OpenCPN Runs on Embedded ARM

[muttnik]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

What graphics processor? looks like broadcom again... probably better to use bananna pi, unless the drivers have improved to work in windowing systems.

From wikipedia:

The new computer board was initially available only in one configuration (Model B) and featured a quad-core Broadcom BCM2836 (ARMv7) CPU with a VideoCore IV dual-core GPU

Wasn't there some iffy-ness about drivers/documentation for gpio/software sources for the banana pi or did I imagine that and it's all fine?

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by travellerw

Damn.. I swore I wouldn't get sucked into trying to build a low power ships PC..... but I just couldn't resist..

So... It looks like I will be adding a completely different hardware to the mix. I decided on the Radxa Rock Pro. Its a bit more money than a Raspberry, Cubie or Banana but has the features to back up the cost. 8mb of onboard NAND for the OSs, quad core 1.6ghz CPU, 2GB of RAM, Bluetooth to name a few.

Of course I will be trying to get OpenCPN to run on it. I'm hoping with the horsepower and OpenGL ES support that OpenCPN will run smooth. We will see. I will post back once it arrives and I've had a play around with it.

Originally Posted by travellerw

I just don't see the point of the board computer.. Why not just use the tablets to serve that function.. A modern tablet only draws about 4W when the screen is off and the processor is running at low power.. Ultimately it will be lower power than a board computer feeding other tablets and portable devices.


It seems like a lot of messing around for not a lot of gain (other than bigger screen), and I'm coming from and IT and EE background, I like screwing around..

Ha ! Welcome to the club.

Plus a cheap knock off tablet and surface pro !

Radxa Rock Pro with Quad core CPU and Quad core Video, looks like a bit better specs than the CubieTruck. Will be interested to hear how it works. I don't think we are even using the dual core video yet on the Cubie.

Cheers,
JM.

[seandepagnier]

we are using the dual core on the cubie for both cpu and graphics hardware. The video drivers automatically use all the gpu cores.

The broadcom drivers for the raspberry pi suck because they don't support window systems, so the toolbar becomes invisible in opencpn. If this isn't fixed, then it probably won't be much good.

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

we are using the dual core on the cubie for both cpu and graphics hardware. The video drivers automatically use all the gpu cores.

The broadcom drivers for the raspberry pi suck because they don't support window systems, so the toolbar becomes invisible in opencpn. If this isn't fixed, then it probably won't be much good.

I was under the impression that the r3p0 mali driver only used one core,
and that the r3p2 mali driver used both; All the images I have used so far have had the r3p0 driver.

Cheers,
JM.

[conachair]

raspberry pi goes quad core with 1G ram... for the same price

Introducing the Raspberry Pi 2 | Hackaday

[travellerw]

Originally Posted by NahanniV

Ha ! Welcome to the club.

Plus a cheap knock off tablet and surface pro !

Radxa Rock Pro with Quad core CPU and Quad core Video, looks like a bit better specs than the CubieTruck. Will be interested to hear how it works. I don't think we are even using the dual core video yet on the Cubie.

Cheers,
JM.

Ya... You can take the guy out of IT and EE....but.... you know how the story goes.

Actually, what really interests me is to come up with a complete solution for OpenCPN (hardware and software). If the Radxa offers solid performance, then my plan is to design a case and controls (joystick, wheel and buttons) for it, including screen. I'm trying to mimic a true chartplotter more closely.

Plus my math on the power consumption showed I might be able to 1/2 the required power when compared to a MS surface. I'm probably picking nits here though, 15W vs 30W, both are still pretty low when compared to a laptop.

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by travellerw

Ya... You can take the guy out of IT and EE....but.... you know how the story goes.

Actually, what really interests me is to come up with a complete solution for OpenCPN (hardware and software). If the Radxa offers solid performance, then my plan is to design a case and controls (joystick, wheel and buttons) for it, including screen. I'm trying to mimic a true chartplotter more closely.

Plus my math on the power consumption showed I might be able to 1/2 the required power when compared to a MS surface. I'm probably picking nits here though, 15W vs 30W, both are still pretty low when compared to a laptop.

What screen are you thinking of ?

[travellerw]

Originally Posted by NahanniV

What screen are you thinking of ?

I have a couple of options in mind.
1. A standard E-bay 10" screen
2. A salvaged laptop screen (15"). I have access to tons of 2 - 3 year old laptops so I'm leaning in this direction.

I'm %90 sure that the driver boards used on the E-bay screens will work with most laptop screens. So I'm going to start with that screen for prototyping.

My biggest problem is I no longer have access to a lasercutter or 3D printer. So I'm gonna have to get creative in making the case. Maybe a fiberglass layup.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by NahanniV

I was under the impression that the r3p0 mali driver only used one core,
and that the r3p2 mali driver used both; All the images I have used so far have had the r3p0 driver.

Cheers,
JM.

You may be right. In any case it has nothing to do with what's in opencpn, and if you get this dual core driver opencpn could use it.

Originally Posted by travellerw

Ya... You can take the guy out of IT and EE....but.... you know how the story goes.

Actually, what really interests me is to come up with a complete solution for OpenCPN (hardware and software). If the Radxa offers solid performance, then my plan is to design a case and controls (joystick, wheel and buttons) for it, including screen. I'm trying to mimic a true chartplotter more closely.

Plus my math on the power consumption showed I might be able to 1/2 the required power when compared to a MS surface. I'm probably picking nits here though, 15W vs 30W, both are still pretty low when compared to a laptop.

Are you kidding? my computer only uses 8 watts idle 18 watts full load and it's an intel dual core haswell.

