My Raspberry Pi Boat Monitor

[Hurricane]

My project handles the RWD using CSS
If you know how CSS works, here is an example
......
CSS for default screen
......
@media only screen and (min-width: 50em) {
.....
CSS for screens larger than 50ems
.....
}

An interesting thing is that it is easier to design for the small (mobile) screen first and then merge the larger ones later.

My project also uses http://html5boilerplate.com/

So, there's a fair bit of reading for you - sorry, most of these things end up with loads of research/reading.

But doing a project this way has meant that I can build (and, more importantly, maintain) a complete solution for iPhone, iPad, Android and all PC based systems.
I know of similar systems that employ a team of programmers for each platform.
www.motorsportauctions.com is just me doing the software.

 

[Forty_Two]

@Hurricane
@petem

Thanks for the heads up guys, got to slot a C++ card in the old brain box now & see if anything works to move forward. Funnily enough i had been reading a bit about RWD so good to see the examples.

Gonna be a busy summer of research & learning in the sun!

 

[nimbusgb]

Have you measured the power drain of your box? Great until you have to run purely off battery and solar. The Pi is a greedy little blighter.

 

[Forty_Two]

Have you measured the power drain of your box? Great until you have to run purely off battery and solar. The Pi is a greedy little blighter.

I did but can't remember at the moment & the notebook with it in is on the boat in France.

I don't disagree, for me it wasn't an issue as I have an 1,100Ah bank & reliable shorepower. In the event of a charger failure I can shut the Pi down by text.

I realise power would be a big issue for a solar only charging situation. Hopefully I can do something about that in the future.

 

[chunky86]

Little bump, I for one would be very interested in purchasing something like this , or the software and a kit list??

 

[Forty_Two]

I am going to build a mark 2 hardware version during winter 2016 & will try to document this & put the info on a website. I fell in love with the official Pi 7" Touch Screen that I got my hands on a couple of weeks ago & this will replace my 4 line LCD.

It has been working like a charm since installation & I love getting the daily pics. I have added a few software updates together with three RPi cameras. Caught a Magpie on the aft deck this morning collecting a bone it had dropped.

Thanks for the interest, Paul

 

[rbcoomer]

Great project Paul - I too have been following this

My son (11) is very keen on the RPi and robotics in particular. He's only at the beginning stage with Python etc, but seems to have taken to it well (with a little help). I was looking at embedding one in my Arrowbolt rebuild project and in addition to running sensors, I aimed to use for charts, video capture and so on. I have an old 5L VP V8, so no electronics, but was looking to add a fuel flow meter (I have a Northstar) and pick up the rpm etc to calculate an instantaneous and average mpg etc using GPS. Probably won't get to start until later in the year, and hoping to get son to help so he learns too. They're fantastic units and seem very simple to program - although I confess to not having done any such I/O type coding since the days of the BBC B I also don't fancy the idea of a commercial operation, but as DIY projects they're ideal - and great fun. Quite surprised that nobody has yet launched a turnkey solution for marine use however - particularly for a remote monitoring application like you are doing as I could see a sizeable market.

 

[Forty_Two]

Great project Paul - I too have been following this

My son (11) is very keen on the RPi and robotics in particular. He's only at the beginning stage with Python etc, but seems to have taken to it well (with a little help). I was looking at embedding one in my Arrowbolt rebuild project and in addition to running sensors, I aimed to use for charts, video capture and so on. I have an old 5L VP V8, so no electronics, but was looking to add a fuel flow meter (I have a Northstar) and pick up the rpm etc to calculate an instantaneous and average mpg etc using GPS. Probably won't get to start until later in the year, and hoping to get son to help so he learns too. They're fantastic units and seem very simple to program - although I confess to not having done any such I/O type coding since the days of the BBC B I also don't fancy the idea of a commercial operation, but as DIY projects they're ideal - and great fun. Quite surprised that nobody has yet launched a turnkey solution for marine use however - particularly for a remote monitoring application like you are doing as I could see a sizeable market.

One of the biggest limitations I think is the powering off issue. You really must shut down properly not just pull the plug or you risk SD card corruption. There are work arounds but it's all a bit geeky for a commercial proposition.

The compute module may be better as it has on board eMMC flash so may be better I haven't looked into it. I'm using a Pi2 with Jessie in my dev setup now which is very nice with the 7" touch screen. The IO stuff is nice & easy really, I use these guys for add ons - RTC , ADC etc https://www.abelectronics.co.uk

I came to the conclusion that for a commercial version it would have to use a Pic or some such & be written in C.

 

[chunky86]

I am going to build a mark 2 hardware version during winter 2016 & will try to document this & put the info on a website. I fell in love with the official Pi 7" Touch Screen that I got my hands on a couple of weeks ago & this will replace my 4 line LCD.

It has been working like a charm since installation & I love getting the daily pics. I have added a few software updates together with three RPi cameras. Caught a Magpie on the aft deck this morning collecting a bone it had dropped.

Thanks for the interest, Paul

Any more updates on this Paul??

 

[Forty_Two]

Any more updates on this Paul??

Sorry for delay in replying been fitting out in France.

Short answer is no. I do plan to build a version using the latest Pi3 at the end of this season. It's nice as it has WiFi which will eliminate the wired network between my three camera Pi's & the master Pi.

My plan is to document this & move all the hard coded stuff like phone number, ftp upload login etc to a config file which will make it easier to setup without delving into the main program. I will then put up a Web site with this info & an ISO to download & write to an SD card.

It does seem to be pretty robust, the only changes I have made this year are to log cpu temp & free memory every minute to one of the log files for the daily upload.

Thanks for the continued interest :encouragement:

 

[chunky86]

Thanks for the update.
Really looking forward to learning more about this.

 

[Hurricane]

I bought one of the Pi 3s last week and have it on the boat at the moment.
Loaded it with OpenElec (Kodi)
And it is working well as a medial player for my TVs - got BBC iPlayer etc running.
Just need a good unlimited 4G supplier now.

 

[Forty_Two]

Just need a good unlimited 4G supplier now.

I think that's the holy grail these days, trouble is it's a moving target & different everywhere.

Have you tried the 7" touch screen, works well straight out of the box so with BT for a keyboard & no mouse it's getting really useful & easy to use.

 

[TwoHooter]

Is the Pi3 a bit less of a power hog than the other Raspberries? I need a monitoring system but I am also trying to reduce the continuous load on our house bank so I can install solar and be able to leave the boat on a buoy for a few days. It's hard to reduce the existing continuous loads, don't want to do all that work and then be back at square one when the monitoring system kicks in.