YAPP production line - view from the factory floor

Hi Angus
I'll take one please if you have another PCB!
If so then please PM me payment details using paypal!

Yes, another 5 PCBs left in the current batch. The nice lady who supplies me the LCD displays must wonder what I'm on when every day for the past 4 days I've ordered another one and she has to pack it up and send it. :)
 
Angus,
Seeing you mod the software for LK1 ...
Could your Yapp take a slight change in direction and modify NMEA 0183 sentences for compatibility?
eg I have a wind instrument that cannot display True wind because there is no compatible speed sentence available, but I have sog from GPS.
 
This is something I will be working on, when I get around to it. A device that inputs GPS speed and creates a square wave signal to replace the log impeller.
Nigel:
Thats not quite what I had in mind, but I see what you mean, an alternative feed to a boat speed indicator.

What I had in mind was a sentence reformat so an SOG could be made compatible to the windy thats looking for STW.
once you have the archictecture of NMEA in and out and with Angus' message handling it could bridge some compatibility gaps and help finance Angus for his scope.

Am I mistaken or shouldn't it use SOG anyway instead of STW?

Angus:
Its shameful that two of your customers have not paid the paltry amount you are asking for an almost custom design.
 
This is something I will be working on, when I get around to it. A device that inputs GPS speed and creates a square wave signal to replace the log impeller.
Erm, perhaps I'm missing summat, but what advantage is that ... unless your GPS doesn't have a window to display SOG coincident to whatever else you have on the screen? My Garmin has the plotter chart and I can display selected data as a line above it, one of which is the speed.

I never replaced my log due to excessive paddle-wheel fouling, requiring removing and cleaning every trip - quite happy to have SOG instead of TTW. Mind you, no real tides and streams where I sail.
 
Erm, perhaps I'm missing summat, but what advantage is that ... unless your GPS doesn't have a window to display SOG coincident to whatever else you have on the screen? My Garmin has the plotter chart and I can display selected data as a line above it, one of which is the speed.

I never replaced my log due to excessive paddle-wheel fouling, requiring removing and cleaning every trip - quite happy to have SOG instead of TTW. Mind you, no real tides and streams where I sail.

thread drift I know.... but theres plenty of tide here and I manage with SOG after the skin fitting of my transducer snapped off at the hull line. I had to use the softwood bungs in a hurry.
 
What I had in mind was a sentence reformat so an SOG could be made compatible to the windy thats looking for STW...

STW is what is normally fed to the wind instrument to calculate the true wind, but of course what is really needed is SOG. Paddle wheels are a disgrace, so I plan to do away with it. If I want to know what the tidal flow is, I can use a stopwatch and a floating object.
 
Angus,
Seeing you mod the software for LK1 ...
Could your Yapp take a slight change in direction and modify NMEA 0183 sentences for compatibility?
eg I have a wind instrument that cannot display True wind because there is no compatible speed sentence available, but I have sog from GPS.

It would be very easy to do in software, but I don't have any hardware that reads or writes NMEA 0183 because I don't have kit that uses it on my boat apart from GPS mouse to VHF. It would be possible to do it on a development board, for example this one...

http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/catalog/20mhz-development-board-p-120.html

as long as you are OK with the NMEA-0183 being RS232 levels rather than RS422 which they should be. Most kit works with 232 levels.

Doing a PCB takes time and the minimum order is 10, so not worth it for a one-off.
 
At the very grave risk of offending the "don't ressurect old posts" people may I ask Angus if he can recommend a LCD with a larger font than the Fordata 16x4 THAT COULD SIMPLY REPLACE THE R/S 720-0210 he has used (eg by de-soldering the old one and re-soldering the new one). They make a 16 x 2 with each character 9.66 x 4.84 - would it be suitable?. I would prefer 16 x 4 (or even x 5) at this size but can't find any. Any suggestions? Andrew
 
At the very grave risk of offending the "don't ressurect old posts" people may I ask Angus if he can recommend a LCD with a larger font than the Fordata 16x4 THAT COULD SIMPLY REPLACE THE R/S 720-0210 he has used (eg by de-soldering the old one and re-soldering the new one). They make a 16 x 2 with each character 9.66 x 4.84 - would it be suitable?. I would prefer 16 x 4 (or even x 5) at this size but can't find any. Any suggestions? Andrew

I'm not aware of any. The display I used has the HD44780 driver. Any display that has the same (or compatible) driver chip can be directly attached, although is the size is changed from 16x4 to anything else then some small software changes are required as the adress map is slightly different.
 
This is something I will be working on, when I get around to it. A device that inputs GPS speed and creates a square wave signal to replace the log impeller.
... I see what you mean, an alternative feed to a boat speed indicator.
More importantly, to calculate the True Wind display. To fellow pedants, yes I know this is Ground Wind :)
 
Thanks Angus. As I suspected. I was planning to make the software changes (as you know I have already altered mine to not scroll as per the attached pic).
photo.jpg
My aged eyes cannot read the original font across the cabin (I could get a smaller boat) as I have now moved my chartplotter to the companionway.
I'll keep on looking and let you know how I get on. Cheers, Andrew
 
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