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i have an idea

Former Member

I have a 5 meter fiberglass boat that I've wired all my electronics into but it's not as good as it could be. I have a jre echo sounder, gps, bla bla bla and I don't like it. My thoughts have me scouring YouTube and the internet for an all in 1 unit to replace the big heavy equipment bolted to the cabin roof, I've learnt a tiny bit about the arduino and don't fully understand its capabilities but assume I'm on the right path. I'm wondering if an arduino can be made to display GPS and nmea data like a chart plotter, engine rpm, play music from a smart phone via Bluetooth, switch relays to power an anchor winch, turn on and off lights, touch screen of course. Has anyone attempted or heard of a project like this before or have an idea of where one might start?. I believe this could be a real game changer for anyone with a boat, yacht, PWC or canoe who wants to explore or find a good fishing hole providing they have a 12volt battery. Any advice or help would be helping 100,000 boaties out there wanting an all in 1 reliable unit.

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  • Have a look on NMEA 2000 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMEA_2000 and http://www.nmea.org/Assets/2000-explained-white-paper.pdf). It's basically a standard for boating instruments networking. It's based on CAN Bus and it's designed to integrate multiple equipments/sensors/actuators. As this is a standard, multi-vendor equipment should be able to talk to each other if they're all NMEA 200 certified. Now if you wish to create a customized solution, you can still have your Arduino "talking" NMEA 2000 with a CAN Bus shield instead of try to create something totally new.

     

    I know that this protocol is widely used on mid-size boats and yachts. I have myself sailed boats where your chart-plotter know the depth from the sounder, that also know the wind speed from a sensor on the mast and is able to control the auto-pilot. Now, not everything on the boat was integrated, like the anchor windlass, and and Arduino could be used as development platform to make an Interface of a "stand-alone" device to talk to the NMEA 2000 network.... like, is the Arduino see a NMEA 2000 MSG "lower anchor" it could turn on/off a relay to control the windlass motor.

     

    Cheers

Reply

  • Have a look on NMEA 2000 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMEA_2000 and http://www.nmea.org/Assets/2000-explained-white-paper.pdf). It's basically a standard for boating instruments networking. It's based on CAN Bus and it's designed to integrate multiple equipments/sensors/actuators. As this is a standard, multi-vendor equipment should be able to talk to each other if they're all NMEA 200 certified. Now if you wish to create a customized solution, you can still have your Arduino "talking" NMEA 2000 with a CAN Bus shield instead of try to create something totally new.

     

    I know that this protocol is widely used on mid-size boats and yachts. I have myself sailed boats where your chart-plotter know the depth from the sounder, that also know the wind speed from a sensor on the mast and is able to control the auto-pilot. Now, not everything on the boat was integrated, like the anchor windlass, and and Arduino could be used as development platform to make an Interface of a "stand-alone" device to talk to the NMEA 2000 network.... like, is the Arduino see a NMEA 2000 MSG "lower anchor" it could turn on/off a relay to control the windlass motor.

     

    Cheers

Children
  • in reply to musskopf

    that's a nice and clean layout, if i had the $7,500 aud i'd honestly look into ordering a custom package. the thing i'm wanting most is to have it all in a neat touchscreen package and do away with all the big bulky screens bolted all over the place and have just the one showing what i need at the time, to check all the boxes it has to be:

    reasonable cost $200-$350

    diy so others can build and customize it to their needs or wants

    user friendly

    lightweight-ish

    display ocean depth and structure, water temp, fish and bait balls (like a standard fish finder or echo sounder)

    gps heading and way points, poi's so you can mark where you found bait or found good patch of reef structure

    the ability to display engine rpm, temps, fuel level

    turn accessories on and off at the touch of a finger

    the biggest thing is this should be available to everyone and not be screwed by brand names that force you to update maps and equipment costing big bucks.

     

    i'm armed with a boat, powerful gps antenna, transducer, laptop, internet and a world of possibilities. does anyone have ideas of how they might go about such a project? or what parts might be used?. any idea is a good idea.

  • in reply to Former Member

    If you don't have a common protocol between multiple devices I can't see an easy way to integrate it all. Also, Arduino isn't probably the most suitable platform to produce some complex graphs like charts etc. For that budget, have you looked at the Navionics App + a Sonar? Sonarphone and Navionics - Your New Fishin' Buddies

     

    I have the App on my tablet and works very well, it also have some community collaboration so people share fishing and anchorage spots... adding the sonar for Fishing should give you already lots of info on the same screen. The only thing to consider is that equipment designed for marine environment is a bit more tough than a Tablet and even if you get a waterproof Sony Xperia, if might doesn't like salt water at all.

     

    Cheers!