With my several projects underway, why not start a few more? I am working on setting up the janeo wireless network using open source stuff. Here’s what I am doing;

+--------+     +-----+    +---------+
| Router |-----| RPi |----| 5” HDMI |
+--------+     +-----+    +---------+
    |             |   

+--------+     +-----+ \ +--------+
|Ubiquiti|     |BigTV|  -|NMEA Bus|
+--------+     +-----+   +--------+

The Raspberry Pi (RPi) is a 4G RAM Model 4. It will use it’s built-in wireless as an access point (AP), so guests can simply log in to the “janeo” hotspot, which connects them to the RPi and be forwarded to whatever signal is being used. So far, this works great -- my phone just connects to the hotspot when I arrive and it’s up and running. Continuing right, the 5” HDMI display will the the main display for the pi. It’s a touch display, and it will fit easily right where the SSB used to sit. It could be used for displaying the chart, or perhaps I can use it to render all the information needed for a log entry, since it will have access to the NMEA bus and can retrieve everything from there.

Notice also the connection to the Big TV. That’s the main display in the cabin. I previously didn’t use that very much, but I’d like to make that the main entertainment display for watching Captain Ron again. Or perhaps karaoke. Or OpenCPN. It’s nice that the Pi has two HDMI ports!

This also gives me a few wired ethernet ports. Apparently, the chartplotter can connect to an ethernet port for updates and such, and it would also be possible to hook up a networked axiom display somewhere.

I have a ubiquiti bullet, which is a high power external wifi device that uses POE and keeps the line to the antenna really short. This will supposedly get those really remote signals, but due to a faulty antenna connection I haven’t used it much yet. This directional antenna can be mounted outside on the stern post.

Future ideas

Some additional project include: - Alarms: - Chirp for a watch timer - Double chirp for 0.1nm off course, triple for 0.5 - An annoying beep when something is amiss (low depth, for example) - A steady tone for something terrible (high engine temperature maybe). - Full accelerometer with 1 minute, 5 minute, and 15 minute maximum G forces in each direction. - Speed over ground, both instantaneous and averaged over 1 minute, 5 minutes, 15 minutes, and an hour. - gpsd suport. Would be great to have everyone using the same wireless GPS. - Spare GPS. It would be great to transmit a more accurate GPS onto the NMEA bus. This is harder than it seems because we would need a good antenna position. - Phone app, maybe starting with something like aftrack.

This should be fairly easy with the NMEA 2000 bus support.

Hawaii Crew Update

If you’ve read this far and haven’t talked to me about Hawaii, please speak up! I’m starting to narrow things down.