12vdc Marine Computers

[sbfreddie]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Freddie, you are a wealth of knowledge on this. What do you use all of these for? Would they run Opencpn at all? (You would not have shading for Grib and Climatology etc). They draw a bit more power because of the quad cores don't they? What is the potential of someone building the drivers for Opengl and are these decent graphics processors?

Rick:
Here are my answers:

What do you use all of these for?

I am trying to find a suitable replacement for all my Macs that use less power and are less expensive. Mostly I'm just a bored old man with not much else to do.

Would they run Opencpn at all?

Yes, they do run OpenCPN and they give pretty good performance as well. I can't tell much difference between my Quad-core Mac Pro and the Quad-core Wandboard when it comes to OpenCPN. I also have built and used GNURadio on the Wandboard and its pretty good for an ARM board.

They draw a bit more power because of the quad cores don't they?

They do draw a little more power than the CubieTruck, my Wandboard uses a maximum of 10 Watts when its using all four processors to build something with GCC. This is also including the fan and the 256G SSD.

What is the potential of someone building the drivers for Opengl and are these decent graphics processors?

Someone has built the drivers for Vivante and built an image, but I have not been able to get it working on the Wandboard yet. The Vivante 2000 GP is quite a bit faster than the MALI-400 in all the tests I have seen, so this Quad-core Wandboard will be a very good choice in the future when the Kernel and Debian images get to the point of integrating the GP libs into mainline ARM.

Thanks,
Freddie

[rgleason]

On the Wandboard Quad Cortex A9 Freddie:

I also have built and used GNURadio on the Wandboard and its pretty good for an ARM board.

Is that an application that will readily on Cubieboard3 ?
I'd like to get to that point with SSB and Weatherfax etc.

Also where are the best instructions for installing Linux on Cubieboard 3?

Thanks.

[rgleason]

Sean reports http://opencpn.org/ocpn/node/299

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[rgleason]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

My cubie truck measures 0.3 amps (0.2 idle) at 12 volts. The performance is better than an intel atom netbook.

Building and installing on Cubieboard 2 with HW acceleration | Official OpenCPN Homepage

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[rgleason]

Would the Cubieboard 2 install instructions apply to CubieTruck (Cubieboard3) since it is the same processor etc?

[Lake-Effect]

Still lurking, but quite interested. I've got a pair of Raspberry Pi's to play with, as well as some early ASUS eee's (handy but power pigs). This cubietruck looks very interesting.

(unrelated question to anyone here - I recently got my hands on an old Garmin GPS220, which has a SHARP LQ series daylight-readable display. Does anyone have practical experience interfacing a single-board computer to this sort of display?Google hasn't yet divulged this secret. I'm thinking that putting something like a rpi or cubietruck into this case, driving the SHARP display, would be a kick-ass marine PC. )

[sbfreddie]

Originally Posted by rgleason

On the Wandboard Quad Cortex A9 Freddie:

Is that an application that will readily on Cubieboard3 ?
I'd like to get to that point with SSB and Weatherfax etc.

Also where are the best instructions for installing Linux on Cubieboard 3?

Thanks.

Rick:
Yes, GNURadio will run on the CubieTruck, although it isn't particular fast for doing Software Defined Radio (SDR) stuff, it seems to work fine with the RTLSDR dongles.

What version of Linux are you interested in? I have used several different flavors and so far have found the Qbee-X (Ubuntu 12.04.1) using the LXDE desktop to be the most responsive. Next in line would be Aruntu (Ubuntu 13.10) with the LXDE desktop. Aruntu has a lot more bells and whistles than Qbee-X but Qbee-X is faster by about 15%.

I have pretty complete instructions written down if you would like to have them for Qbee-X and Aruntu. I'm presently working on a script to do all the heavy lifting of preparing the CubieTruck for OpenCPN, including updating, installing all necessary stuff to make it more useful, and installing the OpenGL-ES2 stuff in the correct places to give best performance for OpenCPN.

Thanks,
Freddie

[rgleason]

Freddie I believe you are recommending lxde with Qbee-x Ubuntu 12.04 which is very close to what I have on my linux virtual machine. That sounds fine to me. I will wait for your work to appear but if I get a cubietruck before I'll let you know and perhaps I can give the install a test for you.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by NahanniV

I cant even find the Cubbie Truck board, that I think you are refering to, for less than $100 in North America !

