Hi. I am building my "smart boat" with BBN. my conclusion is : BBN with a touch screen attached to the rpi will be inside the boat. and I use a waterproof, bit battery tablet from oukitel for the cockpit. I have navionics for navigation on it, and can access to all BBN application with wifi, access point from rpi or a router. I will put the inside screen in place I can see from outside, so I can see some dashboard as well.
Very nice video something people should know is that this OS that was put together does not run on a PI3. I have tried it on a PI 3 and it does not work not sure about a PI 4. So you really need the latest PI to run this customized OS.
So I did some more digging and BBN uses a lot of CPU, but you don’t need a lot of ram unless you go for Pypilot also so I recommend a Pi 4 or Pi 5 with 2G or 4G ram you don’t need 8 G ram best performance is Pi 5 it’s very snappy
Yeah I have an older pi 3 and running the desktop is pretty slow. You can really browse with chrome so I think a pi 3 maybe too old for this type of job. I actually use the pi3 with rtl-AIS and an rtl-sdr usb dongle as an AIS reciever seems to work great. Probably have to buy a new pi5 if I want to get lay around with this
Excellent idea, maybe a hinge so it can swing up and out of the way when not in use, thanks a lot, this is what I love about community great brain storming ideas thanks great tip
in comparison to your i have a garmin 943x with radar, sonar, nmea etc. It's nice but maps are up to $250 (plus tax) It pull at least 50w when running. It's on a swing arm instead of hard mounting because I know it will fail eventually and then I'll have to fill the mounting hole(s).
Thanks for the comparison the Pi pulls about 12W on open CPN, the touch screen about the same so 24W total no radar only AIS the big saving is the maps US are free, some charts are $20-30 per year so if your travelling this can add up, I have a spare Pi new one is $100 screens are expensive but you can broadcast to a tablet pretty inexpensive or phones
@davethemmp been looking at the CPN for a while. Mainly because the computer can always be on running the background and the screen(s) can be turned off to save power. I have a standalone Icom 510 AIS that can be nmea'd into the system if wanted. Bought it for the anchor watch
the US charts for OCPN are free, just add the Chart downloader. All the programs I have used on my Raspberry Pi 5 never use more than 2Gb of Ram. I like the Idea of the Dashboard but find BBN very bloated. I tend to use tabs in Chromium as the selector dashboard instead - enjoy!!
Thank you sir, i'm still kicking the tires on both BBS and Openplotter, I really liked how you use your system and your race gauge for where to steer, you made it your own and customized it for your needs, I love that, I am still trying to find my feet with these systems and get a strong working system, thanks for all your help, you helped me decide a while back on a Ras Pi, I went for the fastest one available, so I can also use it as my ships computer when at sea, thanks Jason.
@@davethemmp I think the RPi 5 vs 4 or 3 makes computer use on the boat much more realistic!! Every time I went out sailing I looked at what I needed to see in front of me and asked the crew what they liked and didn't like then changed it to get the best compromise of data analysis vs ease of use. I am not there yet - I am looking at designing a Race start widget, where you set the race start time and then a countdown would be available in KIP, sounding a buzzer/horn at 5mins, 4mins, 1 min and start (all selectable). still thinking about how to execute this....
BBN has two versions LITE and FULL. You must have tried FULL version which has more apps and features. It also has release for pi5 bookworm. OP isn’t there. How do you use OP with touchscreen. On-screen keyboard in OpenPlotter is hardly usable. How can you select/copy/paste on touchscreen? OpenCPN zoom didn’t work for me in OpenPlotter touch image. There were some links to pi magazine totally unrelated to boating. What is better for you in OpenPlotter compared to BBN?
@@gobbledegookydokey yes I’m using the full version but I didn’t see the Pi 5 version, since I copied my SD card and booting off an NVMe drive I am having a problem getting my USB GPS puck to be recognized by the OS?
What ls -l /dev/tty* is showing what is output of lsusb is your usb puck fully plugged in. are you using any usb hub? what hub? hub needed to be self powered. Not powered by pi.
