Advantages of SignalK on separate device

[Ryban]

Currently I have SignalK running on the miniPC that I have running OpenCPN, but I'm wondering if there are convincing advantages to having it run on a dedicated RaspberryPi that's on the network?

I have both NMEA0183 data coming in through dongles, NMEA 2K data coming in over WiFi, Victron data coming in over WiFi from VenusOS, and in the future I''ll have additional data coming in for fuel and water level sensors, probably directly to SignalK over WiFi.

[barcoMeCasa]

A few spring to mind, though not sure how much your miniPC draws. . Power, easy of setup, easy of update & have a system very well tested where it's all known to play well together. https://openplotter.readthedocs.io/en/3.x.x/

I've a Pi3 where never ever gets turned off. And a spare sd card/Pi should there be a failure. Been running Pi's & openplotter for years and it's rock solid but first time for everything..
Great having access to the data on wifi, one thing that I fitted recently was an ancient mobile phone so close to being thrown out by the companionway so in a moment you can see exactly where the anchor is. Basically free pulling next to no power.

And using openplotter you are part of a fairly large community so if any issues come up there's help available & they want to know if anything doesn't play nice with everything else, let openplotter deal with installing the software so everyone has a similar system.
Pi3 is fast enough to run opencpn though maybe a bit slow for some, it never gets turned off which is just great in the anchorage, know the hook is where it was.

Mostly I still use a windows laptop to view the Pi over wifi, it will run radar fine as well, this is the laptop, great that opencpn has a dashboard for signalk data now>


And just changed the anchor alarm sound(turn on sound)

https://i.imgur.com/XIpRHPl.mp4

Lots of that is signalk which you might know already, openplotter puts it all in one place. Unfortunately there is some doom and gloom online about how difficult it is (it's not, read the instructions and stick to them) or "I wouldn't trust one of those toys" (why not, it's proven rock solid to years on end)

[Ryban]

Haha, love the alarm sound.

I think you made a good point about power consumption and being always-on. I think the mini PC does consume more power than a RaspberryPi would, and because I'm using Grafana as well, it would be nice to be collecting data 24/7 from instruments that are providing it, like the shunt and solar chargers.

VenusOS, which I currently have running on a Pi, actually has a built-in SignalK server that can be enabled, but because VenusOS is a standalone package, you really don't have a lot of control when it comes to updating the system. I think it might make sense to get another Pi in the mix dedicated to SignalK.

Are you using OpenPlotter because it just has everything you need pre-bundled? Is there a reason I should install OpenPlotter on the device rather than just SignalK and Grafana? I guess access to features like the always-on anchor alarm and redundant chart plotter are good selling points.