A little project. Need some opinions.

tres · 13 Aug 2015 at 15:09

OCUKers,

Not sure where this should be posted, but here will do for the minute.

I need to create 5 outdoor monitors, that will display boat locations and text retrieved remotely.

At the moment, I'm thinking:

For the boat AIS data - a USB AIS receiver on a computer which automatically uploads the data to a server. (Haven't quite looked in to this one yet, always an API to use from a provider)

For the boat board processing - ?Raspberry pi, with a 3G dongle (although we only get GSM ('G') here. This would be scripted to download the boat data from the server over slow GSM every minute, and update a website, which would be displayed on a...

For the monitor - 24" TFT or something. Not looked in to this. Shame e-Ink isn't at the big stage. Weatherproof case, with the raspberry pi attached.

So to summarise

Numerous remote 'boat boards' - Outdoors monitor, which uses a connected Raspberry Pi and dongle to pull AIS data from our server and update a pretty interface throughout the day.

Any advice on bettering this draft project? Thanks!!

tres · 13 Aug 2015 at 15:42

I thought maybe a tablet instead of a Raspberry pi - just as cheap, if not cheaper. Output via Hdmi, has GPRS ability.. but I guess, writing the software would be much harder.

tres · 13 Aug 2015 at 16:16

It seems Three do a good 1p/MB pay as you go sim. That might be the one, in a little mifi box

AHarvey · 13 Aug 2015 at 16:45

What kind of boats, model, real? and where is this being displayed?

How is it displaying the location? gps mapped onto a map or just via text?

Three are pretty rubbish with coverage from what a lot of friends on 3 say but it's always worth a try if it's cheap enough

If this is a tourist attraction, you could add an NFC tag under each monitor that users can scan with their phones. they can wonder off and get updates on where the boat is via their phone.

tres · 13 Aug 2015 at 17:06

AIS data - each boat will have a class B transponder. I can't quite work out how to use a receiver and then decode the data to usable data. I might just pay for an API. I will then map these on to a static map

These monitors will be scattered around the island.

Coverage of everything is shocking here - only 2G data - but Three should be fine enough.

Ah, the clientele here will probably have the latest and greatest phones, but not a clue to use them. I bet 95% don't know what NFC is.