It is true that this is a cubie truck pictured, I don't actually know how much they cost, however my price argument is considering there are many alternatives which have the same processor and mali graphics hardware.

Consider the bananna pi.

Originally Posted by rgleason

Your display is like Adafruit 7" Display 1280x800 (720p) IPS + Speakers - HDMI/VGA/NTSC/PAL $170 How visible in sunlight? Need a shade on 3 sides, or in cabin?

Thanks Rick

It's the same display, but I got on ebay for much cheaper. Unfortunately the driver board gets very hot, so it probably isn't as efficient as it could be.

It can't be used if direct sunlight is on the screen, so it requires the screen to be shaded, but it is very bright, and also very high density at 1280x800 for such a small screen.


As for keyboard.. I guess I'm cheating by ssh into it and using the keyboard that way.. but I have considered a small keypad.. maybe we can start a project to design a usb keyboard specifically for opencpn use. A small microprocessor (avr) can easily emulate this, and bitbang usb for a keyboard making the cost to produce very low. I can autocalibrate the rc oscillator to avoid needing a crystal.. so the cost is only $2 plus the membrane keypad plus enclosure.

[bfloyd4445]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

For $50 you can get an arm board that uses 2-3 watts of power. For $30 you can get a 7 inch lcd display with high brightness backlight. Another $25 for a usb gps (much better than a tablet gps because it can be strategically placed) and and for $3 a 12 volt to 5 volt high efficiency converter.

For a total cost of $108, you have a complete chart plotter with hardware accelerated graphics which runs opencpn at 30 frames per second smooth and responsive, with power consumption at 4 watts with maximum brightness.

All of the components can be reused in future systems as this is a modular setup.

My setup also allows me to serve gps data over wifi. It also can drive the speakers so any other computer can play music without having to plug into them or need a separate bluetooth adaptor.

Finally, it can rebroadcast over wifi the wifi or 3g signals which it received from a usb extension cable to the strategically placed (can automatically track with directional antennas) adaptor.

great job thanks. What's an arm board? Can it drive a 15 inch display?

[sbfreddie]

Originally Posted by bfloyd4445

great job thanks. What's an arm board? Can it drive a 15 inch display?

bfloyd4445:
An ARM board is mostly a small, low power, circuit board Powered by an ARM Processor, generally with no case or power supply.
For instance the CubieTruck has:
ARM 7i dual processor running around 1 Gigahertz
2 G of on board Main Memory
8G of programable memory (Think EEPROM).
8 serial ports, Gigabit Ethernet, Analog audio output, 3 USB ports, Micro SDcard receptacle, IR receiver,
VGA output, HDMI output, Optical output port, SATA port, and external battery input connector.

The Rasberry Pi is an ARM 4 (I Think) with 500Mbyte of main memory, 8 serial ports,
3 USB ports, SD card receptacle, HDMI display Port, Ethernet port, Video port, and Analog audio port

There are a huge assortment of ARM boards available on the Net, such as the ones Sean mentioned above, and
many others at various price ranges starting at about $30 up to about $200.

The CubieTruck and most of the ARM boards mentioned that have a HDMI port can drive just about any modern display with an HDMI input port. Some of the ARM boards (like the Cubie2 and the Rasberry PI) can drive a LVDS type display also.
I am using an old 21 inch flat screen TV as a monitor, and it works very well.

Thanks,
Freddie

[rgleason]

Sean wrote:

It's the same display..Unfortunately the driver board gets very hot, so it probably isn't as efficient as it could be....can't be used if direct sunlight is on the screen...requires the screen to be shaded..but is very bright..very high density 1280x800 for such a small screen.

As for keyboard.. I guess I'm cheating by ssh into it and using the keyboard that way.. but I have considered a small keypad.. maybe we can start a project to design a usb keyboard specifically for opencpn use. A small microprocessor (avr) can easily emulate this, and bitbang usb for a keyboard making the cost to produce very low. I can autocalibrate the rc oscillator to avoid needing a crystal.. so the cost is only $2 plus the membrane keypad plus enclosure.

