.org/

But the problem with running it on a netbook is battery life, power consumption, and the vulnerability of a netbook at sea. However, it also runs on Linux, and there are small low powered quite cheap Single Board Computers with lots of goodies on that run Linux, for example the Hawkboard (which I use at work) for £65...

http://www.hawkboard.org/

This comes with a built in serial port (for NMEA input), a VGA output (for the display), a SD card reader (for the charts) and USB (for extra input).

Displays are the expensive bit, but for £130 (or £160 for a bigger one)...

http://www.allcam.biz/catalog/produ...id=99&osCsid=a360571f826e61192f6c39260d156348

which will plug straight into the Hawkboard. The touchscreen bit will need configuring in Linux, but would be fine for input to OpenCPN to start with.

So there you have it. Bung the whole lot in a box, get OpenCPN up and running on Linux. Charts on the SD card (£40 for whole of UK). Hide the processor box away somewhere and just mount the LCD display. Homemade chartplotter with all UK charts for about £240. No hard disks to fail. No keyboard to get wet. And power consumption 700mA.

Bit I wonder if Stipper Sku's SWMBO would approve?

Note: The first comment is going to be that the display is not weatherproof. I realize that. I expect a weatherproof one could be found for more wonga. It's only a DIY thing after all. It's not as though a major manufacturer of tillerpilots is good at weatherproofing anyway.
Click to expand...
SWMBO would be more than happy because I would do as you are intending to do , hide it somewhere like under the chart table, then the screen could sit above the chart table, I could then move my waterproof Lowrance in to my green house by the wheel.
Will work out the drain compared with my Acer netbook to see if it gives a beter consumption figure.
Stu
PS
there is another route I could go and that is to figure out how to get a video display off my HTC Touch to a small flatscreen because I already have Memory Map and Belfield on there, it connects straight to the net and has a GPS built in
http://www.expansys.com/video.aspx?id=1792&i=170917
 
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Android could be a good choice of operating system, provided you can cross-compile OpenCPN for that.
 
But if you buy a netbook or even a laptop the power consumption comes out at much the same as your diy version with an add on screen. A much more convenient package.

There's nothing to stop you running ubuntu linux on the netbook either if that's what floats your boat.
 
Not currently

st599 said:
Android could be a good choice of operating system, provided you can cross-compile OpenCPN for that.
Click to expand...

Android is a no-go for OpenCPN at the moment, as openCPN is C++ and wxwidgets based. All Android app code is Java, plus now there is the possibility to have some 'native' library elements in apps to do processing which is not suited to java.

So OpenCPN would need a complete rewrite to get rid of wxwidgets and use android java UI code, and also significant rework to get it into java, plus porting of all the performance critical bits into 'native' library elements. A huge task.

However, many android devices can be persuaded to boot Debian ARM, or Ubuntu ARM, which will obviously build and run OpenCPN.

The ideal target hardware for OpenCPN as far as I'm concerned is a 10" 1Ghz ARM based Android tablet with a colour e-paper type screen. At the moment, the first 10" 1Ghz Android tablets are just coming to market, for about £240, but they have old fashioned LCD screens that are power hungry and poor in daylight. In a year to 18 months, large format Android based e-Readers with new tech colour e-Paper touchscreens should be on the market, and these will be absolutely ideal chart-plotter killers. Install full linux instead of or alongside Android, and da-da, super low power, super readable, portable chartplotter that can also do all your on-board computing.

Regards,

Mike
 
nimbusgb said:
But if you buy a netbook or even a laptop the power consumption comes out at much the same as your diy version with an add on screen.
Click to expand...

My tests on power consumption disagree.
My Samsung NC10 uses draws ~2 Amps whan powered by 12V boat supply. I'm looking at the ammeter right now.

The Hawkboard is Arm processor powered. The ARM architechture was designed to use little power for portable devices. Also there would be less unused devices, for example keyboard and hard disk. The 12V display is quoted at 750mA. A Hawkboard takes 150 mA. So 900mA compared to 2A at 12V.

nimbusgb said:
A much more convenient package.
Click to expand...
I don't consider a Laptop or Netbook a very convenient package when sailing. They can't be mounted very easily, usually get offended if they fly across the cabin, and the keyboard and all the connectors vulnerable to splashes of seawater or blobs of flying vindaloo sauce.

nimbusgb said:
There's nothing to stop you running ubuntu linux on the netbook either if that's what floats your boat.
Click to expand...

I already do that. The reason why I am looking at running OpenCPN on linux is that linux runs on the Hawkboard, Windows does not. No OS 'floats my boat', it's just what runs on the SBC I want to use.

It's only a bit of geeky fun anyway. If it's a pants idea, so what. It doesn't matter. Mine is a truly geeky boat when the wind is too much to make pleasant sailing, like right now...

SDC10964.jpg


Maybe I shouldn't be admitting my nerdiness on a public forum!
 
