OPEN CPN Computer Requirements

[Bill O]

Red Roo,
Seriously look at a RPi. They are well supported on the OCPN and OPlotter platforms.
Here's our write up of our nav. system and we integrated our AP using another wireless connection w/a Pi Zero W. Works really well.


Bill O.

[NahanniV]

I have an appollo lake based laptop with 32G soild state drive (emmc) that holds win10 opencpn and all my charts.

It was $100.CDN. And works very well, except no space for any other programs unless you add an SSD; it has a slot for that.

I connect it to my instruments by WiFi.

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by CarCode

I have heard blueman from ubuntu xenial universe (2.0.4-1ubuntu2) might work with Mint.

it works with mint but not on my old machine. I heard the dell bluetooth implementation was proprietary. but soon I will have a new computer.

[Tupaia]

I run an ASRock Beebox N3010 2GB with 250GB SSD on the boat dedicated to navigation.

If you are concerned about battery life or power consumption.

The more RAM you put in the more power you will consume. Similarly for processors an i7 will consume more than a i5 or i3 or in my case Intel N3000

I had recurring problems using Win 10 (updates, virtual ports, network radar) I bought Win 7 Pro licenses for all our PC's.

The only problem I had was with a Win10 HP laptop that does not have Win 7 device drivers, their support was very unhelpful. Sold that and replaced with an ACER seems bullet proof. Some older PC's have a less than wonderful implementation of OpenGL that is needed to run 3G and 4G radars.

Currently experimenting with Linux (Win 7 support ending soon).

[Bill O]

I like the ASRock Beebox series, especially the newer version of yours w/the quad core Pentium. If we were doing some serious computer work, I would spring the extra $$ for the increased speed and RAM.

Will admit the graphics could be faster. but think the RPi 3B is acceptable for a dedicated navigation computer. With a larger micro SD card, one can load up most if not all available digital charts of the world, but when too many charts loaded up w/quilting on, it can bog down the RPi a little. The solution is easy, simply turn off the quilting.

We've been working w/a SDR RPi application and you need a separate RPi to run it as it needs all the processor available in the 3B to run the SDR program. The ASRock would be better, but so far the 3B can handle it as long as you have all the heat sinks installed and mini fans running for extra cooling.
The ASRock maybe in our future if we add more to the nav. Pi (e.g. radar), but so far the RPi has been working well.


Bill O.

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by Bill O

I like the ASRock Beebox series, especially the newer version of yours w/the quad core Pentium. If we were doing some serious computer work, I would spring the extra $$ for the increased speed and RAM.
Bill O.

As I said for every giveth the is a taketh away. The TDP (6W) on the Quad Core N31**/ N3050 series is 1.5 times that of the Dual core N3000/N3010 series at 4W and it produces more heat that means fans that means extra power consumption.

[Captain Graham]

Originally Posted by Red Roo

Greetings,
After some issues last year with my boat laptop I am looking to purchase a cheap-ish laptop to be purely used as a back up for OPEN CPN should my main solid state hard drive fail again.
My question is; what are the minimum operating system, core processing requirements and storage size needed on a laptop purely to run OPEN CPN?
And is a solid state hard drive necessary?
Many Thanks
Red Roo

I have the same question but
1. I would like it to be portable/stand alone.
So I can use it when I am delivering other peoples boats.
2. Check my emails.

Does anyone have an opinion on the following

1. Operating System (windows, linux, etc)
2. Mouse or Touchpad
3. GPS receiver options (UBS or WIFI)
4. AIS receiver options (UBS or WIFI)
5. Low power consumption / long battery life.
6. 12 Volt DC Power supply so I can plug it the boats power.

[Reefmagnet]

Originally Posted by Captain Graham

I have the same question but
1. I would like it to be portable/stand alone.
So I can use it when I am delivering other peoples boats.
2. Check my emails.

Does anyone have an opinion on the following

1. Operating System (windows, linux, etc)
2. Mouse or Touchpad
3. GPS receiver options (UBS or WIFI)
4. AIS receiver options (UBS or WIFI)
5. Low power consumption / long battery life.
6. 12 Volt DC Power supply so I can plug it the boats power.

Any laptop should run openCPN without issue. It does run on an RPi after all. I'd suggest getting a better quality used laptop though. Maybe something like a toughbook although any decent metal chassis machine will do. The older core 2 models with 2Gb memory are fine and the things can take a beating. Install Linux, a 128Gb SSD drive and perhaps grab a toughbook with inbuilt gps and you'll have one sweet system.

[Moo]

The Raspberry PI v4 is now out and look awesome. It is available in 1, 2 and 4GB onboard memory versions. Basically close to desktop performance. Base price is the same as version 3. Will get my hands on one later in the year when distribution gets to NZ