OpenCPN Rasberry Pi Display

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by transmitterdan

VNC and SSH are as reliable as a directly connected screen. Once you get the RPi configured you don’t need any directly connected display. If you need a display any handy HDMI monitor will work. Wireless keyboard with touchpad or trackball is an ok idea too. Plug in the USB dongle and you have regular keyboard and mouse.

But really you can just use VNC and run it from an iPad in full screen mode.

Good to know. I think I will get an RPi in the offseason and start playing with it. Seems like an RPi running headless would be a good boat solution. No cables to run and mobility. I think I would use my existing tablet plus another dedicated one for the boat. This gives me some redundancy should one fail.

[Reefmagnet]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

How reliable to you find headless operation to be? Any common problems?

I like the idea of at least one hard wired display just in case and other, like my tablet wireless.

I have a NUC connected to a monitor and keyboard at the navigation station, but access openCPN and other openplotter stuff from the RPi with either the Nuc, a couple of 10 inch tablets or my phone. Mostly done with either VNC or via the Web server.

It's fine using realVNC as the client. Used at full screen on a pc it's essentially the same as if you're connected to the computer directly. It'll even reconnect automatically if you reboot the host. The phone and tablet version of realvnc appears a bit funky at first, but I've found that it starts to make sense with a little bit of use.

Originally, I had a dual hdmi switch for sharing the monitor, but have since deep sixed this now and use vnc exclusively (and don't forget this solves the mouse and keyboard issue, too). It is possible that boot failure or OS reinstall will need connecting to a monitor and keyboard directly, but this should not be a regular requirement.

Anyway, it's super simple to try. The software is freely downloadable.

Edit: just noted my tablet corrected "VNC" to "VPN" in my earlier post. Definitely don't need VPN unless a member of the tin foil hat brigade!