Onboard Computer - Here's an idea

[Manny]

Bob, I like your idea even though i'm a Mac user, but I have to say I am in total agreement with Rick. I have an iPhone and I found it to be one of the most useful items I have when I am sailing. I have the Navionics charts for the whole East Coast ($4.99!!!!!), and a tide application. Wunderground's iPhone site is excellent which includes animated Radar. Marinas can be researched online and then contacted. I can update friends and family immediately via email and even send pictures (with location data). I can listen to any music I want with the Pandora application. I even have a bubble level to check how much I'm heeling!!!! Best of all I can always get to this site!
I have a old Mac Mini at home that i've thought about permanently installing on the boat and using it in the same manner as the thin client. My flat screen tv on the boat has a vga input and I had plans of connecting it to that but since I received the phone the idea has been on put on the back burner. I did try the Open CPN software on old powerbook during our trip down the Chesapeake about a month ago and it worked well. I ran the laptop on it's old battery which actually lasted quite a while since the unit would sleep until I needed to check the charts. It would then "catch up" to our position and then back to sleep it would go after two minutes.

Manny

 

[Rick Sylvester]

Apples to iPaqs, huh?

I like that . . .

 

[Guest]

Computer

My #2 son had an iBook G4 for a few years. After his young children finished with it he wanted to know if I wanted it since they had just purchased new computers. He said that the CD drive did not work, it was missing the space bar, all software was erased and the battery was dead.

So I stopped by our local Apple store and asked them for advice. He told me that for $280 they will re-certify the unit if it could be salvaged. After a couple of weeks they said the unit was ready. For the agreed price they did the following:

1. Replaced the CD drive.
2. New optical cable that connects the drive to the motherboard.
3. New bezel.
4. Current operating software including applications.
5. New keyboard.
6. Certified like new including a 90 day warranty.

He said the battery is at 70% and should last another two or three years. Pretty good deal for $280. Now I can leave the Mac mini for home use and take the iBook when we cruise. Our other boat computer is a Garmin 178C that we use for all our navigation work.

Terry Cox

 

[LANCE ON CLOUD NINE]

does anyone know if an iphone will send a gps signal to a vhf radio with dsc capability?

 

[Rick Sylvester]

I don't think so Lance

although I hope I'm wrong. No doubt the NMEA data is in there but I don't think Apple has made provisions for porting it out.

Frankly, I don't know that I'd use the iPhone for that anyway. I think it's usefulness comes from it's portability. I think it'd be better to permanently mount a cheapo dedicated GPS to feed data to a DCS input. Heck, I'm embarrassed to admit I've got no less than six GPS receivers on board. The old ones just don't seem to die and somehow newer ones seem to accumulate.

 

[sailingdog]

NO. It does not have the required NMEA 0183 output.

does anyone know if an iphone will send a gps signal to a vhf radio with dsc capability?

 

[LANCE ON CLOUD NINE]

sorry for unintentional hi jack

thanks Rick, thanks Dog.

 

[Darwin19229]

I have been doing something similar with a Dell Mini 10 netbook, usb GPS and a LIND 12vdc to 15vdc upconverter. Simple, inexpensive (compared to a dedicated chart plotter) and I can still get my email.

 

[kenn]

At the moment, sailing is what I do to get AWAY from computers.

I have one of the first netbooks - the original ASUS eee , Linux version - that we bought last year for our trip to Europe. The 7" screen is limiting, but at under 2 lb this thing is no problem to lug around in my knapsack. I'm currently putting together the cables to interface my Garmin eTrex GPS to a USB port of the eee, so I can feed GPS position info into one of the Linux-based chart programs. I'm also getting the 12v adaptors for the eee and the eTrex.

For a binnacle install, that Wyse unit looks quite interesting, but for general and nav-station use I think the standard laptop is probably more versatile and cheaper. Used laptops are cheap enough that if I had a larger boat, I'd probably just buy one for $200 or $300 and leave it on the boat. Locked away, of course.

