Hardware choices today

[Oldwheels]

Gentlemen, ladies, and sailors being a third species.

I have been following this forum for quite some time and been playing with Open CPN on my laptop.
Now it time to run this on my boat. Quickly in reading the threads there is a myriad of home cooked set up running. \What hardware would you set up and buy today?
Visable monitor in the cockpit.
10 to 14 inch screen

Current stuff
0183 NMEA RAymarine instruments and autohelm
ST60 RAymarine discrete instruments

[Moo]

Originally Posted by Oldwheels

Visable monitor in the cockpit.
10 to 14 inch screen

Cheap industrial PC down below. Dual monitors plugged in by HDMI one down below and one in the cockpit. Bluetooth trackball in the cockpit and trackball and keyboard down below. Industrial PCs usually have serial ports so you can basically just plug in NMEA0183. Your raymarine is probably Seatalk rather than NMEA0183 so you will need to convert that.

[sailingjazz]

I use a cheap Best Buy tablet (Win10) at the helm and a laptop down below (the laptop is usually not running when underway). My helm is outside under a Bimini. I have an iMux multiplexer which interfaces to my Raymarine instruments and a Actisense NGW-1 interface to my autopilot. The tablet and laptop connect via wifi. I'm not saying this is optimal, but has worked for me for Great Lakes voyaging for the past 7 years.

Cheers
Kevin

[Oldwheels]

I was thinking of running a pie computer and wifi this to a monitor in the helm.

What monitor are you running?
12V -18V DC converter for the pie?

Or do you run a stand alone in the helm with GPS running Open CPN?

I would like a 10" screen at least preferably a 12. Any ideals on whom?
All the better tablets I see are Android and open CPN does not run on android.

[AedanC]

[QUOTE=Oldwheels;3281385
All the better tablets I see are Android and open CPN does not run on android.[/QUOTE]


I think you'll find it does run on Android quite nicely.

[sv_pelagia]

runs on Android VERY nicely!

[sv_pelagia]

We have AIS and depth/wind/speedo out on WIFI (via TwinYakker) and have Android tablet running OpenCPN in cockpit (showing CHS charts and AIS).

(We also have Furuno with "up to date" CMAP... but we prefer to simultaneously see official CHS charts on OpenCPN... plus some satellite "charts" in some poorly charted areas.)

[CarCode]

Originally Posted by Oldwheels

All the better tablets I see are Apple and open CPN does not run on iOS.

I corrected your message a little bit...

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

We have AIS and depth/wind/speedo out on WIFI (via TwinYakker) and have Android tablet running OpenCPN in cockpit (showing CHS charts and AIS).

(We also have Furuno with "up to date" CMAP... but we prefer to simultaneously see official CHS charts on OpenCPN... plus some satellite "charts" in some poorly charted areas.)

Would OpenCPN run with CMaps on an Android tablet (I suspect it would), if so which tablet would be best? We use iPad in our normal operations but OpenCPN doesn’t run on Apple (or does it nowadays?).

On edit: Nah, just checked on Apple’s AppStore, doesn’t even list OpenCPN

[Donnybrook]

Have you considered a Chromebook? After using a Windows 10" tablet on the boat for 4+ years I plan to upgrade to a 14" 2-1 Chromebook. I got OpenCPN 5 (Linux) working well on my Dell Inspiron 2-1 Chromebook. Advantages I see are a better touch interface, more reliable operation (I don't like Windows patching) and ability to run Android apps. Android apps offer simplicity and touch pad optimization. I'm also hoping power consumption will be less.

I was thinking about going the Raspberry PI route but decided against because of complexity, mobility and cost. I hope to spend less than $300 for a 2-1 Chromebook with 14" display. I will be careful to get a better processor to avoid linux compatibility problems.

For data interface I use a Yacht Devices NMEA 2000 gateway. Yacht Devices and other companies also make NMEA 0183 wireless gateways to get data to your devices.

Originally Posted by Oldwheels

Gentlemen, ladies, and sailors being a third species.

I have been following this forum for quite some time and been playing with Open CPN on my laptop.
Now it time to run this on my boat. Quickly in reading the threads there is a myriad of home cooked set up running. \What hardware would you set up and buy today?
Visable monitor in the cockpit.
10 to 14 inch screen

Current stuff
0183 NMEA RAymarine instruments and autohelm
ST60 RAymarine discrete instruments

[Oldwheels]

So I got a Dragon touch tablet for $100. There is a 3gb version for a little more. Both have built in GPS.
I originally got a Samsung tablet A but after going thru 2 of them in days because they would not hold connection with the wifi. They are now at SAmsung for evaluation.

The Dragon touch works nicely and we have a a reasonable case for protection. Open CPN runs well. CHeap enough to have 2 on board.
I do run under a hard top bimini.

So now i have Open CPN on 3 devices, I sailor on 2 devices and soon CPN net working on Pie4. SLow and confusing process for an old dog learning new tricks.