The embedded arm boards typically use 2-3 watts, but maybe as much as 10 with all 4 cores maxed out.

Originally Posted by travellerw

I have a couple of options in mind.
1. A standard E-bay 10" screen
2. A salvaged laptop screen (15"). I have access to tons of 2 - 3 year old laptops so I'm leaning in this direction.

I'm %90 sure that the driver boards used on the E-bay screens will work with most laptop screens. So I'm going to start with that screen for prototyping.

My biggest problem is I no longer have access to a lasercutter or 3D printer. So I'm gonna have to get creative in making the case. Maybe a fiberglass layup.

What about adding more leds to increase the brightness of the backlight?

[travellerw]

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

You may be right. In any case it has nothing to do with what's in opencpn, and if you get this dual core driver opencpn could use it.



Are you kidding? my computer only uses 8 watts idle 18 watts full load and it's an intel dual core haswell.

The embedded arm boards typically use 2-3 watts, but maybe as much as 10 with all 4 cores maxed out.



What about adding more leds to increase the brightness of the backlight?

I was talking peak watts when running something like a video.

I'd be very surprised if those numbers were accurate, sounds like marketing numbers to me. I'v done a bunch of tests on the MS Surface and its no where near those numbers. Sure it can go as low as 8w when sitting at a white screen with absolutely nothing opened (under 2w when sleeping). Running a video will push the watts up to about 24. A completely black screen pushes it to about 30w.

An important thing to remember is that is ALL IN WATTS on a Surface. It includes all perhipherals and the screen.

With the Radxa, the screen will be on top of the base computer. Its pretty common to see an older LED screen draw around 10W at max brightness running all black. So around 15W for both the screen and the Radxa (worst case).

So if we assume that average watts over time will be about 1/2 those values, then napkin math shows that a Radxa computer will draw about 1/2 the power consumption.

As to increasing screen brighness. Its probably easiest to just replace the factory backlighting with a backlight kit. The kits I have used in the past can have the LEDS cranked to a pretty high brightness. Pretty cheap mod for about $15-$20.

[seandepagnier]

Originally Posted by travellerw

I was talking peak watts when running something like a video.

And the peak watts for dual core arm is around 5 watts, but running a video won't use that much since it has hardware decoders.

I'd be very surprised if those numbers were accurate, sounds like marketing numbers to me.

I have measured myself a draw of 0.2 amps from 12 volts idle, and 0.4 amps with full cpu.

See this:
Meet the Cubietruck (aka Cubieboard3) | Digits Domotica Blog

(under 2w when sleeping).

I have heard they can sleep at 8mW, but that is theoretical because the software isn't in place yet.. currently it's a few hundred milliwatts.

An important thing to remember is that is ALL IN WATTS on a Surface. It includes all perhipherals and the screen.

This is including a ssd sata drive but nothing else.

With the Radxa, the screen will be on top of the base computer. Its pretty common to see an older LED screen draw around 10W at max brightness running all black. So around 15W for both the screen and the Radxa (worst case).

I have a 7 inch display that runs around 3 watts, and the driver board to convert hdmi not the backlight gets really hot so I think if you had an lvds screen it would be under 1 watt. Larger screen like 12 inch would be 2-3 watts I imagine.

As to increasing screen brighness. Its probably easiest to just replace the factory backlighting with a backlight kit. The kits I have used in the past can have the LEDS cranked to a pretty high brightness. Pretty cheap mod for about $15-$20.

Good idea, and probably increases efficiency too.

[mattkab]

Regarding Raspberry Pi 2:

Originally Posted by boat_alexandra

What graphics processor? looks like broadcom again... probably better to use bananna pi, unless the drivers have improved to work in windowing systems.

Side note: I got really busy with work the past few weeks, actually building a product using Raspberry Pi boards, but my time should open back up again.

But I just ordered 5 RPi2 boards. I'll run a quick OCPN test and give some feedback once they arrive.

[travellerw]

Originally Posted by mattkab

Regarding Raspberry Pi 2:



Side note: I got really busy with work the past few weeks, actually building a product using Raspberry Pi boards, but my time should open back up again.

But I just ordered 5 RPi2 boards. I'll run a quick OCPN test and give some feedback once they arrive.

Damn.. You must have been up early.. I was not able to find them in stock anywhere after 8:30am this morning..

[NahanniV]

Originally Posted by travellerw

I was talking peak watts when running something like a video.

I'd be very surprised if those numbers were accurate, sounds like marketing numbers to me. I'v done a bunch of tests on the MS Surface and its no where near those numbers. Sure it can go as low as 8w when sitting at a white screen with absolutely nothing opened (under 2w when sleeping). Running a video will push the watts up to about 24. A completely black screen pushes it to about 30w.

An important thing to remember is that is ALL IN WATTS on a Surface. It includes all perhipherals and the screen.

With the Radxa, the screen will be on top of the base computer. Its pretty common to see an older LED screen draw around 10W at max brightness running all black. So around 15W for both the screen and the Radxa (worst case).

So if we assume that average watts over time will be about 1/2 those values, then napkin math shows that a Radxa computer will draw about 1/2 the power consumption.

As to increasing screen brighness. Its probably easiest to just replace the factory backlighting with a backlight kit. The kits I have used in the past can have the LEDS cranked to a pretty high brightness. Pretty cheap mod for about $15-$20.

I don't understand what the significance of "completely black screen" is to power consumption of an LCD display ?

Thanks,
JM.

[Aikiguy]

The screen on an lcd screen is naturally clear, to get it to black it has to be powered to get it there. The most power hungry mode for an LCD screen is complete black.