Designing a custom sailboat instrumentation system

This blog's purpose is to document the design and commissioning of a custom instrumentation system installed in a small sailboat. The objective was to achieve superior accuracy through rigorous calibration procedures, with a refresh rate of 10 Hz on the following data:

• apparent wind angle (AWA)
• apparent wind speed (AWS)
• boat speed trough water (STW)
• true wind speed (TWS)
• true wind angle (TWA)
• velocity made good (VMG)
• heel angle
• leeway angle
• heading
• wind direction
• speed over ground (SOG)
• course over ground (COG)
• GPS position
• speed of current
• direction of current

All live data is saved on hard disk for further analysis and calibration purpose. Custom software is used to build a number of displays, refreshed at 10 Hz, with or without damping.

Here is a list of the different components of the system, with links to some manufacturers and distributors sites.

1- BDMICRO MAVRIC-IIB Controller (ATmega128)   (www.bdmicro.com)

2- Olimex AVR-MT-128 Development Board (ATmega128)   (www.olimex.com , www.sparkfun.com)

3- Raymarine E22078 ST60 Wind Vane Transducer (www.raymarine.com , www.westmarine.com)

4- Airmar ST650 Speed Transducer (www.airmar.com, www.ebay.com, www.ebay.ca)

5- Airmar ST650 Speed Transducer (www.airmar.com, www.ebay.com, www.ebay.ca)

6- LS20031 GPS 5Hz Receiver (www.sparkfun.com)

7- Logic Level Converter (www.sparkfun.com)

8- Airmar H2183 Gyro Compass (www.airmar.com , www.blueheronmarine.com)

9- SeaTalk interface  (www.thomasknauf.de/seatalk.htm)

10- Raymarine ST40 Bidata Repeater (www.raymarine.com)

11- Raymarine ST40 Wind Repeater (www.raymarine.com)

12- CP2102 USB to Serial Converter (www.sparkfun.com)

13- Asus 1005HA Notebook

14- NavPixel NPD0835  8.4” IP-68 Sunlight Readable Touch Monitor

The role of each of these components will be further described in future postings.