DIY engine monitoring system

R_p_ryan said:

I've been looking at the low cost TFT displays, but I think with all the iPads out there it seems redundant. The tach on my boat runs off the alternator and it's totally inaccurate, which is why I've added the hall sensor. I think I've seen some amperage sensors that clamp around a wire to sense current. If so, this could be easily added to both the alternator and the main battery bank. It could show the output of the alternator and whether the bank is net drawing or charging.

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I am not so much interested whether there is a current or not, there are other systems to check that.. I want to know if the V-belt is still intact, this belt often drives the auxiliary water pump in charge for the cooling system. A cheap but vital part which, broken, can generate a high repair bill.

BTW #1. I paid US$ 13 on ebay for the TFT ILI9341 display.

BTW #2. the -W- from an alternator can give a total sound RPM signal. if the pulse is treated right and the divider is right this pulse is an absolute representation of the RPM. It can also detects V-belt slip when compared with the crankshaft RPM.

My 10 centavos

I keep meaning to get into this thread. I just can't seem to find the time to start another project right now. I do have access to a 3d printer and as a thank you to rp for doing all this heavy lifting, if you'd like one, i can make you a custom enclosure for your electronics. Limited to abs plastic right now and I think I'm out of everything but black, haha

Great idea, I did same thing but only on the hi side bilge pump.Looks like new winter project.Thanks.

R_p_ryan said:

I've been looking at the low cost TFT displays, but I think with all the iPads out there it seems redundant. The tach on my boat runs off the alternator and it's totally inaccurate, which is why I've added the hall sensor. I think I've seen some amperage sensors that clamp around a wire to sense current. If so, this could be easily added to both the alternator and the main battery bank. It could show the output of the alternator and whether the bank is net drawing or charging.

Click to expand...

I do agree that the iPad will be the default interface (and with me a past-life windows developer... pride swallowed). But not the anchor, yet.

My tiny firm Poort.ca should have its marine enclosure kit for the iPad ready early summer, anybody on "Ryan's list" will receive a coupon for Amazon.

I'm in.

Gabe_N_Em, and djones44,

Thanks for the offers, when everything is up and running on the RPI I'll take you up on them.

I was thinking about the web server on the RPi and thought there might be some additional uses. Maybe have a web page with the rules of the road, tide table, fish in season, pictures of the various species of fish that you must throw back, maybe even a music player. Or a form to enter data like the last time you filled the tank, how many hours were on the clock, whether you used fuel treatment, etc ( and have a way to download the file for backup. I'm thinking it could become the operating system for the boat. It's pretty amazing to hold a rasberry pi in your hand and view its web pages on an iPad.

Btw, I have some updates on the sensors at https://bitbucket.org/R_P_Ryan/enginemonitor/wiki/Temperature Sensors. Basically the DS18B20 sensors should be embedded in a bronze plug or threaded rod. I had them just bonded to the outside of tubing, and that gives a reading similar to what the IR sensor returned. However I setup a test at home comparing a bronze plug vs. epoxying the chip directly on the pipe - the difference was significant.

I'm experimenting with using bronze threaded rod with o-rings and double nuts, this way you just need to drill a hole in the pipe, slip in the rod and o-rings, then double-nut each side. I welded on a bung for my EGT but I'd rather have techniques that don't require welding.

I used the waterproof DS18B20 digital temperature probe. To mount it to the vehicle i used a 6mm 15/64" OD Air Pipe Compression Fitting (from Ebay $5.61). Great way to mount these nice stainless probes.

Great idea!

I don't know how this compares to your source for pricing, but I got this in my email inbox this morning and thought it might be a good source for you guys. Check it out for Arduino and Raspberry Pi prices.

DX Arduino, Raspberry Pi, development board and expansion board for you

Thanks for the link, I've never seen prices that low. I'll sent them business soon.

I'm having a technical problem and need some help. Since the RPi is a Linux OS it can't just be turned off like the Arduino. In version 1 the power switch is on the side of the LCD enclosure and you can turn it on and off all you want and there's no problem.

I can put a button on the webpage to shutdown the RPI gracefully, then you'd have wait 10 seconds or so before turning off the switch. So I'm sure we do better. I'm thinking the Arduino can be the RPi master and turn it on when the power is on, then have a script running on the RPI to shut itself down if it gets no response from the Arduino. But this would leave a very small draw from the RPi, basically an led. You could shut off the Arduino and as long as it took 15 seconds or more to walk over to the main battery switches to turn them off then it should be fine.

There are some solutions on the web but they entail batteries or large capacitors.

I was thinking about reversing the roles, where the RPi would throw a relay to power on the Arduino, or have a relay for the Arduino to cut off power to the RPI.