It's a while since I compiled wxwidgets so I can't remember all it's dependancies. I think it probably needs GTK but it's even longer since I compiled that. I think X windows is almost certainly needed which can be a bit of a beast to compile although there are a number of touchscreens that will work with X out of the box.
 
EdBeynon said:
It's a while since I compiled wxwidgets so I can't remember all it's dependancies. I think it probably needs GTK but it's even longer since I compiled that. I think X windows is almost certainly needed which can be a bit of a beast to compile although there are a number of touchscreens that will work with X out of the box.
Click to expand...

On the Hawkboard page there is a link to a widgetty thing that creates a linux installation image for you. It's possible to choose one with X, so all the libraries should be compiled already.
 
AngusMcDoon said:
Over on Scuttlebutt. No confirmation that they work with OpenCPN yet, but the file format is open and unencrypted, so with some geekhackery they should.
Click to expand...

I have bought one of those £40 CD's

The whole of the UK and Ireland on one disk. I don't know how many charts are on the disk but there is a lot.

I plugged it into my Laptop (Vista basic) and once I have sorted out the USB gps I will have a very low cost basic plotter.

I can now download all the charts including many detailed harbour ones. I have not needed to download any other software.

The quality of the display (14.1" wide screen) and the charts is very good.
I can live with the vulnerability to humidity.

I still have paper charts for all the areas I will be sailing in.

The beauty is that I already have the laptop and USB GPS and only had to spend slightly over £40 for a licensed plotting system. I also have not had to learn about new operating systems. It is proving hard enough bad enough going from Windows to Vista.

Iain
 
Strathglass said:
The beauty is that I already have the laptop and USB GPS and only had to spend slightly over £40 for a licensed plotting system. I also have not had to learn about new operating systems.
Iain
Click to expand...

That's good. I'm pleased for you. And thanks for the first feedback on the £40 charts.

But maybe people sometimes get the wrong idea about these projects. It's not something for everyone, or maybe not even anyone else at all. It's just a bit of fun trying to do what the professionals do. If anyone else wants to contribute, or have the output for nothing at all, they are welcome. But if you want to stick with everyday purchased stuff, that's all good too.
 
Keep going AngusMcDoon..........I'm sure there are many interested in similar projects. I hadn't come across Hawkboard before and so have been playing with old laptops but have always felt them to be too vulnerable. A buried box with a touchscreen i/o is jus the job I think. I am searching for charts at the moment and have PM a few to seek info about where these are available.

My main objective is to have as few pieces of kit as possible but not to loose funtionality !

Any thoughts on incorporating an Iphone interface (maybe a simple USB) so music can be stored/played over speakrs etc?

Jaba
 
Another vote of support from me too. I've previously looked at http://beagleboard.org/ which, I believe, is similar to Hawkboard.

To be honest if I hadn't already dabbled with Ubuntu then I wouldn't be considering building one of these machines, but Ubuntu 10.04 is now so feature rich, fast (compared to Vista) and stable that it's difficult to ignore - especially as it's totally free. I've been running a dual-boot Vista/Ubuntu laptop for some time now and the only thing stopping me from dumping Vista altogether is the lack of (familiar) software for Ubuntu but as there's now such a range of (again, totally free) software for Ubuntu I'm gradually using Ubuntu and associated software more and more. A low-power consumption dedicated boat PC appeals greatly so I'm watching your progress with interest.

PS OpenCPN is the dogs gonads :)
 
ColdFusion said:
Another vote of support from me too. I've previously looked at http://beagleboard.org/ which, I believe, is similar to Hawkboard.
Click to expand...

The Beagleboard is similiar to the Hawkboard. We considered it for our work project, but it is more expensive and it doesn't have VGA output as standard. You have to buy another add on bit.

But if OpenCPN can be persuaded to run on the Hawkboard, I'm sure it can run on the B-board too.
 
Strathglass said:
I plugged it into my Laptop (Vista basic) and once I have sorted out the USB gps I will have a very low cost basic plotter.

Iain
Click to expand...

Good Luck, since I was forced to upgrade to Vista, I have had to part with scanner, USB GPS Dongle, and some sprecialised accessories. I had a little small footprint computer, designed for cars and together with a touch screen monitor, was the mutts nutts, but there are always thieving scum out there

Robin
 
supra30 said:
Android is a no-go for OpenCPN at the moment, as openCPN is C++ and wxwidgets based. All Android app code is Java, plus now there is the possibility to have some 'native' library elements in apps to do processing which is not suited to java.

So OpenCPN would need a complete rewrite to get rid of wxwidgets and use android java UI code, and also significant rework to get it into java, plus porting of all the performance critical bits into 'native' library elements. A huge task.
Click to expand...


D'oh - I did know that before I went to the Cork Week party - Blame it on the Jamesons.
 
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