A little project. Need some opinions.

[tres]

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]

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]

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

 

[tres]

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.