Building a app controller?

Question

Hi im helping out my father that sits mostly in a wheel chair. Trying to build a app interface to this switch board (picture 1).

I am not any programer, but i am trying to learn. My question is, can i use a rasberry with the adapter (picture 2) and a vga splitter (picture 3).

And How . sorry for the bad english. Thanks, John from norway.

1.2.3.

DAB · Answer

Hi John,

Voice control is all the rage right now.

Go to the RPI website for the latest solutions.

Also take a look at the two Ben Heck Show episodes where he uses a voice control interface to command some lab gear. You will find the walk through of the google software very informative and useful.

DAB

beacon_dave · Answer

That looks like a marine control panel and relay box:

SP5030-8P Membrane Touch Control Panel - High quality SP5030-8P Membrane Touch Control Panel manufacturer from Taiwan, C…

Are you:

trying to replace the touch panel with the R-Pi ?
trying to replace the relay box with the R-Pi ?
trying to insert the R-Pi between the two ?

Is the cable between the touch panel and relay box definitely terminated with 15pin connectors ?

The adapters you show are VGA video adapters.

(2) looks like a VGA666 module which is designed for using the GPIO of the R-Pi as a video output.

https://www.seeedstudio.com/Raspberry-PI-VGA666-DPI-dtoverlays-Module-p-2730.html

It looks pretty much like a pass-through but does have several additional components on it. You would need to work out the pin to port mappings to find which GPIO pin each pin maps to. You may be better off making your own VGA breakout adapter though.

There is a schematic of the VGA666 here which shows the mappings:

https://github.com/fenlogic/vga666/blob/master/documents/vga_manual.pdf

You would also need to work out what the connections are on the control box. One is likely to supply power to the touch panel so you need to be careful which pin that ends up on. Likewise you will need to work out which voltage levels the remaining pins operate at. This assumes that the control lines are some sort of digital IO or closed contact and not a serial connection such as RS-232/RS-485 or perhaps CAN BUS.

beacon_dave · Answer

ok, if this panel is used to drive the boat then you need to start thinking safety.

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The VGA666 could still be used by cutting the existing PCB tracks and using it as protoboard by soldering directly onto the connector pads.

Depending upon your skills you may find a couple of generic VGA breakout boards are easier for you to get started with than the VGA666 board:

http://site.gravitech.us/MicroResearch/Breakout/DB15F-VGA-TERM/DB15F-VGA-TERM_3R.jpg

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3124

https://www.adafruit.com/product/3125

At least initially to allow you to probe the signals between the touch panel and the relay box, and then later to allow you to prototype with.

You can buy some 15pin hi-density D-sub type connectors and make your own however.

Alternatively you could buy a cable and cut it in half to access the signal lines. Not all VGA video cables have all 15 pins wired however and some are 75ohm coax.

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You may find that there are some active electronics on the touch panel itself which means that the button indicator lights are controlled by the panel rather than the state of the relay box. This may make it difficult to reflect the state of operations whilst under Bluetooth control via the R-Pi. However depending upon the requirements you could perhaps power off the touch panel whilst under Bluetooth control and then restore power to the panel once the Bluetooth is disconnected. However that may cause issues as if the panel defaults to all outputs off upon power-up as you may find yourself in a situation with no lighting at night until you can reach the touch panel to turn them back on.

It may be easier to do this project if you can find a marine control panel system that is already designed to work with two touch panels. The R-Pi then replaces the second panel and the relay box takes care of keeping the first panel synchronised with the actions performed over Bluetooth.