Seeking feedback on controllers

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ptalbot

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Hello everyone,

I'm looking for your feedback on the pain points you've experienced when searching for or using a marine controller (analog in, n2k gateway, relays, ...).

  1. If you considered buying a marine controller but decided not to, what were the main reasons that stopped you from going through with the purchase?
    1. Pricing? What was your budget ?
    2. Missing features ? Which ones ?
    3. Poor documentation offered ?
    4. Complexity ?
    5. Other reasons ?
  3. If you've already purchased one, what issues have you encountered:
    1. Missing features ?
    2. Poor documentation ?
    3. Complexity ?
    4. Anything else that didn't meet your expectations (please specify).
    5. Which controller did you purchased ?
  5. What boat model do you have ?
Thanks in advance for your feedback
 
jfm said:
I’ve been sailing/boating 40 years and I don’t know what a “marine controller” even is. Suspect others will think the same- it’s not really in boater vocabulary.
Click to expand...
Thought it was just me, wtf is a marine controller.....
 
So for clarification, a marine controller would convert engine parameters (temp, pressure, voltage, fuel level, fuel flow, current, ...) into NMEA2000 data that can be processed with rules to generate warning & alarms. Also, it has relays to control equipment such as pump, fan, lights, trim tab... It can drive White/RGB LEDs. It has IMU to get digital compass, roll and pitch. Some controllers can provide customization of the user interface on tablet like iPad.

I have developped a controller with a lot of features and looking how it would fit with people's need.
 
Let me know your first impression of this www.techydem.com
My goal is to come up with an HW platform that meets most of HW needs and maybe 80% of SW needs. After, someone would finalize his customization.
 
Parabordi said:
Same here
Click to expand...
Actually, I prefer to distribute a lot of functionality to dedicated controllers on the boat and then feed them back to the ships PC.
I use the Raspberry Pi a lot for that.
For example, my chain counter is a Raspberry Pi that presents itself to the ships LAN as a web server - then any device on the boat's LAN/WiFi can view the chain count.
But not all the devices are Raspberry Pi
Ancam (the anchor camera) is an IP camera that feeds directly to the PC.
And Openplotter would introduce extra complication so I simply run OpenCPN directly on the ships PC.
But other Raspberry Pis exist on the boat. For example Audio - 3 zones exposing themselves on Bluetooth and WiFi Audio for music etc.
Although the boat has NMEA 2000, I prefer to interface more simply using the old serial NMEA 0183.
The ships PC receives Raymarine data that way to obtain speed, depth, heading and AIS etc
There are also spare GPS feeds into the ships PC.
Initially, the ships PC ran Windows but these days everything is Linux based.
The concept is to keep the Raymarine system as it was initially installed (just feeding signals out to the PC).
The end result is two completely separate systems that can be used independently.
The Raymarine is a G Series glass bridge system so the displays aren't plotters - just marine quality monitors that take feeds from Raymarine, the PC and docking cameras etc. Raymarine functionality is done in two black boxes (GPMs).

Back to the relevance of this thread.
My point is that if you are going to use a central system, why not make it a PC that can be used for other useful stuff as well.
 
I had assumed you were referencing a boat controller similar to the Dockmate system.

I imagine many other normal people would assume the same. Being only partially IT literate the product mentioned wouldn’t be on my radar. Although by all accounts it possibly would be on the boat’s radar.
 
This is not like dockmate which send commands to the engines and rudder control to position a boat. I'm refering to an electronic box that will convert analog signals like engine temperature, pressure, voltage, current and interface to any kind of sensors. It has relays, gyro for roll & pitch, LED control.

A ships computer alone would not do signal conversion, no relay, no LED control, ..., at least not the one I know.

A see a lot of needs for single devices that does only one thing but when boaters start to stitch many of them together, it can get messy.
 
It's obvious you've put a lot of work into it and it does integrate all of the elements into one neat little box. Now it was a able to run a web server outputting to a monitor, effectively a lower cost option to a Raymarine Glass Cockpit, then I'd be interested.
 
ptalbot said:
This is not like dockmate which send commands to the engines and rudder control to position a boat. I'm refering to an electronic box that will convert analog signals like engine temperature, pressure, voltage, current and interface to any kind of sensors. It has relays, gyro for roll & pitch, LED control.

A ships computer alone would not do signal conversion, no relay, no LED control, ..., at least not the one I know.

A see a lot of needs for single devices that does only one thing but when boaters start to stitch many of them together, it can get messy.
Click to expand...
The problem you have is there are two ends of the market - the top end who buy the latest matching kit, so it all plays nicely together and uses N2K sensors etc. These people have money. They already have solutions for the things you are proposing from trusted suppliers.

Then at the other end are the people who have various components cobbled together over the years. They are either of the “I’ve been fine with analogue and paper chart for 30 yrs” type of are tinkerers who like to make stuff work together etc. That last group sound like they should be your target market? But they already have solutions in the form of a raspberry pi, openplotter, etc. not only do they not like spending money (or don’t have any!) but many of them actually enjoy messing around themselves. You might find there is some niche group who want this capability, haven’t worked out how to do it and are actually willing to spend money BUT don’t underestimate the customer support requirements of that group.
 
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