Building an embedded device for sailboat racing: fabrication and assembly
Now it’s time to put it all together! Mechanical fabrication is one of my weaker skills and this is where having handy friends really helped pay off.
electronics
Building an embedded device for sailboat racing: power and packaging
With the software running on the Raspberry Pi and touchscreen in a “bench test” format on top of my desk, it was time to start thinking about how I would actually package this up into a complete device that I could install on the boat. It needed to be waterproof, powered by the boat’s battery bank, and ideally no larger than necessary.
Building an embedded device for sailboat racing: a digression on suppliers…
This post covers some details about the shopping needed to identify and acquire elements described in post #2, “the platform,” as well as the numerous other smaller components that went into the complete assembly.
Building an embedded device for sailboat racing: the platform
To build a device that would accomplish my goals I needed to get the data from the sensor instruments, run some computation over it, and visualize it on a clear display. I needed to choose fundamental building blocks of the system to accomplish these goals.
An Electronics Project for Sailboat Racing
I’ve always thought it was fun to do small electronics hardware hacking projects. I also really enjoy sailing. I had an idea for an onboard electronic gadget I could make to help with sailboat racing. It took four years — but it works!