There are a few on here with Raspberry Pi knowledge and I'm seeking guidance before I go down the Pi rabbit hole.

I have a Raymarine boat, MFD at the helm, linear drive underdeck autopilot, send and receive AIS. I installed all myself and I like the system a lot.

I'm seeking a stand alone level of redundancy in Navigation and autopilot control. I can't easy fit a windvane to my boat.

I would like a screen at my pilot pilot berth showing plotter, AIS data, engine basic vitals and environmental conditions.
Also I'm after a large hard drive of movies, music and an operating system that can work for more than 30 days without an internet connection.

It seems like a Raspberry Pi5, with Open Plotter, hard drive and Pypilot system can achieve this?

Is it worth going through with all the integration hurdles with Pi, or I have a laptop Core i7 with a broken screen. I could use this as the core computer instead?

I'm leaning towards Pi as I think the overall power consumption would be lower?

What kind of journey are I getting myself into?

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EastCoastSail said..
There are a few on here with Raspberry Pi knowledge and I'm seeking guidance before I go down the Pi rabbit hole.

I have a Raymarine boat, MFD at the helm, linear drive underdeck autopilot, send and receive AIS. I installed all myself and I like the system a lot.

I have the same on my boat.

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EastCoastSail said..
I'm seeking a stand alone level of redundancy in Navigation and autopilot control. I can't easy fit a windvane to my boat.

I would like a screen at my pilot pilot berth showing plotter, AIS data, engine basic vitals and environmental conditions.
Also I'm after a large hard drive of movies, music and an operating system that can work for more than 30 days without an internet connection.

It seems like a Raspberry Pi5, with Open Plotter, hard drive and Pypilot system can achieve this?

Is it worth going through with all the integration hurdles with Pi,

Yes, although there aren't a lot of hurdles!!

My Pi runs 24/7 & has a multitude of uses.

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EastCoastSail said..
I'm leaning towards Pi as I think the overall power consumption would be lower?

What kind of journey are I getting myself into?

Go with the Pi5, with Open Plotter, and Pypilot - it's a great journey & the OpenMarine Forum has all the answers to help you along the way!! forum.openmarine.net

IMO it is worth going with a NVMe SSD card, instead of just the SD card, for extra speed & reliability especially if you want plenty of storage for movies!!
Also, get the MacArthur hat as well and you will see just how easy it is to setup.

I have a 10" monitor at the helm alongside my Raymarine MFD & other gauges, the Pi5 has HDMI outlets for 2 monitors, with the Pi5 & big monitor at the Nav station.
If you don't want to run a HDMI cable you can connect to the Pi5 via WiFi using a tablet or phone. I have a 10" tablet I use for this as well.
I can be lying in bed at night, or on a chilly morning, and I can open my tablet, connect to the Pi5, and check if the fridge is cold enough & the beer is cold, or, check if the HWS is hot enough for a shower, or, check the anchor alarm to see where I have moved, or, check the SOC of the batteries, or, to check the temperature to see if I need tracky pants or shorts. or, etc. etc!!

Just do it!!

I think it comes down to power and water.

Unless you're inverting to 240v the laptop is out because you can't charge from 12V easily. And it's pretty hard to protect a laptop from water.

this leaves the pi or a tablet as options because the run off 5v. Just get a 30 dollar Buck converter from core electronics will give you 3A USB off your 12v.

The Pi will do a great job without a monitor of being a wireless access point and broadcasting all the data from your MFD and boat sensors to anything else, this is what I have.

but the pi needs a screen and a mouse and keyboard - or a touch screen to double as a plotter. The 5v portable touch screens start at 400 bucks and are not waterproof and NEED a cable connection from the Pi. The cable rules out a generic waterproof case which won't be that good any way.

so what I am going to do is buy a $300 galaxy 9 plus (11 inch display) put it in a tough waterproof case and run navionics on it and Velcro it to the cockpit. It has its own gps and long battery life so provides genuine redundancy. I will put it on the pi wifi so it will get the boat sensors.

Spend 100 bucks on a pi and get it talking to the boat and if you're still having fun, go deeper.

Media server is easy on a pi. Make that project #2

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JonE said..
Just get a 30 dollar Buck converter from core electronics will give you 3A USB off your 12v.

If you get the power module with the MacArthur hat you don't need to do any power converting & it shuts down the Pi5 safely with the flick of a switch!!

Thanks for the responses, so I'm going down the Pi route but from what you tell me it's more of a dip than a hole.

I do like the phased approach of integrated with the bus, WiFi, then look at the Media Server. It looks like one of the cheaper boat jobs for a while.

Thanks also for the link to open marine forum.

The only risk is that because they are so useful you will want more of them - like when you install pi-hole and block all ads on the internet in your home.. Or set up the media server and get effectively free wifi music player in your shed!




this is on my boat minus the rs232 dongle. I have a prototype hat on the top to get 5v in because I broke off the usb-c connector. The usb thing is an nvme usb adaptor from jaycar containing an ssd that I scrounged from an old laptop. I stuck the board and the dongle down with double sided tape..

next step is to get a heatsink.

This would be easy to mount in the cockpit - my thinking was mount the screen behind one of the portlights - then this bad-boy would give you control....

www.nsi-be.com/products/iec60945-marine-trackball-with-scroll-wheel

I am using this: www.ebay.com.au/itm/225953008741 as my second monitor at the helm - great value for money!!

It is not waterproof but that is not a concern for me with a hard dodger & hard bimini.

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JonE said..
This would be easy to mount in the cockpit - my thinking was mount the screen behind one of the portlights - then this bad-boy would give you control....

www.nsi-be.com/products/iec60945-marine-trackball-with-scroll-wheel

On my fishing vessel and on my last yacht I used Logitec roller trackballs screwed down on a sloping wooden pad. Wet gloves or hands no problem, the water just drained away. Screwed down to the pad on the dash or chart table makes it easy to brace yourself with both hands while you make changes on your monitor.