 

[Bill Roosa]

12 volt computers

Don't know about other computers but my computer says on the AC to DC converter that it supplies 19 volts DC to the computer. However the battery says it is 12 volts. I had an extra plug for the computer and hooked it up to the boat for grins and giggles just to see what would happen. The battery life monitor says it has 9000 hours left and 96% charge and stayed that way for a week. I lost interest after that. Apparently the extra voltage is to fast charge the battery.
FWIW

 

[Franklin]

Don't know about other computers but my computer says on the AC to DC converter that it supplies 19 volts DC to the computer. However the battery says it is 12 volts. I had an extra plug for the computer and hooked it up to the boat for grins and giggles just to see what would happen. The battery life monitor says it has 9000 hours left and 96% charge and stayed that way for a week. I lost interest after that. Apparently the extra voltage is to fast charge the battery.
FWIW

Bill:

Could you expand on that? I was a little confused. Are you saying you used the housebank as the battery to the laptop? And what did you mean by "extra voltage is to fast charge the battery"?

 

[Stu Jackson]

... to interface my Garmin eTrex GPS to a USB port of the eee, so I can feed GPS position info ...

Not sure I understand. The etrex is a handheld. Why not get a puck USB GPS to plug into the eee? Gives you two GPSs on board and lets the laptop stay down below. Or are you using the eee upstairs?

 

[paulj]

For those of you with fading eyesite and/or cheater glasses........

Since 1999 I've used many setups on my boats with the latest electronics from the Ipaq handhelds with gps loaded with the newest software, which I carried in my shirt pocket... to now a computer below deck and a big screen monitor with all weather sunlight readable screen, large print and etc located on deck.

http://www.argonautcomputer.com/pdfs/Argonaut_G610LED_1web.pdf

These go on sale at boat shows.


I access the computer from anywhere on deck with a..... Interlink VP4810 RemotePoint RF Wireless Remote Presenter.

paulj :troll:

 

[Bill Roosa]

Extra voltage

Hi Franklin
Since the battery on my lap top clearly indicates 12 volts output and the output on my AC-DC converter for the laptop supplies 19 volts to the back of the laptop I surmise that the "extra 7 volts" is to rapid charge the battery.
The battery life monitor (MS standard program I think) looks at the battery voltage and the power coming in the back of the laptop. When it sees 19 volts in the back it displays the power cord icon when it sees something between 19 and 13 volts it changes over to the battery icon. It then gives you hours left and % of charge info. Immediately after turning the unit on I checked the battery monitor and it said 99% and 4 hours. That is typical for my unit running only on its internal battery. About half an hour later it reads 96% and 9000 hours. I surmise that it is taking the voltage drop rate and calculating the number of hours left but since the "battery" is now a 400 AH (internal + boat house bank) one the volts are not dropping very fast. Hence the 9000 hours.
So even though the AC-DC converter is supplying 19 volts you can plug in 12 volts and make the unit run just fine. I suspect other laptops are similar.
My point is check the battery not the AC-DC converter for operating voltage.
Important safety tip. If the battery says something less than 12 volts do not try this. You could get either a thermal runaway or more likely a mess of battery acid inside your machine from to much charging due to an over voltage condition.

 

[kenn]

Not sure I understand. The etrex is a handheld. Why not get a puck WSB GPS to plug into the eee? Gives you two GPSs on board and lets the laptop stay down below. Or are you using the eee upstairs?

That's a good point, thanks. The original thought is to just use the gear I've already got, but the cost of cables and the serial-USB adaptor is getting close to that of a USB GPS puck or receiver.

Stuff to consider...

 

[sPk]

best sailing iPhone apps?

No thanks.

I've got a computer that is a Navionics plotter with GPS already in it, road charts, web access anywhere I can get a cell signal, tides, sunrise/set/moon info, compass, star displays oriented to location/time/compass info, and MUCH more.

