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Boat Computer modified for 4WDs
I was interested to see the Boat
Computer modification (April 2016;
siliconchip.com.au/Article/9887) for
fitting in a four-wheel drive with an
altitude display in the August 2020
issue (Circuit Notebook). Some time
ago, I installed the Boat Computer in
my four-wheel drive and also modified
the software to suit. My software strips
out the navigation capability and has
three screen displays.
At switch on, it shows a digital
speedo (useful because car speedos
are almost always inaccurate) and a
compass. The compass display has
been redesigned to work like a marine
steering compass, which I find more
intuitive. Unlike the original software,
the compass does not blank when the
vehicle stops because a car does not
swing at anchor.
The second screen shows time, date
and day of the week. Serious grey nomads can easily lose track of the latter,
which can result in problems when arriving in town and finding the shops
and attractions are shut.
This information assumes Eastern
Standard Time (10 hours in front of
GMT). For other time zones, the variable timezone should be adjusted to
the difference from GMT in seconds.
The third screen shows latitude, longitude, altitude and number of satellites. The latter is to give some indication of precision.
The modified software is available for download from the Silicon
Chip website (siliconchip.com.au/
Shop/6/5681).
Greg Hoyes,
Upper Kedron, Qld. ($50)
More modified Boat Computer software
I saw the article about getting the
altitude information to appear on
the Boat Computer by Tim Blythman (Circuit Notebook, August 2020;
siliconchip.com.au/Article/14539)
and have added it to my program.
I have made a few other modifications to it. I use mine as my primary
speedometer. I have been running this
for a long time now, and have it on the
top of my dash. It appears just above
my steering wheel and just under my
normal line of vision. I have also fitted a shroud to get rid of sunlight on
the screen.
I am an NBN “Fixed Wireless” installer and sometimes need to know
in what direction I am driving to be
able to determine which direction the
siliconchip.com.au
tower is I need to point to (the bearing
is given on the work order).
My daughter also has one in her car
and is often asked by friends what it
does.
The other changes I made are as
follows:
1) I locked the baud rate for the GPS
module to 9600 baud as I have found
it to be the usual rate.
2) I have added a 24-hour clock on
the heading screen, as my satnav loses the clock when I go into navigate
mode.
3) I have included automatic backlight control. I am using a Jaycar LDR
(RD3480) in series with a 56kW resistor. The LDR looks out through a hole
on the back of the case, which gives
Australia’s electronics magazine
good light control and requires no access to car wiring.
4) I have modified the km/h reading to give the reading in 1/10th km/h
resolution (the decimal place is in a
smaller font).
When I loaded it with the altitude
changes, I initially loaded it using the
V4 fonts library. But when I loaded
the V6 fonts into the library, the program crashed after loading the main
program.
I then “crunched” the fonts file and
it all loaded okay. Both these files are
available for download from the Silicon Chip website (siliconchip.com.au/
Shop/6/5681).
Ray Saegenschnitter,
Huntly, Vic. ($50)
November 2020 63
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