Thoughts on panel upgrade?

On Thursday, February 2, 2017 at 11:34:25 PM UTC-6, Surge wrote:
On Friday, 3 February 2017 06:26:33 UTC+2, JS wrote:
A friend had overheating problems with his Open Vario. Look into that before starting the project (next year).
Jim

I built my own XCSoar glide computer (Raspberry Pi 2B) and I added a 40mm DC fan underneath the case running at reduced speed (couple of diodes in series) for ventilation.
The biggest source of heat in my case is the 7 inch, 1000 nit touch screen.
I'm sure an Open Vario case could be modified in a similar way to sort out heat issues. I didn't run into any RFI issues with the fan but YMMV.

That sounds pretty cool! Does it work well? Do you have any details/photos?

On Friday, 3 February 2017 07:57:40 UTC+2, Paul wrote:
That sounds pretty cool! Does it work well? Do you have any details/photos?

Some photos
https://s29.postimg.org/700iji3ev/pisoar1.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/j35u72eh3/pisoar2.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/f82g4hvbb/pisoar3.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/wmr9qihtz/pisoar4.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/pktc4be87/pisoar5.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/76it0c1xj/pisoar6.jpg

I used single side, copper clad, FR4 PC board soldered together to make the case. Don't do this unless you like to itch and make all your tools blunt! In hindsight an aluminium case may cost more and be a bit more difficult to manufacture but it would be better than working with FR4 board and look more professional to boot.
I made an oversized case because I have plenty of space behind the panel and to leave space for additional circuity later.
The screen is a 1000 nit, 7" Xenarc resistive touch screen (works with gloves) with HDMI connection to the Pi. GPS source is from a FlarmMouse via an S80 vario into RS232 to USB cable (using RS232 levels - not TTL). I'm not a fan of wireless technologies such as Bluetooth since they both introduce RFI and are themselves prone to external interference so I stuck with shielded, wired connections.
The 40mm DC fan is at the bottom and a covered vent at the top rear.

The Raspberry Pi 2B runs XCSoar on framebuffer so there are no overheads from a window manager. I can still launch an LXDE window manager to use a web browser once I've quit XCSoar.

The main reasons why I built it is because XCSoar rocks, I like tinkering and I didn't want to spend $2000+ on a commercial solution that I can't customise later or find out X years down the line that the device is no longer supported (please upgrade).
The OpenVario project looks like a nice solution without requiring R&D. If I had to do it again I'd probably go that route than build my own solution.

On Fri, 03 Feb 2017 21:37:46 -0800, Surge wrote:

I used single side, copper clad, FR4 PC board soldered together to make
the case. Don't do this unless you like to itch and make all your tools
blunt! In hindsight an aluminium case may cost more and be a bit more
difficult to manufacture but it would be better than working with FR4
board and look more professional to boot.

That sounds good to me. I've made up a number of bits for my Libelle
this way, though I use epoxy (24 hour Araldite) rather than solder to
join the boards. Here's a description and photos of a replacement battery
box lid that also serves as a logger mounting:

http://www.gregorie.org/gliding/libe...ttery_lid.html

The main platform is a sandwich of 1.6mm epoxy board top and bottom with
3mm balsa in the middle so its a sort-of mix&match with my Libelle, which
has balsa wing skins.

I've also used epoxyboard to build the adapters you need to attach a PNA's
mounting clip to a RAM flexi-mount and to make a latching mechanism to
clip a Glassfaser 'bum bag' onto the Libelle's wing assembly lever
attachment points.

If you don't want copper-clad epoxy-board, plain epoxyboard is readily
available as model building material in a variety of thicknesses from
0.2mm to 6mm (1/128" to 1/4"). Copper clad PCB is typically 1.6mm or
0.8mm. I think no workshop is complete without some of this in the supply
cupboard. I normally use 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6mm sheet.

In the UK I get epoxyboard from HobbyPlastic,
http://www.hobbyplastic.co.uk/ but in the USA I'd use Aerospace Composite
Products, http://www.acp-composites.com/ if the local model shop doesn't
stock it.


--
martin@ | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org |

On Friday, February 3, 2017 at 11:37:47 PM UTC-6, Surge wrote:
On Friday, 3 February 2017 07:57:40 UTC+2, Paul wrote:
That sounds pretty cool! Does it work well? Do you have any details/photos?

Some photos
https://s29.postimg.org/700iji3ev/pisoar1.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/j35u72eh3/pisoar2.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/f82g4hvbb/pisoar3.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/wmr9qihtz/pisoar4.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/pktc4be87/pisoar5.jpg
https://s29.postimg.org/76it0c1xj/pisoar6.jpg

I used single side, copper clad, FR4 PC board soldered together to make the case. Don't do this unless you like to itch and make all your tools blunt! In hindsight an aluminium case may cost more and be a bit more difficult to manufacture but it would be better than working with FR4 board and look more professional to boot.
I made an oversized case because I have plenty of space behind the panel and to leave space for additional circuity later.
The screen is a 1000 nit, 7" Xenarc resistive touch screen (works with gloves) with HDMI connection to the Pi. GPS source is from a FlarmMouse via an S80 vario into RS232 to USB cable (using RS232 levels - not TTL). I'm not a fan of wireless technologies such as Bluetooth since they both introduce RFI and are themselves prone to external interference so I stuck with shielded, wired connections.
The 40mm DC fan is at the bottom and a covered vent at the top rear.

The Raspberry Pi 2B runs XCSoar on framebuffer so there are no overheads from a window manager. I can still launch an LXDE window manager to use a web browser once I've quit XCSoar.

The main reasons why I built it is because XCSoar rocks, I like tinkering and I didn't want to spend $2000+ on a commercial solution that I can't customise later or find out X years down the line that the device is no longer supported (please upgrade).
The OpenVario project looks like a nice solution without requiring R&D. If I had to do it again I'd probably go that route than build my own solution.