Lets see, I've got several hundred books on it, a few thousand songs, four thousand pictures, it'll play movies (and will take them.)

It uses less power than most any other computer (I think.)

Oh yeah, it'll fit in my pocket.

I LOVE my iPhone.

What sailing related apps do you find the most useful for your iPhone? I recently got one and like the Navionics Marine apps. I tried the FlyToMap app but it isn't very good. Of course the weather radar sites and NOAA marine forecasts are invaluable. I also have a laptop on board but that is usually for movie night and for working from my northern floating branch office.

 

[Rick Sylvester]

That's about it actually.

All I really need to know is how to get to where I'm going, what's in the way, and what the weather is like or will be.

The Navionics app and eyeballs do the first and part of the second. A radar and the eyeballs again do part two and part of the third. Access to weather info either from the radar, web or eyeballs (again) takes care of the third.

The sailing part is mostly good decisions and good boat-handling. Lots of accurate info helps. The iPhone is just a very elegant tool to help provide easy-to-access data.

Since you asked though, and since you just got one, here's a list of the apps I've gotten so far:

Navionics USA East (plotter)
Skype (VOIP)
WiFiTrak
AppBox Pro (lots of little apps)
Classics (e-books)
Masterpieces (e-books)
Stanza (e-reader)
Labyrinth LE (game)
Cleartune (tuner)
Tempo (metronome)
iSoundboard (don't ask)
MusicID (too cool for words)
Pandora (streaming audio)
Yelp (GPS/eatery locator)
X-Plane Extreme (flight sim)
iFighter (flight sim-game)
Starwalk (astronomy)
Real Racing (car race game)
TV Forecast (what it says)
i.TV (TV guide)
Myst (a game I can't describe)

You might note that a tides app is missing but I use Mr. Tides X on the laptop. I'm still looking though.

Over half this stuff was free. Most of it has nothing to do with boating. A high percentage of the apps in the store are crap but the reviews help. I'm still figuring out what's useful and what's not. What do you use?

I have a Macbook at the nav station and it works much better at doing some things. The iPhone doesn't do everything well. For example, it doesn't yet support a flash player so most web videos won't stream on it. It also won't make me breakfast. Yet. (It will tell me where breakfast is however.)

As soon as AT&T and Apple enable tethering it will also be the modem for the laptop while underway.

Rick

 

[Skipper]

adapter

I don't understand why the huge complexity.

Just use this: (example attached)

18 volts, 90 watts, 4.9 amps. $50. Plug and play.

If the amps get you down, which they might, well.....nevermind

 

[kendall]

Hi Franklin

So even though the AC-DC converter is supplying 19 volts you can plug in 12 volts and make the unit run just fine. I suspect other laptops are similar.
My point is check the battery not the AC-DC converter for operating voltage.
Important safety tip. If the battery says something less than 12 volts do not try this. You could get either a thermal runaway or more likely a mess of battery acid inside your machine from to much charging due to an over voltage condition.

Good warning.

Definately agree with the battery bank use though.

Most, not all, consumer electronics do drop down to 12v dc internally. Radios/stereos, televisions and most of the smaller LCD monitors which makes it very easy to use them on a boat. It's one of the reasons that I rarely use inverters, can't see the point to stepping battery voltage to ac, then right back to battery voltage.

For desktop computers, a decent 12v dc-dc supply can be swapped in so you can run directly off the house battery. generally start at $100. Unless you plan you use it as an entertainment center with gaming figuring heavily, you don't need the latest high performance (power hungry) system so could build a very nice computer, couple it to a small LCD tv set (often have VGA inputs on them) so you can use it for entertainment too.

I prefer a dedicated computer, handhelds and multifunction phones are fine, but in my opinion better suited for casual use.

Ken.

 

[Rick Sylvester]

". . . handhelds and multifunction phones are fine, but in my opinion better suited for casual use."

How so?