ideas on 12V computer and clean power

[contessaman]

Thanks again for taking the time to share.


As long as it's fast enough to run spider solitare for those long night watches....

no problems, any questions along the way just ask. I dont get on here all the time but I'll get back to you when I can.

 

[contessaman]

I'm going to have a go when the RaspberryPi is released - single board RISC PC at less than 1/2 an amp + a small screen off ebay and a small laptop hard-disk.

Simon

wow thats tiny isnt it?! you could build that into the monitor. LInux a bit restrictive on nav software (allthough much better os than windows IMHO) but you can get openCPN for linux so that'll be okay.

keep us updated when you start building!

 

[Conachair]

yes you can, but his invloves plugging your usb rx in and out evertime you turn computer off and on. If you want to hardwire the whole thing and mount the 'brain' of the computer out of sight (and wet?!) with just the monitor and keyboard on show this will be a nause. you could also cut the 5v supply wire inside the usb cable to the gps and fit an inline switch to ahieve the same effect but again that makes the startup process more hassle and its a quick and easy software fix.

I did wonder what the hell was going on at first though with the cursor jumping all over the place!

I did the same easy fix. Another one which I don't think got resolved was maxsea loosing the gps everytime the computer went into hibernate mode. I had to go into settings to unpatch the port then patch it in again. That was usb, hopefully a serial port won't be so picky. Bit irratating.

 

[fisherman]

Got me confused now: is your GPS a dongle, or controlled from the computer? mine is a separate item with its own on/off switch, just have to make sure Maxsea is open first, then switch on.
My Fit 2 pc can be hidden away in the dry, it comes on via an inline switch, otherwise it would come on with every main switch power up. In fact it could go in a tupperware box with some silica gel

 

[fisherman]

I did the same easy fix. Another one which I don't think got resolved was maxsea loosing the gps everytime the computer went into hibernate mode. I had to go into settings to unpatch the port then patch it in again. That was usb, hopefully a serial port won't be so picky. Bit irratating.

I've had an awful time with Maxsea. I have discovered that there is a problem with unexpected shutdown of the PC, I got corrupt files which in the end meant I couldn't backup info, and lots of 2d/3d info was contaminated. The hard drive has been with Furuno for almost a year and they don't answer my calls, but insist no-one else has had a problem. Google suggests otherwise. I lost four years of info. Now I am writing a new database with all new hardware and no crossover from the corrupt stuff and it's started going wrong. The people who sold me the software only reacted when I threatened small claims court action, but two years on I'm no further forward.

 

[Conachair]

Got me confused now: is your GPS a dongle, or controlled from the computer? mine is a separate item with its own on/off switch, just have to make sure Maxsea is open first, then switch on.
My Fit 2 pc can be hidden away in the dry, it comes on via an inline switch, otherwise it would come on with every main switch power up. In fact it could go in a tupperware box with some silica gel

I think contessaman used a dongle. I use gps128 which is on all the time at sea to feed the ais, the computer isn't on all the time. Not until I get a low power something sorted out anyway. The jumping mouse is easy to sort as long as you always use the same usb port, I had trouble with maxsea loosing the gps after waking up from hibernate mode. Think a proper serial port would sort that out but haven't tried it yet.

 

[fisherman]

Ah right. I have a dedicated GPS for the Maxsea.

 

[contessaman]

I think contessaman used a dongle. I use gps128 which is on all the time at sea to feed the ais, the computer isn't on all the time. Not until I get a low power something sorted out anyway. The jumping mouse is easy to sort as long as you always use the same usb port, I had trouble with maxsea loosing the gps after waking up from hibernate mode. Think a proper serial port would sort that out but haven't tried it yet.

no I used a Haicom USB mouse receiver - bit like a dongle on a long usb lead. Extended the lead with success to about 4 meters.

you can get a tool called setcom and it manages your comm ports. otherwise for some reason unbeknown to me the damn thing allocates itself to a differnt comm port every time you use it.

I havnet set it up yet but I got another gps mouse that just puts out NMEA 0183 which I want to feed straight into my DSC vhf. that way I'll effectively have 2 gps receivers; one in the pc chart plotter, another in the VHF. If I dont have the computer on I can just read lat&long off vhf and plot it on the proper (paper) charts. again this little gps mouse takes only milliamps. I dont know why modern DSc vhf's dopont come with a built in GPS recever. Since they all seem to bleet at you if you dare turn your gps off and do some old skool navigation when conditions and battery capacity dictate.

 

[paddy01]

As it was mentioned I'll just add that I've found Linux (in my case on a Samsung netbook) with BlueNext GPS dongle (£16 off Amazon) and running OpenCPN seems to work a treat.