Two simple problems are converging to make things complex:
--- The RPi draws a very small current when off
--- The RPi shouldn't be shut off by removing the power

Djones44,
How are you with ios apps? Initially I was thinking this would just display engine data, but the RPI puts media, reference data, and all kinds of capability right out there.

Do you have an app for your enclosure, or is just for keeping it dry?. Are you planning on having it join an AP on the boat?

We should work together, I can focus on the integrations and data, if you want to make it look purrty

Rather than bother with a RPi, why not do a Corona SDK lua app that queries the Arduino over the internet for a string to be parsed and displayed on the screen of a tablet?

I assume you can do IP socket communications with an ethernet shield? or is it native on your arduino?

By using Corona SDK, you can make an app for different devices (even apple TV now).
https://coronalabs.com/

For small scale users as this would be, it's free for the dev kit, not like it used to be.

Here is an example on how to do TCP/IP and UDP communications with another device, which could be an Arduino.

https://coronalabs.com/blog/2014/09/23/tutorial-local-multiplayer-with-udptcp/

All you would need is to know the IP address of the Arduino.

At this point the easiest and most flexible way to get the Arduino on the network is to hang the RPI on it. The arduino wifi sheild uses several pins, is not cheap, and is pretty limited with it what it can do.

The Arduino has no networking ability built in.

R_p_ryan said:

Djones44,
How are you with ios apps? Initially I was thinking this would just display engine data, but the RPI puts media, reference data, and all kinds of capability right out there.

Do you have an app for your enclosure, or is just for keeping it dry?. Are you planning on having it join an AP on the boat?

We should work together, I can focus on the integrations and data, if you want to make it look purrty

Click to expand...

The Poort is simply an iPad enclosure, horizontal or vertical, with no associated apps as yet. Lard Jayzus, ain't they enough for the 'Pad already??

I'm a longtime Windows developer, but have no iOS plans. As a former IBM clone builder too (Cardz) I think I've supported enough hardware for one lifetime. ;-)

That said, I do plan to invite a coterie of impressionable youths (relatively) onto my boat to try their hand at boat instrumentation and WiFi data games. I was much influenced by the motivational speeches of T. Sawyer and Major Hoople.

So, the RPi will talk to the Arduino over serial?

Redpark has a serial to iPad cable (even an option to charge the iPad in the process).

Is what you're doing tying up the ports used for an Ethernet shield?

Please forgive my ignorance; I don't understand all the technical stuff that's been discussed but the project sounds awesome. If Arduino is being used, could the sensor system be integrated into something like this? http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f13/openplotter-project-152754.html

Panhandler, thank you x1000 for the link. This is a perfect system to integrate. I posted on their forum about this project.

Stu,
There are two pins on the Arduino that talk serial. These are connected to the GPIO pins on the RPI. I made up a sentence that has all the sensor readings and it's returned to the RPI over the serial connection. Then a python library queries the GPIO pins and parses the data and returns HTML. I'm currently integrating some sexy analog guages for the iPad or any other browser.

I looked at using SignalK but it's a bit complex.

R_p_ryan said:

Panhandler, thank you x1000 for the link. This is a perfect system to integrate. I posted on their forum about this project.

Click to expand...

Great! Sounds like it could be an awesome and groundbreaking system when running and integrated. Can't wait to see it! Wish I had some expertise to donate...

A possible interface for the device?

Samsung announced a car modem today that connects to your OBD diagnostic port on your car and full LTE.

Now this can do a lot of things, but for our purposes I like the claim that it "lets drivers monitor their vehicle's performance as well as locate it."

So the question becomes: how can our boat engine(s) talk to this device, via the car software interface? And can we adopt that module for our application? Moderate it with an iPad app?

My project is to get the engine data up into WiFi, parsed into the cars' onboard electronics, adopting their receiver SDK, and then feed the iPads from there.

And have that bandwidth to burn, see things with little latency.

Dwight

I stumbled onto this thread while searching the net for Arduino and
"Engine monitoring" topics. I joined the forum so I could post.
I read thru all 6 pages with ever increasing interest only to find things
had ground to a halt 8 months ago. Seems to happen all too often on the internetz.
What happened? Is this topic/project dead or suspended?

I'm not a boat guy so maybe my application would be considered off topic? I'd be very interested in this project to monitor similar conditions on a large diesel air compressor. It seems adaptable. Strictly for use by only me in my shop.

Dan

Has this materialized into anything? I have been looking around the web and see these types of projects die off.
Please if this project has continues elsewhere I would like to be apart of it.

It's dead I fear

Thank you for responding. Do you know from your research anything about products like Noland (RS11), Actisense (ECM-1), maretron if these device are any good. Some claim to read voltage/ resistance from existing sensors to be displayed on a gps screen such as Garmin units. Also, some read engine computers (MEFI 1) and translate it to Nema2000.