@@davethemmp that is resistive touch. Let us know how responsive it is compared to capacitive touch models. And let us know how much it cost you. Thanks
I like the concept of BBN and I know the more options out there the better, but I prefer openPlotter for a few reasons : - Firstly OpenPlotter is just software, meaning it will run on differents OS and I'm not tied to a, although quite active, ultimately kind of niche OS with a small dev team that might just stop being updated at any points. Instead, I run openPlotter on Debian, which is never ever going to die. - Secondly, and this is more of a personal choice, I very much want to keep my nav systems the most stable and secure. That mean I want it to run only my sensors and instruments, segregated from every other electronics. So no music, no mail, and definetly no internet. - Finally, I work in IT, and so I can tell you that the openPlotter team spent a huge amount of time documenting their software, which is both extremely rare and extremely valuable.
Thanks for the info, I agree I have the email for the guy in Germany that wrote the software but he’s one person and when he’s done no more support although it’s open CPN and Linux after all but I agree there is a way larger Open plotter community for support as well as a user base. Thanks for your help cheers thanks for watching the video and your support
Good idea they are still a Little pricey cheapest one I could find was about $500 Ras Pi’s are $80, I searched for an inexpensive mini computer but it’s hard to beat the Pi cost/performance ratio. But I agree on the performance aspect 👍
I have rpi5 8Gb with same system. Yours looks a bit slower. I’d check your SD card performance. It seems a bit slower that it should be, or might be it’s because you use higher screen resolution
@@gobbledegookydokey thanks I checked my SD card it’s a no name one I had laying around loaded BBS on it I ordered an NVME SSD 2280 to boot directly from and ditch the SD card should be real fast. 👍
Hi. I am building my "smart boat" with BBN. my conclusion is : BBN with a touch screen attached to the rpi will be inside the boat. and I use a waterproof, bit battery tablet from oukitel for the cockpit. I have navionics for navigation on it, and can access to all BBN application with wifi, access point from rpi or a router. I will put the inside screen in place I can see from outside, so I can see some dashboard as well.
Nice! Have you tried the tablet, any conclusions so far?
Good idea for the screens
Very nice video something people should know is that this OS that was put together does not run on a PI3. I have tried it on a PI 3 and it does not work not sure about a PI 4. So you really need the latest PI to run this customized OS.
There are different files for Pi 3, 4, Pi 5 files Cheers.
You mean there is an image for the pi3 if so I will look for it
So I did some more digging and BBN uses a lot of CPU, but you don’t need a lot of ram unless you go for Pypilot also so I recommend a Pi 4 or Pi 5 with 2G or 4G ram you don’t need 8 G ram best performance is Pi 5 it’s very snappy
Yeah I have an older pi 3 and running the desktop is pretty slow. You can really browse with chrome so I think a pi 3 maybe too old for this type of job. I actually use the pi3 with rtl-AIS and an rtl-sdr usb dongle as an AIS reciever seems to work great. Probably have to buy a new pi5 if I want to get lay around with this
US charts you can download for free and you can download is strait in open cpn
BBN Marine OS 2024-03-03 has been released with few valuable fixes.
Cloudsmith server not working?
Hang your screen on the underside of the compagnionway hatch. That way you can push it (almost) all the way open.
Just my 2c 🙂
Excellent idea, maybe a hinge so it can swing up and out of the way when not in use, thanks a lot, this is what I love about community great brain storming ideas thanks great tip
@@davethemmp You're welcome 🙂
Hi, good video, have you looked into the Home Assistant integration with the BBN OS?
I think it’s possible to add it to the desktop I talked to the code writer of BBN and he’s working on more upgrades
in comparison to your i have a garmin 943x with radar, sonar, nmea etc. It's nice but maps are up to $250 (plus tax) It pull at least 50w when running. It's on a swing arm instead of hard mounting because I know it will fail eventually and then I'll have to fill the mounting hole(s).
Thanks for the comparison the Pi pulls about 12W on open CPN, the touch screen about the same so 24W total no radar only AIS the big saving is the maps US are free, some charts are $20-30 per year so if your travelling this can add up, I have a spare Pi new one is $100 screens are expensive but you can broadcast to a tablet pretty inexpensive or phones
@davethemmp been looking at the CPN for a while. Mainly because the computer can always be on running the background and the screen(s) can be turned off to save power. I have a standalone Icom 510 AIS that can be nmea'd into the system if wanted. Bought it for the anchor watch
Redundancy is your best bet especially when travelling to unfamiliar locations
Great video..... thanks.... wanting to make my Cal29 digital with Raspberry Pi and related components.... cheers from SV The Lounge in Nanaimo.....
Let me know if you need help or get stuck, I am thinking about building these systems who would like an open source system delivered to you turn key.
