Nautical navigation has a long history of innovation, from the compass and chronometer to today’s computer-driven autopilot systems. That said, the poor compatibility of electronics with saltwater has consequently created a need for rugged, waterproof computers, a category to which [Matti Airas] of Hat Labs has contributed with the open-source HALPI2.
Powered by the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5, the electronics are housed in a heavy duty enclosure made of aluminium, which also serves as a heat sink, and closes with a waterproof seal. It has a wide variety of external connectors, all likewise waterproofed: power, HDMI, NMEA 2000 and NMEA 0183, Ethernet, two USB 3.0 ports, and an external WiFi or Bluetooth antenna. The external ports are plugged into the carrier board by short extension cables, and there are even more ports on the carrier board, including two HDMI connectors, two MIPI connectors, four USB ports, and a full GPIO header. The case has plugs to install additional PG7 or SP13 waterproof connectors, so if the existing external connectors aren’t enough, you can add your own.
Besides physical ruggedness, the design is also resistant to electrical damage. It can run on power in the 10-32 volt range, and is protected by a fuse. A supercapacitor bank preserves operation during a power glitch, and if the outage lasts for more than five seconds, can keep the system powered for 30-60 seconds while the operating system shuts down safely. The HALPI2 can also accept power over NMEA 2000, in which case it has the option to limit current draw to 0.9 amps.
The design was originally created to handle navigation, data logging, and other boating tasks, so it’s been configured for and tested with OpenPlotter. Its potential uses are broader than that, however, and it’s also been tested with Raspberry Pi OS for more general projects. Reading through its website, the most striking thing is how thoroughly this is documented: the site describes everything from the LED status indicators to the screws that close the housing – even a template for drilling mounting holes.
Given the quality of this project, it probably won’t surprise you to hear this isn’t [Matti]’s first piece of nautical electronics, having previously made Sailor HATs for the ESP32 and the Raspberry Pi.
So,
What happens to the Ethernet, USB and HDMI connections once their made up?
I spent a goodly parts of my professional life putting electronics in less than hospitable conditions.
These connects are going to have a very short life in a marine environment.
They are replaceable… The Pi stays safe inside, plugged to the box, and the box have a set of connectors plugged to the Pi and to itself.
So,
You’re 200 miles out at sea and your guidance device dies because water got into one or more of your connections.
Better hope you have spares and you are not in the middle of a life threatening weather situation.
Mother Nature is a cruel mistress.
BTDT.
Put some real waterproof connectors on this thing. Even they will fail, but not anywhere near a often as there’s open to the site connections.
Ethernet, usb and hdmi are used all over the place on boats and they last just fine. Every modern chart plotter and display uses these connections.
So,
Actual sailor here. I’ve got 25,000 miles of pacific ocean experience that was all packed into 3 years, with half that in the tropics.
You are wrong. The ports will be fine. Most of the connectors you speak of are gold plated anyways and will see basically 1-5 connection cycles. They will not corroded.
You don’t store this stuff on deck where it can get wet, you store it inside next to the rest of the nav equipment.
We always had spares, because there were many times where land was 500-1500 miles away (sailboat). We had two laptops, one desktop.
What actually fails are the silver colored metal traces around ic’s or anywhere else you might see an exposed silver trace. Anything near forced airflow will get damaged much more quickly.
So while they may fail, it’s not going to fail quickly. They will last year’s.
Are all of these posts written by AI?
Where you in the South Pacific or you are full of shit. Point Nemo is 1670 miles, the next furthest is 1211nm.
Also “will not corrode” shows how little you know or have been at sea. Absolutely every metal gets corroded at sea, and I guarantee you that a cheap PCB will corrode.
FFS another sailor want to be expert.
Yes little keyboard warrior, you are the technically right there. I just tend not to count islands that don’t offer anything useful other than maybe a place to anchor. They are islands all over the place, but they are uninhabited. Therefore, any useful port with actual replacement parts is easily 500-1500 miles away.
You can believe what you want. I have lived experience. Its gonna take a long time for gold plated connectors to corrod. So long that it’s not a concern really. Various pieces of equipment on board were decades old and still work today. The car stereo we used for music still works 25 years later, but I did finally replace it to get Bluetooth capabilit a couple years back.
Some things did corrod. Speaker grills a bit. Plenty of soda cans did as well and we’re empty when we went to get them.
You should try sailing, it’s better than Internet trolling. Maybe you can take this Union 36 off my hands when I put it on the market next year.
So,
Actual sailor here. I’ve got 25,000 miles of pacific ocean experience that was all packed into 3 years, with half that in the tropics.
You are wrong. The ports will be fine. Most of the connectors you speak of are gold plated anyways and will see basically 1-5 connection cycles. They will not corroded.
You don’t store this stuff on deck where it can get wet, you store it inside next to the rest of the nav equipment.
We always had spares, because there were many times where land was 500-1500 miles away (sailboat). We had two laptops, one desktop.
