My boat has a raymarine electronics package that is well out of date and no longer supported with chart updates.
I am looking to change to Open CPN on a laptop as the primary chart plotter. What I want to do is bring data from the raymarine sensors into the laptop and OpenCPN and also have that connected via wifi to a tablet near the helm.
Ideally I would like data (nmea 0183 I think) from wind, depth, ais, gps and radar if possible. Radar can use the old C120MFD screen if that's to hard to do and the autohelm can stay separate from the laptop as well.
I have been reading lots of stuff on open cpn, open plotter, signal k and other websites and youtube of course but I seem to be going down a rabbit hole that creates more questions than it answers. Any ideas on where to start.
Go through the stickies at the top first and see how you go.
www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f134/
Yeah I am going to dob in Lazz here. I got to look at his boat on Lake Mac and was blown away by what he did with Signal K. I went down the Raspberry Pi route with my autopilot but he even has signal K on the fridge temperature - we could even see the temperature graph when the door was opened. Nice guy too. I have my son to do the hard stuff with the Pi but we will be going wifi for some screens and connecting info from around the boat - depth, speed, wind, battery voltage. I love OpenCPN on the laptop and Pi stuff but rely on others to integrate it for me.
Lazz?
Select to expand quotecammd said..
Any ideas on where to start.
You will need a Raspberry Pi4 to start. As Kankama said you can do all of what you mentioned above with this using OpenPlotter, SignalK & OpenCPN.
If using OpenCPN you will still need to purchase up to date charts from O-Charts, so you may not be that far ahead, or you can make your own: svocelot.com/Cruise_Info/Equipment/mbTiles.htm
OpenMarine will guide you through everything: forum.openmarine.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=1
Other helpful sites include: www.youtube.com/@smartsailingboat8812
www.youtube.com/@BoatingwiththeBaileys
It's not that hard following what the experts do!!
Select to expand quoteLazzz said..cammd said..
Any ideas on where to start.
You will need a Raspberry Pi4 to start. As Kankama said you can do all of what you mentioned above with this using OpenPlotter, SignalK & OpenCPN.
If using OpenCPN you will still need to purchase up to date charts from O-Charts, so you may not be that far ahead, or you can make your own: svocelot.com/Cruise_Info/Equipment/mbTiles.htm
OpenMarine will guide you through everything: forum.openmarine.net/forumdisplay.php?fid=1
Other helpful sites include: www.youtube.com/@smartsailingboat8812
www.youtube.com/@BoatingwiththeBaileys
It's not that hard following what the experts do!!
Thanks for the links
If I am running a laptop with Open CPN what is the purpose of the raspberry pi, is it for the signal k server?
I am thinking baby steps and for starters just getting the raymarine instruments to talk to the laptop and open cpn, would that be via splicing a converter/gateway into the seatalk network. I haven't seen openmarine forum yet so I will check that out now.
Select to expand quotecammd said..
If I am running a laptop with Open CPN what is the purpose of the raspberry pi, is it for the signal k server?
YesSelect to expand quote
Don't know anything about this but should work if you have a RS232, RS422 or NMEA 0183 port on your laptop.
Select to expand quote
I had a conversation with the manufacturer of Yakbitz products, all the products are designed and made here in Qld. I am going to give there Seatalk1 (ST1) to NMEA bi directional wifi/usb bridge a go. It will convert all the ST1 info to nema0183 (and back again) plus connect the nema0183 data from the AIS and send it all out via wifi or usb. All I have to do is splice it into the existing cables at the back of the current chart plotter, which will still be fully operational for radar and redundancy.
I should be be able to have everything from the legacy raymarine system, except radar, available on a laptop (at the nav station) and android device (at the helm) and also be able to control auto pilot direct from those devices. Sounds good to me and very inexpensive plus its Aust Made. 
Out of interest Trek Transponders (made in Parramatta!) contain a Qualcomm GPS chip set for its Geofence and output NMEA-0183 Data from its GPS onto its serial port at one second intervals. I use it for Open CPN. Simply connect a serial to USB cable from the Trek Transponder to your laptop. You can choose what NMEA strings you want from GGA, RMC, GSV, GSA and VTG. Or all of them. (ie UTC, position, heading, COG, speed, satellite constellation etc). The up market version does Signal K as well. With external antenna positional accuracy is better than +/- 3m.