@@davethemmp I will!
the US charts for OCPN are free, just add the Chart downloader. All the programs I have used on my Raspberry Pi 5 never use more than 2Gb of Ram. I like the Idea of the Dashboard but find BBN very bloated. I tend to use tabs in Chromium as the selector dashboard instead - enjoy!!
Thank you sir, i'm still kicking the tires on both BBS and Openplotter, I really liked how you use your system and your race gauge for where to steer, you made it your own and customized it for your needs, I love that, I am still trying to find my feet with these systems and get a strong working system, thanks for all your help, you helped me decide a while back on a Ras Pi, I went for the fastest one available, so I can also use it as my ships computer when at sea, thanks Jason.
@@davethemmp I think the RPi 5 vs 4 or 3 makes computer use on the boat much more realistic!! Every time I went out sailing I looked at what I needed to see in front of me and asked the crew what they liked and didn't like then changed it to get the best compromise of data analysis vs ease of use. I am not there yet - I am looking at designing a Race start widget, where you set the race start time and then a countdown would be available in KIP, sounding a buzzer/horn at 5mins, 4mins, 1 min and start (all selectable). still thinking about how to execute this....
BBN has two versions LITE and FULL. You must have tried FULL version which has more apps and features. It also has release for pi5 bookworm. OP isn’t there.
How do you use OP with touchscreen. On-screen keyboard in OpenPlotter is hardly usable. How can you select/copy/paste on touchscreen? OpenCPN zoom didn’t work for me in OpenPlotter touch image. There were some links to pi magazine totally unrelated to boating. What is better for you in OpenPlotter compared to BBN?
@@gobbledegookydokey yes I’m using the full version but I didn’t see the Pi 5 version, since I copied my SD card and booting off an NVMe drive I am having a problem getting my USB GPS puck to be recognized by the OS?
What
ls -l /dev/tty*
is showing
what is output of
lsusb
is your usb puck fully plugged in.
are you using any usb hub?
what hub?
hub needed to be self powered. Not powered by pi.
Dave, can you share what waterproof 13" screen you bought? And thank for sharing about the Pi5 and marine navigation! :)
The link to the touchscreen is in the description with all the other products
Thanks,@@davethemmp .
😊
Hi. Excellent video. Could you say what specific touchscreen you're getting? Thank you.
www.sihovision.com/full-ip65-high-brightness-touch-monitor/ip65-waterproof-touch-monitor-sl100w.html
@@davethemmp that is resistive touch. Let us know how responsive it is compared to capacitive touch models. And let us know how much it cost you. Thanks
I like the concept of BBN and I know the more options out there the better, but I prefer openPlotter for a few reasons :
- Firstly OpenPlotter is just software, meaning it will run on differents OS and I'm not tied to a, although quite active, ultimately kind of niche OS with a small dev team that might just stop being updated at any points. Instead, I run openPlotter on Debian, which is never ever going to die.
- Secondly, and this is more of a personal choice, I very much want to keep my nav systems the most stable and secure. That mean I want it to run only my sensors and instruments, segregated from every other electronics. So no music, no mail, and definetly no internet.
- Finally, I work in IT, and so I can tell you that the openPlotter team spent a huge amount of time documenting their software, which is both extremely rare and extremely valuable.
Thanks for the info, I agree I have the email for the guy in Germany that wrote the software but he’s one person and when he’s done no more support although it’s open CPN and Linux after all but I agree there is a way larger Open plotter community for support as well as a user base.
Thanks for your help cheers thanks for watching the video and your support
get an intel nuc with a hdmi touchscreen monitor to use. nuc would be more responsive, snappy.
Good idea they are still a Little pricey cheapest one I could find was about $500 Ras Pi’s are $80, I searched for an inexpensive mini computer but it’s hard to beat the Pi cost/performance ratio. But I agree on the performance aspect 👍
@@davethemmp get the 8gb ram pi, be faster performance.
I have rpi5 8Gb with same system. Yours looks a bit slower. I’d check your SD card performance. It seems a bit slower that it should be, or might be it’s because you use higher screen resolution
@@gobbledegookydokey thanks I checked my SD card it’s a no name one I had laying around loaded BBS on it I ordered an NVME SSD 2280 to boot directly from and ditch the SD card should be real fast. 👍
@@davethemmp let me know if you find any issues with BBN OS. I’m the author
Noaa charts are free from the US government
Cool thanks for the tip I’m in Canada so I opted for ENC charts