Tuesday, September 17, 2013

RE: Re: RE: RE: Re: Re: [Electric Boats] PAKTRAKR question

 

Dominic,

Thanks for your help and patience. 

I think I'm going to go with what I hope will be an easier solution.  I found another battery meter:

 http://www.midnitesolar.com/productPhoto.php?product_ID=445&productCatNa

This is something I can install myself and I'm thinking of moving it to the helm station under the chartplotter (I'm going to have a small platform built for the plotter).  My wife likes it better because it reads like a gas gauge.  She doesn't need to know how many volts should be there or how many amps it is using. 

I realize that the PakTrakr has more capabilities.  Should I leave it in place in case I need the more diagnostic capabilities and find a way to link to a laptop or does the PakTrakr become redundant at this point and just get rid of it and use a multimeter if I ever have a need to check the batteries individually?

Thanks again,

Richard



--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, <electricboats@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

The chartplotter's input will be a serial protocol for data. The Pi can certainly transmit the data over serial, in whatever format (including NMEA). However, the chartplotter is not designed to be used as a simple display, and I doubt it would have an input to be driven as a simple display (VGA, hdmi or such).

One can buy a small dedicated display like your battery monitor of a size such as 2", for a modest price ($35), and drive it directly from the Pi. It would be a handy-craft job to waterproof it (glass faced container with gaskets). I recommend e-ink <http://www.adafruit.com/products/1316>, for its low power and sunlight readability, or the <http://www.adafruit.com/products/1115> ($20) including buttons - probably ideal for your application.

Bear in mind we are talking about a complete sophisticated computer with its own display just for monitoring your batteries.

I think it would be more cost effective to add a WiFi interface to a Pi (cost $12) and use a phone app which already exists for your device.

All in all, we are talking about $30 for the Pi itself, some kind of waterproof casing, power supply and power connectors. Then whatever readout mechanism we choose.



On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 6:47 PM, <rwsandersii@...> wrote:
 

Dimonic,

I just had an idea, and I wonder if this would be easier. 

The chartplotters have input for radar (which I will never use on this boat).  Would it be possible to chain together the PakTraker, to the  Raspberry, to a video card to create a NMEA compatible video display that wouldn't rely on the settings in the plotter?

I may be way out there talking about things I don't understand, but maybe it will work.

Richard



--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, <electricboats@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Sorry, I should have looked at my stuff first.  I have an older CPF 300i.  It appears that most of the information is similar, but fewer items to select (sentences).  I swapped the owner's manuals in the files.

Richard  



--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, <electricboats@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Looking at pages 98-99 of the Standard Horizon manual, it talks about advanced settings and lists the sentences for each port, but I don't see any that start or contain ER. 

Sorry,  but I don't really understand what the sentences mean.

Richard  



--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, <electricboats@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Well, let me look into what would be the best solution for you. Can you find out if your chart plotter can display NMEA "Engine Room" (ER code) sentence data?


On Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 1:08 PM, <rwsandersii@...> wrote:
 

Dimonic,

I uploaded everything.  If it can't be done, I still appreciate the help. Â Sorry, but I'm a bit helpless when it comes to this stuff, basic electricity is OK, but anything beyond that starts to make my head hurt. 

You'd never guess my dad was a top-notch computer programmer. 

Richard  



--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, <electricboats@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Ok, so from the information supplied, getting a direct display of the information is pretty simple. Making valid NMEA sentences is easy enough. The question I would have is whether your chart plotter will make any sense of them.

I would think the "Engine Room" (ER) monitoring system talker ID would be appropriate for battery monitoring. However, many systems don't use or respect those codes. Will yours display this information?

It would also be possible to use the Raspberry Pi to directly display the data on a screen of its own, or to export the data via a web server (over WiFi) - so you could view it on screen in a browser such as a phone or a tablet.

I note that there is also an Android app (called PakTrakr) which will act as a monitor for PakTrakr systems. It requires you buy a serial/bluetooth dongle and make a small (soldering) adjustment, and will allow you to display your abttery information on your android device.



--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "Nick" <chernikit@...> wrote:
>
> Paktrakr seems to be hors de combat at present.
>
>
>
> http://www.cloudelectric.com/category-s/7966.htm
>
>
>
> Maybe not the best time to invest in new gear unless pretty cheap.
>
>
>
> - Nick
>
>
>
> From: electricboats@yahoogroups.com [mailto:electricboats@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of rwsandersii@...
> Sent: Saturday, September 07, 2013 11:40 AM
> To: electricboats@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Electric Boats] PAKTRAKR question
>
>
>
>
>
> Hello everyone,
>
> I did get my electrically powered Compac 27 launched and I'll post a brief summary soon (I keep hoping Yahoo will switch back to the previous format, I hate the way things show in the web version right now, we don't even get our own picture on the front page, right now it is a guy on a mountain bike).
>
> Anyway, my PAKTRAKR display is dead. The remote seems to be running correctly as it is still flashing in the proper sequence. I would guess the displays weren't set up for outside use as it appears they were originally intended for electric cars.
>
> Before I go buy an entire setup (some guy in Europe has some for sale), I was wondering if anyone here knows if there is a "black box" that I could use to convert the PAKTRAKR output to a NMEA protocol that could be displayed on my Standard Horizon 390i chartplotter.
>
> This would have to be a plug and play set up as I'm not knowledgeable enough to program anything to do this.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Richard
>



--

Dominic Amann
M 416-270-4587



--

Dominic Amann
M 416-270-4587

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