When you install the gpsd package it does something clever under the covers to manage requests to the comm ports created when hardware such as GPS dongles (which self contain a usb to serial adapter) are plugged in. It seems to create a kind of virtual comm port which you connect to instead of the direct device comm port, this enables any number of different applications / processes to access the same comm port at the same time without conflict. So your single gps input can be used by multiple applications. GPSD is also 'network aware', for want of a better term, so if you had more than one PC networked together you could pick up the GPS feed from another PC by connecting to gpsd on the pc with the gps dongle attached..

There was one snafu which seems to be a bug in the more recent Ubuntu Linux variants in that a driver/package for braille devices jumps in and kills the comm port created when the gps device is plugged in. Simple fix, remove the braille package concerned.

Good luck, I did this just for something to do given I don't have a boat, and friends boat i'm often found on (21ft cuddy sports boat) doesn't really need it.. next stop hoping I win the auction for the 8" LCD screen and then fabricate a spray proof housing for it

 

[Conachair]

How did we live before ebay?

I'm almost there, i hope.

Motherboard
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330634957825?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Power supply
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/260898246300?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Case
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330634952214?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Compact flash was about 25 quid for 8gig, plus 3 for adaptor to IDE, which should arrive tomorrow. Stupidly i got memory from maplins, 30 quid for 256Meg, stoopid! Only a few quid on ebay, such is the price of lack of patience. Working up to the "no hard drive" message so looking hopeful. Draws about 0.7a.

This is interesting..
Also got one of these today - http://www.samsung.com/hk_en/consum...x?pagetype=prd_detail&subsubtype=series-3-led

£110 from samsung shop on tottenham court road.

Running it off a cheap inverter at the moment 'til i can find a 12v power plug which fits it.

Playing with the "eco" menu, which i think is basically brightness..
Power measured at 12v into the invertor
On full - 2.1a
On 75% - 1.75a
On 50% - 1.5a
Standby - 0.75a
12v unpluged from back of monitor - 0.7a.

Which suggests if you can put up with the dimmer screen then from 12v it might be 0.8a, on a bit more , it's power supply says 14v.

So for the full movie experience, say an amp for the monitor, maybe 0.8 for the computer and 0.5a for the stereo = hopefully under 2.5a

 

[Conachair]

And the power supply seems completely radio noise free

 

[contessaman]

How did we live before ebay?

I'm almost there, i hope.

Motherboard
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330634957825?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Power supply
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/260898246300?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Case
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/330634952214?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Compact flash was about 25 quid for 8gig, plus 3 for adaptor to IDE, which should arrive tomorrow. Stupidly i got memory from maplins, 30 quid for 256Meg, stoopid! Only a few quid on ebay, such is the price of lack of patience. Working up to the "no hard drive" message so looking hopeful. Draws about 0.7a.

This is interesting..
Also got one of these today - http://www.samsung.com/hk_en/consum...x?pagetype=prd_detail&subsubtype=series-3-led

£110 from samsung shop on tottenham court road.

Running it off a cheap inverter at the moment 'til i can find a 12v power plug which fits it.

Playing with the "eco" menu, which i think is basically brightness..
Power measured at 12v into the invertor
On full - 2.1a
On 75% - 1.75a
On 50% - 1.5a
Standby - 0.75a
12v unpluged from back of monitor - 0.7a.

Which suggests if you can put up with the dimmer screen then from 12v it might be 0.8a, on a bit more , it's power supply says 14v.

So for the full movie experience, say an amp for the monitor, maybe 0.8 for the computer and 0.5a for the stereo = hopefully under 2.5a

glad you went for it mate. You didnt hang around did you! you will no doubt become addicted to trying to reduce the current further like I did.

Did you get a transcend compact flash card? I could never get a sandisk to take windows properly because it flags as removable media whereas the transcend ones just show up as a fixed disk from the box.

keep me informed with your progress; everything I did was trial and error, especially with the monitors as there was a big difference between the 3 that I bought.

rgds

 

[Conachair]

glad you went for it mate. You didnt hang around did you! you will no doubt become addicted to trying to reduce the current further like I did.

Did you get a transcend compact flash card? I could never get a sandisk to take windows properly because it flags as removable media whereas the transcend ones just show up as a fixed disk from the box.

keep me informed with your progress; everything I did was trial and error, especially with the monitors as there was a big difference between the 3 that I bought.

rgds

Almost there Got the machine to see the transcend CF card, made the card into a dos boot disk so it gets that far, but no way of getting past the "press a key" . Ide adaptor needs 5v, power supply has a 5v output but it doesn't fit, alligator clipped at the mo to prove it works. hopefully stratford computer fair will have something this morning. And a cheap ps/2 keyboard. Usb mini keyboard won't work.

Now I need an operating system - what do you use?

Think I might go for a cut down version of XP, might even buy one if there's a cheapo at stratford, otherwise be naughty and get one off torrent. Given MS enough cash over the years to not feel too guilty

So once i get that sorted out it should be just down to wiring. Hurrah!!


