Helm instrument console

 General view

 

Navpod general view

 

Buttons positions

Buttons

 

Left Module 

MOB - man over board alarm set (work all time when powered on ) 

 

Power button -

When device off 

    Press for one second   - power up device & display. Start default applications.

When device on 

    Press for one second -   switch display and keyboard backlight  (but power button) on/off.

    Double click -  set minimal brightness.        

    Triple  click - full bfightness.

    Single  click  - Increase brightness one step.

    Press and hold for 3 seconds - initiate shutdown and then power off.

    Press and hold for 10 seconds - Immediate power off. 

 

VNC/MAP button

    Single click - open OpenCPN.

    Double click  - open VNC to main computer screen.

 

Sail/motor button

     Single click - open switch between sail and motoring dashboards (maybe control running light)

 

Auto/anchor button

    single click  - open Autopilot dashboard

    double click - anchor (windlass) control dashboard. (Switch right panel to keyboard mode)

 

Mode button - select autopilot mode

Tack button - starts autopilot controlled tack (pressed with +/- 10 buttons)

STBY button - disable autopilot

AUTO button - activate autopilot

 

 

Right module

 

Mouse button - set controls in mouse mode

Lock  button = ? 

Key/Num botton'

    single click - set KEY mode 

    double click - set NUM mode  

 

 

MOUSE MODE

    Arrow buttons -  move cursor 

    OK Button - left mouse button

    ESC/Return - 

        Single click - "Esc"  keyboard code

        Double click - "Enter" keyboard code

        Press and hold - transform arrow buttons to scrolls 

    Right/Space button - Right mouse button

    Tab/Next - ??

 

Keyboard MODE and NUM

    Arrow buttons -  cursor keys

    OK Button - left mouse button

    ESC/Return - 

        Single click - "Esc"  keyboard code

        Double click - "Enter" keyboard code

    Right/Space button  -  "Space" keyboard code

    Tab/Next - "Tab" keyboard code

 

NUM mode 

    Autopilot control buttons act as key digits. 

 

Keys controls document link

Design in progress

Front part was ordered from JLCPCB.com service before tariffs,  

back part I decided to print from "ABS-like" resin at home using resin 3D printer. 

         

Back part of the navpod print in progress.

 

Box Dryfit on the boat

 

Actual device build started

Dry fit prototyping for frames keeping Raspberry, display adapter board and display backlight power supply.

Display controller (HDMI to LVDS adapter) and backlight power

 

RPi layer over
 

Raspberry mount frame

Face panel with installed keyboard electronic boards.

Software design

Software is made as stand-alone python apps.

Navpod_manager - app communicating to keyboard and controls switching between application and mapping physical buttons to dashboard applications including OpenCPN, navpod_dashboard, Engine control, Anchor_control 

navpod_dashboard - showing sailing specific dashboard based on SignalK, pypilot 

Engine_control - showing deep motor specific dashboard based on SignalK and pypilot

Anchor_control - is an anchor alarm app which can control windlass and show dashboard based on SignalK and windlass link.

 

Finally On the boat

 Clean installation

All wires inside the guard rail box itself screwed to rail with machine screws (rail drilled and tapped)  and backing plates inside plastic.