What actually fails are the silver colored metal traces around ic’s or anywhere else you might see an exposed silver trace. Anything near forced airflow will get damaged much more quickly.
So while they may fail, it’s not going to fail quickly. They will last years
If those caps for the connector are waterproof (or even just splash proof) those connectors won’t get exposed to the air/water mix in normal use, as they are covered. And go one better you just drill a hole in them and use a rubber grommet or print/over mould one with a print onto your cable so they are similarly very well protected while populated. With the added bonus it will hold the non latching connectors in place so they can’t fall out too…
I’d expect them to have pretty good lifespan.
You can get HDMI and USB overmolded connnectors that will screw into the connectors on the box to provide a water proof seal around the actual connection. But like others have said. This equipment would be mounted in the protected cabin anyway, so it’s mostly a non-issue.
$360 + shipping is too expensive for my taste but if it really solves the problem then I’m sure it’s worth it.
When you compare that to the cost of standard nav units, it’s economical. This would easily cost $250 to build. The price seems very fair to me.
I usually put a coat of dielectric grease on connections that are exposed to the elements if they’re not going to be unplugged often. Sure it can be messy, but it’s easier to wipe off than replace a rusty connctor.
The article doesn’t mention it but I would assume that the connectors are all marine (salt air) rated, which also drives the price up.
I have been using a Pi Zero on my sailboat for some time and rusting USB connectors have been a problem.
You can solve the issue with some coat of dielectric grease.
This is perfect. It compares almost identically to everything I needed for a signal k server build for my racing sailboat. Plus more! I don’t think I could have put it together cheaper frankly. All those nice external connectors that are sealed off, fuses super capacitor. It’s exactly what I need. This is truly a shut up and take my money moment for me.
I got one and believe me it’s not that expensive compare to others.
Aluminum is the bad choice for salt water use, plastic is a far better option.
Since you are in salt water you can use a heat exchange like what is used in IO And inboard vessel made for this purpose.
My last 2 cents have been spent!
Alodyne treated aluminum is highly salt resistant
5083 aluminum alloy would actually be my choice for this.
It’s true that “Water corrodes — Salt water corrodes absolutely.” (Steven K. Roberts)
But the negative comments here seem overwrought. The designers look like they thought carefully about water ingress and corrosion.
For the belts-and-suspenders crowd for whom powder coating isn’t enough, there are a variety of nifty corrosion inhibitor products, e.g. https://www.hammfg.com/electrical/products/accessories/hvpci Hoffman is another supplier. Boeshield T-9 is a popular one too, but in my experience it is expensive (maybe because of its pedigree) and not effective.
Iridite NCP or Surtec 650 makes a reasonable job of corrosion inhibition, not perfect but used on MIL.
I agree, I have aluminum stuff all over the boat. yes it’s not going to last as long as the stainless but honestly by the time it’s a problem It’s probably 10 years and there’s going to be time for an overhaul of everything anyways. Plastic has its own problems, it just gets brittle over time unless you’re really careful about sourcing really nice UV stable plastic maybe even with a little bit of fiber. Boats move around… Some more than others… Durability from mechanical forces is important.
Galvanic corrosion will quickly mess up the aluminum enclosure around the bulkhead connectors made of brass.
SMA connectors are not a good choice either.
+1 ….. yep, the SMA connectors will get corroded very quickly. They’re not water tight either :(
supercapacitor bank for power outages to shutdown system safety??
lmao its a pi… it doesn’t care about unsafe shutdowns…
Yeah they do, to the extent that I stopped using them in enviroments where the power could go out. I got tired of constantly reflashing linux to the sd as the power outage would corrupt them
Depending on what you are doing with the pi, some pi “appliance” images will put the SD card in read-only mode.
I’ve had multiple SD cards corrupted from improper shutdowns. Those situations all had write mode enabled.
This one sports NVMe… They have write ordering and other niceties SD cards lack.
This reminds me of “BoatControl”. That one also has a Raspi on a very big PCB and it controlls 32 latched relays and has 32 fuses. It’s in the “Made with KiCad” section on KiCad’s website https://www.kicad.org/made-with-kicad/ and has a link to github with the full project.
It does not have an enclosure on it’s own, so you’ll have to take care of that yourself.
Interestingly there are commercial enclosures for wet areas that use a clamshell full of gel. While not the same as being able to hot plug it would be vastly simpler for a hobbyist, not to mention cheaper to use anregular Raspberry Pi instead of a module and carrier board (of course you could always run the wet-rated extensions through the gel for any that need unplugged frequently).
This project is in a funny area where it is 10x less than commercial solutions, but still 2-5x more expensive than hobby solutions.
I’m looking around for something like this, but it could possibly work if the Pi fits inside: https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Splice-Splice-Cover-Main-Range/dp/B00CUNN17E
Cool project for those with need of it (yacht racing teams? Long distance sailboats?). In the world of boats I am sure this is cheap.
IP65 is water resistant. Use IP68 case and glands for waterproof. Aside from that, nice tool.