Raspberry Pi / Screen Choices

[syPhilos]

Hi all!

We've recently bought a Raspberry Pi (3 B+) and so far I'm having a lot of fun playing around with it

Installing OpenCPN was easy, very happy with that! Using a tablet in the cockpit should be doable too, but now we face a choice as to what kind of screen to use inside, at the nav table.

We currently have no screen available, but could install a small monitor/TV at the chart table (which has a few perks but would also be a little in the way at times) or take out our old plotter and replace it with a RPi screen like this one: https://www.kiwi-electronics.nl/rasp...1-inch?lang=en if it fits (boat is being refitted and currently being spraypainted so can't have a quick look to make sure it'll fit).

Any tips, advise, pro's and cons to these choices? We're leaning towards the small screen we can build into our nav corner, but maybe a larger TV would be better to comfortably work with OpenCPN?

Many thanks in advance!

[MartinR]

I use an 15" screen, no touch. For me the 10" screen I have on my Surface was too small. Mostly, I am too lazy to use my reading glasses, bigger screen helps.

[conachair]

I use a samsung 19" 12v monitor, well mostly iy stays off and use vnc from the laptop. Nav is an android tablet in the cockpit.

Have you tried the openplotter image?
Sailing with free hardware | Sailoog


Everything set up for you already with the wonderful signalk installed.

[syPhilos]

Originally Posted by MartinR

I use an 15" screen, no touch. For me the 10" screen I have on my Surface was too small. Mostly, I am too lazy to use my reading glasses, bigger screen helps.

Yeah, we've reached the 'reading glasses needed' stage too ...
But we can still manage using our tablet so we should be ok with 10" minimum - and glasses

Originally Posted by conachair

Have you tried the openplotter image?
Sailing with free hardware | Sailoog

Yes, but we'd only use OpenCPN and the headless option with the Android tablet in the cockpit, and both are already up and running.

OpenPlotter looks amazing, but seems a bit "overkill" for just OpenCPN - but we could be missing something?

[conachair]

Originally Posted by syPhilos

OpenPlotter looks amazing, but seems a bit "overkill" for just OpenCPN - but we could be missing something?

Missing signalk
And a graphical front end for kplex to multiplex whatever data sources you have. Not sure there's a downside, the Pi3 can easily cope with it running in the background.

[Bill O]

In our nav station setup we have a 21" led monitor and in the cockpit/anywhere around the boat we use a 11.5" tablet.
The larger screen in the nav station is nice if you have an articulating mount so it can be positioned to view while in other parts of cabin (if needed). A tv could also do the dual purpose of the nav monitor w/the HDMI. It comes down where you can fit the monitor in the cabin, be useful and not look like the elephant in the room.
Similarly, the larger tablet screen in the cockpit can be seen from further away rather than a tiny screen attempting to discern objects.


Bill O.

[bokakob]

Just my opinion is that the bigger the screen --> the more sluggish is pan/zoom/video playback operations. If one would use a small window on the larger screen, graphics would work faster, but then why getting a big screen in the first place?

[Reefmagnet]

I use a usb powered / HDMI input 13" 2K "portable" screen. Not touch capable, but very low powered and not much thicker than a tablet. I mounted it to a bulkhead using a 10" tablet holder so I can still use it as a portable second screen for my laptop when traveling. It's branded "Eyoyo", sourced from Ebay and is excellent quality.

[Reefmagnet]

Originally Posted by bokakob

Just my opinion is that the bigger the screen --> the more sluggish is pan/zoom/video playback operations. If one would use a small window on the larger screen, graphics would work faster, but then why getting a big screen in the first place?

You can configure the Pi to a lower resolution in config.txt and this acts like a scaled mode. Just need to keep the aspect ratio correct.

[Reefmagnet]

Originally Posted by conachair

Missing signalk
And a graphical front end for kplex to multiplex whatever data sources you have. Not sure there's a downside, the Pi3 can easily cope with it running in the background.

And Kplex in Openplotter is also worthy of special mention if you're trying to integrate multiple NMEA 0183 sources onto an NMEA 2000 bus, or getting NMEA data onto a wired or wireless network. And it also has simple but effective NMEA diagnostics.

[syPhilos]

For now at least, we're only looking to feed the AIS data (and GPS signal) to OpenCPN. We're buying Vesper's Watchmate XB-8000, which should be compatible.

We can fit a 12" screen, so we're probably going with that. Anything larger would have to be installed on the nav table itself, which will look like the elephant in the room Bill O mentioned

We've always been happy not to have a TV on the boat, and we've decided to stick with the 'no TV on the boat' situation ... Kinda nice to just sit in the cockpit and chat or play cards instead of being glued to a sceeen

Thanks so much for all the replies!

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by syPhilos

We've always been happy not to have a TV on the boat, and we've decided to stick with the 'no TV on the boat' situation ... Kinda nice to just sit in the cockpit and chat or play cards instead of being glued to a screen

My parents called it being "glued to the nut box".

Will agree about the TV. While we have one onboard (camouflaged and tucked away), we rarely watch it and spend more time in the cockpit. In the late fall or a rainy evening at anchor, we may have a movie night (again rare). Everyone has their priorities, but we like to look at art work as a primary bulkhead centerpiece than a TV.


Bill O.