Do you know if these work or know of any direction to look in?
Thanks again

Sorry, but not familiar with any of the products you mentioned

Since the original point of the thread is largely dead, I will comment at the risk of being criticized for causing drift.

I have made lots of Arduino devices and find them to be very powerful, particularly when combined with 3D printing for appropriate enclosures, etc., and CNC cutting of PCBs for convenient shields.

I have a Maretron network monitoring my Cummins engines (whose data is output on a J1939 Canbus, and converted using a Maretron device to N2K, which is the protocol used by the Maretron network). The problem is that although my engines output instantaneous fuel burn data, they don't output total fuel burn data, while the Maretron Display won't totalize the burn. Although Maretron does make a device that will put out total burn (or other flow), it requires physically connecting to the fuel lines. So, I am planning an Arduino-based device to "listen" to the N2K bus for the Cummins data (the specific PGN for flow rate), totalize then the "talk" the appropriate PGN for total burn.

I am happy to share my results, but perhaps someone knows an easier way?

Amazing , more responses than a " my anchor is better than your anchor " thread.

Not being up on the electronics hobby,

I will stick with my pure mechanical Murphy Switch Gauges to secure the engine if an out of normal situation arises,even after a lightning strike.

Ain't just messing around with boats grand?

Priobe said:

Thank you for responding. Do you know from your research anything about products like Noland (RS11), Actisense (ECM-1), maretron if these device are any good. Some claim to read voltage/ resistance from existing sensors to be displayed on a gps screen such as Garmin units. Also, some read engine computers (MEFI 1) and translate it to Nema2000.

Do you know if these work or know of any direction to look in?
Thanks again

Click to expand...

I, and others, have quite a bit of experience with the Maretron equipment. What are you hoping to do?

I have used an Alba-Combi to convert discrete inputs (voltages and resistances) from a pair of FL120 engines into N2K data. Once it's on the N2K network, you can do a lot of things to display it, including custom displays if that's what you are wanting to do. There are phone apps, PC apps and probably stuff for Linux if you want to use a Raspberry Pi or something for display. You can also use any of the 4" style multi purpose N2K LCD displays by Maretron, Furuno, Garmin, etc...

The install I did, the data is displayed on a set of Simrad MFDs, but the Alba-Combi has a built in web server that allows configuration of the device from a browser and display of some basic dash board data on any tablet/pc that you want to use, that's what set it apart for me to choose it over some of the competitors products. The documentation isn't very good, but it's not too hard to figure out. The one thing that is glaringly lacking is that they don't tell you that to switch an input from voltage mode to resistive mode you have to take the top off and flip a DIP switch for the channel you want to change. There's also a very limited set of pre-configured sensors so you'll probably need to calibrate them manually when you set it up the first time. (I did so)

I've found it to be reliable, apart from the Simrad MFDs occasionally choosing to stop displaying N2K data for no particular reason and needing to be reset before they display it again. It appears they are choosing non-existent phantom sources mid-use and reconfiguring themselves automatically occasionally for no apparent reason. A power off/on of the Simrad device fixes it. My guess is that occasionally the network has an error and the Simrad devices are 'auto selecting' all the time and decide to 'auto select' some data that doesn't exist, but then never bothers to 'auto select' back to the real source once the error has passed.

If you are wanting to make your own displays with N2K based dashboard software I think a device like the Alba Combi along with a N2K to Wifi/Ethernet bridge is a good choice to get the data onto the network, the only limitation is their selection of PGMs, you'd want to be sure it has the ones you want. At some point, I plan to use an Alba Combi to convert my older Detroit diesels to electronic instrumentation displays.

twistedtree said:

I, and others, have quite a bit of experience with the Maretron equipment. What are you hoping to do?

Click to expand...

I am looking to convert my existing gauges and adding water pressure and oil temp to a echo map via NEMA2000.
I receive mixed information from Garmin as to what PGN they support such as water pressure. Looking at the simulator mode water pressure is displayed. So does it or does it not support pressure reading. Also, what separates these gateway such as Maretron from the rest.
I’m trying to avoid spending money only to find out it’s misleading information as to what I see in the Garmin.

Priobe said:

I am looking to convert my existing gauges and adding water pressure and oil temp to a echo map via NEMA2000.
I receive mixed information from Garmin as to what PGN they support such as water pressure. Looking at the simulator mode water pressure is displayed. So does it or does it not support pressure reading. .....


I’m trying to avoid spending money only to find out it’s misleading information as to what I see in the Garmin.

Click to expand...

In many Garmin manuals they list the supported PGNs. Here is a link to one example:



https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/web...UID-46195FE3-A349-4BAD-A3DB-672B7E7D894E.html