Sean you have me very curious.. how are you "ssh into it"? Are you using your laptop "to ssh into" the cubieboard via the wi-fi connection? Somehow using your laptop keyboard to control the cubieboard and opencpn?

This part sort of blew me away.

..but I have considered a small keypad.. maybe we can start a project to design a usb keyboard specifically for opencpn use. A small microprocessor (avr) can easily emulate this, and bitbang usb for a keyboard making the cost to produce very low. I can autocalibrate the rc oscillator to avoid needing a crystal.. so the cost is only $2 plus the membrane keypad plus enclosure.

Bitbang
bit bang - What is bit bang
http://www.dlpdesign.com/images/bit-bang-usb.pdf
http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Docu...01_BitBang.pdf
USB Parallel Port Bit-Bang Liberator
Drivers: libFTDI » FTDI USB driver with bitbang mode
Build a device emulator around an off the shelf Universal Serial Bridge (USB)
https://archive.org/details/Communic...alBusBridgeOCR

FTDI USB devices and BitBang - USB made simple
http://www.gms2000.de/minimikro/ftdi_usb.htm

Open source low-speed bit bang USB interface for 8bit PICs | Dangerous Prototypes

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These have USB and wi-fi so I am trying to understand what you are trying to do.... develop an Opencpn specific wi-fi keypad with arrow keys, pressure pad, enter key, escape key and what else? .. that you could hold in your hand and control Opencpn? --Nice idea.

Small wi-fi keyboard
Amazon.com: FAVI FE01-BL Mini 2.4GHz Wireless Keyboard with Mouse Touchpad (Black): Electronics

Waterproof keyboard USB
Amazon.com: Foldable Flexible Waterproof Keyboard (Black, USB 2.0, Compatible to Windows 7): Computers & Accessories
Amazon.com: LG Waterproof Keyboard WPK-300: Electronics

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Sean wrote:


Sean you have me very curious.. how are you "ssh into it"? Are you using your laptop "to ssh into" the cubieboard via the wi-fi connection? Somehow using your laptop keyboard to control the cubieboard and opencpn?

To be more specific, I run x11vnc via ssh, and use a vnc viewer. You could actually configure this on boot without using ssh.

These have USB and wi-fi so I am trying to understand what you are trying to do.... develop an Opencpn specific wi-fi keypad with arrow keys, pressure pad, enter key, escape key and what else? .. that you could hold in your hand and control Opencpn? --Nice idea.

It is just an idea. I don't have enough time to actually do most of them. Maybe using a touchscreen is a better option, however I have doubts about how easy it is to use especially when it's wet. Maybe someone can give an example of a touch screen which is easy to control dragging (for panning) when wet.

Anyway.. I know it is relatively easy to implement a keyboard using a $2 microprocessor using existing open source libraries for this.

maybe it would be convenient to have a waterproof keypad with
arrow keys
alt (work in conjunction with arrow keys and - +)
up/down chart (ctrl + left and right)
as well as many other possible keys

Maybe instead a waterproof pointer device is a better solution.

[rgleason]

x11vnc: a VNC server for real X displays
x11vnc(1) - Linux man page
X11vnc - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
HOWTO: Share desktops with x11vnc instead of Built in Remote Desktop

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Waterproof wifi/USB Mouse and Pad Devices
Man and Machine Mighty Mouse5 washable rubber scroll mouse
Rugged Technologies - Rugged sealed waterproof keyboards and mice.
Pointing Devices - iKey.COM Tough Keyboards
Eocono-Keys EK-PM washable scroll mouse
http://www.amazon.com/Seal-Shield-Wa.../dp/B0097DLSUC
Stealth Computer - industrial mouse, waterproof mouse, industrial pointing device, nema mouse, rugged mouse, rugged trackball, sealed mouse for plant floor applications
Seal Shield wireless waterproof mouse http://www.sealshield.com/

Would a voice interface work? ....no maybe not with wind involved.

[rgleason]

Best Prices on Seal Shield Washable Keyboards | Medical Keyboard | Waterproof and Dishwasher Safe Keyboards, Mice, Touchpad

http://www.ccbtechnology.com/_e/Poin...heel_Mouse.htm