Onboard PC

Just a small OpenPilot update (I know you're all waiting desperately for v1 )

I am currently working to get the rendering working at a reasonably sensible speed (this will be multi-threaded), and also to get CM93/2 charts plotted. for you lucky guys with S-57, enough objects are plotted for navigation, but please remember to take your paper charts with you for reference.

Cheers,

Tim B.

 

Get a Raymarine C80 like I did. You won't regret it because it is designed to do what you want. I guarantee that PCbased stuff will fail at the first sign of salt water anywhere near them, it will cost you more and it won't work anywhere near as well if at all. Using PC based equipment on a boat is just a fantasy.

 

I have to say since moving to Singapore and having some PC's in un aircon rooms, all the hard drives have failed.
Drives are vented so it must be the humidity?
Solid state hard drives should be used on a boat I guess.
As Gonzo says the vibration is a killer.
On this commercial vessel i am on now there are 4 standard PC's on the bridge and 7 PC based other kit.
Half the drives have been replaced in 2 years

 

Normal, you're so positive I find it inspiring!

Actually, modern PC-based systems are pretty robust IF you take the time to specify them carefully and ensure that you're using the right kit for the job. Obviously you want to be looking at a completely solid state system. Putting a spinning hard-drive in a situation where you know there will be large accelerations is not really very clever.

Take care,

Tim B.

 

And if you worried about the CCT boards, you can always comformal coat them. Makes repairs just alittle bit longer if they need replacing, but in the long run more reliable.

 

To the OP: I bought the exact Zotac 230 Atom youre looking at, its superb, with an affordable SSD hard disk - no moving parts, energy usage of a few watts, plays high resolution movies due to the nvidia chip. And did I mention it was cheap?

 

Zotac Power Consumption

Are you sure the Zotac only uses a few watts. It comes with a 90 W power supply. If it only used 50 W then this is still 4 A which is excessive for a long passage by sail.

 

There is boats and there is boats. My lap top is 5 years old and lives on the boat ,hell im typing on it now. I run C map when I go out.

Most yachties do this. And its on 24 hours a day.

 

I am looking to measure it myself, it would depend on processor frequency scaling and the monitor used.. Perhaps an arm-based chip would be a reasonable future solution needing only a few milliwatts

 

Have you seen what they are putting in cars now? Mini-itx, Micro-itx. Have really cool 12v power mangement systems (wont die when you crank the motor). No parts are too expensive. Vacumme pack spares. They run real cool so you could easily marinize these these with some thermal foam and a surplus laptop heatsink(heatpipe). They also are great little entertainment systems

http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=55

Scroll down and find the "intelligent" versions.
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=10

http://cgi.ebay.com/NW-Laptop-Cooli...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item562bf95f08

 

I would prefer a laptop in a waterproof case (such as Pelican) with a dessicant, a SSD drive and a remote USB monitor in the cockpit (in some custom designed plastic cover).

 

Does a current laptop cpu operate cool enough to not need some way to remove the heat from such a closed case?

 

A concern on some but I don't notice any heat on my Atom based laptop.

 

A quick word if i may (my first post too!)

I'm quite versed in PC's (an avid gamer ) and the vibration issues you mention can be fixed relatively easily (for the majority of problems).

Currently my PC has all it's drives mounted in my case on anti vibration bolts, essentially the bolt sits in a rubber bush that can improve the vibration tolerance considerably (something ridiculous like 60g at 50Hz) now granted that is not based on large movement but its a great improvement. With an SSD you could really improve on that!. Also consider more specialist motherboards like EPIA boards and the like. These are mainboards designed for use in niche applications (i used one in an onboard robot with no suspension mounted using the bolts above and boot from a flash card with great success!).

PC's are very adaptable and not quite the push overs they once were. I must concede i know very little on the humidity factor, but PC's are not relegated to those in temperate climates, they are used elsewhere and still work, so i am sure there must be something that can be done!

Equium

 

If you want an idea of hardware resiliance, just look at the HALT test conducted by embeddedARM. http://www.embeddedarm.com/documentation/articles/halt.pdf It makes for quite entertaining reading (for those of a geeky persuasion).

Software is more of a problem!

A lot has happened with OpenPilot since the last update, but all the activity has gone on on the forum and mailing list at Sourceforge. We are currently trying to remove two memory leaks and a segmentation fault. We are slowly approaching version 1, but there is still a lot of work to do on CM93/2 to bring it up to a useful standard. I will try to keep you posted.

Tim B.