Thanks again, contessaman, wouldn't have looked into this without seeing your posts.

 

[noelex]

On full - 2.1a
On 75% - 1.75a
On 50% - 1.5a
Standby - 0.75a
12v unpluged from back of monitor - 0.7a.

Which suggests if you can put up with the dimmer screen then from 12v it might be 0.8a, on a bit more , it's power supply says 14v.

So for the full movie experience, say an amp for the monitor, maybe 0.8 for the computer and 0.5a for the stereo = hopefully under 2.5a

Great thread, but you can get good power results if you run a netbook and LED monitor from 12v.
Netbook and 21 inch LED screen on 75% brightness(any brighter washes out colors) Playing a movie (so lots of hard drive activity) and USB powered speakers 2.4-2.5A

 

[contessaman]

Almost there Got the machine to see the transcend CF card, made the card into a dos boot disk so it gets that far, but no way of getting past the "press a key" . Ide adaptor needs 5v, power supply has a 5v output but it doesn't fit, alligator clipped at the mo to prove it works. hopefully stratford computer fair will have something this morning. And a cheap ps/2 keyboard. Usb mini keyboard won't work.

Now I need an operating system - what do you use?

Think I might go for a cut down version of XP, might even buy one if there's a cheapo at stratford, otherwise be naughty and get one off torrent. Given MS enough cash over the years to not feel too guilty

So once i get that sorted out it should be just down to wiring. Hurrah!!


Thanks again, contessaman, wouldn't have looked into this without seeing your posts.

1) had similar faff to you installing XP - which is my chosen operating system. first 2 times didnt work, 3rd time it just worked. All I did was was plug it into the board, then plug USB external CD rom into itx board. went into bios and set it to boot from USB first. after that it was pretty much ops normal XP install. once its installed you can go into add/remove programmes and get rid of a lot off stuff like paintbrush etc.

2) like you, power connectors did not fit. once I had it all working I soldered it up.

3) I used a PS2 keyboard until windows installed and then plugged the usb one it and it works fine.

have fun! looks like you are!! good winter project this.

Im up to my eyeballs in eberspacher faff at the moment. always something!

 

[contessaman]

forgot to say you need to set virtual memory to zero in XP other wise windows will continually write files to the hard disk and the memory has a limited (albeit large) number of write cycles. It slow the system down a little but not enough I found to effect any nav sotware noticably.

 

[Conachair]

forgot to say you need to set virtual memory to zero in XP other wise windows will continually write files to the hard disk and the memory has a limited (albeit large) number of write cycles. It slow the system down a little but not enough I found to effect any nav sotware noticably.

Ta, saw that tip during the rather extended journey around the web today. XP loading now, bit of a runaround. Don't have a cd drive. So if anyone else comes across this from a google - "how to boot from a cf drive"

This - http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ will let you make the cf card bootable , then I copied hirens boot cd .iso boot image onto the cf card as well, you can now boot up a mini xp and load proper xp or whatever from a usb drive. http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

And... the xp install has just crashed. Oh well, that's what you expect with dodgy torrent stuff. Think I deserve a pint while another one downloads.

Onwards.

 

[contessaman]

Ta, saw that tip during the rather extended journey around the web today. XP loading now, bit of a runaround. Don't have a cd drive. So if anyone else comes across this from a google - "how to boot from a cf drive"

This - http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/ will let you make the cf card bootable , then I copied hirens boot cd .iso boot image onto the cf card as well, you can now boot up a mini xp and load proper xp or whatever from a usb drive. http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

And... the xp install has just crashed. Oh well, that's what you expect with dodgy torrent stuff. Think I deserve a pint while another one downloads.

Onwards.

I got full XP professional (then removed paintbrush etc as above) and Tsunamis99 and worldwide charts on a 2gb transcend. So do you need the dodgy mini XP or could you just go for full version? (im assuming you have a copy of that otherwise my suggestion is irrelevant!)

My thoughts were, marine PC Hdd big enough for windows and chart sotware, then anything else you want to run can be done off external hdd or usb pen etc etc.

 

[Playtime]

I'm following this thread with interest; I might even have a go at building one.

Re the OS, though, have you discarded the idea of using Ubuntu, in favour of these dodgy XP versions? Ubuntu's free and complete with all the major applications.

For nav there's now OpenCPN with charts readily available, also free. I understand Ubuntu is less resource hungry than MS offerings.

 

[st599]

I'm following this thread with interest; I might even have a go at building one.

Re the OS, though, have you discarded the idea of using Ubuntu, in favour of these dodgy XP versions? Ubuntu's free and complete with all the major applications.

For nav there's now OpenCPN with charts readily available, also free. I understand Ubuntu is less resource hungry than MS offerings.

There are Ubuntu variants like Lubuntu which will hapilly run in 256MB RAM. For which you can get OpenCPN, ZyGrib, Acfax, Frisnit, Weather Wizard etc.