Sailing pirates

Team page for Deploying IT Infrastructure Solutions.

Team Members

Kristjan Tõnismäe, The Estonian Information Technology College
Konstantinos Verigos, Technological Educational Institute of Crete
Stefanos Athanasiadis, Technological Educational Institute of Crete
Tommi Potapoff, Vaasa University of Applied Sciences
Jesse Koski, Vaasa University of Applied Sciences
Mikko Heikkuri, Vaasa University of Applied Sciences

Goal

Work out good working prototype or final product.
Build up product with good graphical user interface.
Create embedded system with two parts:

2. Using Marine microcontroller and Marine sensor system.

Embedded system can save history data and hold it.
This embedded system can show all information what sensors can give.
It has to be simple and easy to use.
It has physical buttons what you can use to start and stop saving data, to turn device on and off.

Activity

Activity chart

Monday - 25.03.13

Things what we did that day:

Listening some lectures.
Programming sumorobots and took a part from the sumorobots contest.
Divided into groups and we chose our project.

Tuesday - 26.03.13

Things what we did that day:

Made some research for hardware, software and tried to got a cleaner view of our project.
We met sailing boat in our school, got inspiration, made some brainstorming, collecting ideas.

Problems what we faced:

We tried to find those problems what we will starting to face.

Things what we plan to do:

Collect more information about our project.
Ask some questions, what we have made for clients.

Wednesday - 27.03.13

Things what we did that day:

We met our mentor Andres Käver and other project owner Linnar Viik, we cleared up our project.
Everybody got their part what to do:

Problems what we faced:

What kind of devices can connect to system?

Dual Digital Display and through NMEA there will be connected tablet.

Questions and answers from client:

Things what we plan to do:

First thing

Thursday - 28.03.13

Things what we did that day:
We made plans what someone start to do.

Software (Kostas and Jesse)

Arduino (Stefanos and Kristjan)

Hardware (Tommi and Mikko)

Teamwork

Friday - 29.03.13

Things what we did that day:

Built a level shifter.

Built hardware connections between sensors and level sifter.

Improved user interface by changing the size and colors of some parts (eg. buoy). Uploaded the image in the tablet and testing it outside in the environment.

Problems what we faced:

In the software Arduino part a problem raised at the NMEA/TinyGPS library, because the library does not include ready functions for extracting wind information

take this responsibility and this task will be completed using Java programming language.

Things what we plan to do:

Fix our main problem to get information from arduino controller.

Saturday - 30.03.13

Things what we did that day:

Visiting Tallinn TV Tower
Visitinig The Seaplane Harbour

Saturday - 30.03.13

Free day

Monday - 01.04.13

Things what we did that day:

On the hardware section some faults were repaired. We changed the baud rate of the information extraction, and by that action the laptop device that was

connected to the server was able to identify the NMEA protocol strings from the server. Also with an Oscilloscope we checked that the outcome signal of the system is correct.

A prototype program was created that a tablet controls the led of the arduino controller with a tap of a button.

Problems what we faced:

Faults in hardware connections, faults with the level shifter.
Just problems with java developing, can't say in more details.

Things what we plan to do:

Finalizing the hardware setup.
Continuing the development of android and arduino software.

Tuesday - 02.04.13

Things what we did that day:

Visiting Skype office.
Debugging hardware setup and testing software.
Started to do our presentation for Thursday.

Problems what we faced:

Cannot get information from arduino to the tablet.
We are not getting wind speed to the windometer. We don't know how use windometer multi-control.

Things what we plan to do:

Try to find out how to use windometer multicontrol.
Complete our presentation about our project.
Continuing the development of android and arduino software.

Wednesday - 03.04.13

Things what we did that day:

Created the powerpoint presentation
Fixed the bug.

Problems what we faced:

Bug that delayed the arduino communication.
used library was newer and no backwards compatibility.
the old library was not stable.

Things what we plan to do:

Fix the communication so the devices can communicate with each other.

Thursday - 04.04.13

Things what we did that day:

Fixing and correcting the powerpoint presentation
preparing our speeches
creating a demo of an application

Problems what we faced:

The arduino controller was fried up, that is why it could not communicate both ways.

Things what we plan to do:

Test the communication with a different arduino controller.

Results

Summary of what we did and solution what we developed

Personal Input

Konstantinos Verigos

My part was programming the Android Application which is responsible for the communication of Nexus hardware system, arduino controller ( and android shield) and the tablet. The software program is created in java language. Furthermore I programmed the arduino micro-controller. Also I was the project leader of the sailing team group, giving assignments to other team members.
What I learnt:

Tommi Potapoff

I connected all the hardware components of the nexus system, like NX2 server, WSI box, GPS, wind transducer, speed sensor. I also calibrated the whole system. I built a level shiftier which it was responsible for switching/alternating the voltage level so the arduino controller can connect with nexus system.
What I learnt:

Mikko Heikkuri

I connected all the hardware components of the nexus system, like NX2 server, WSI box, GPS, wind transducer, speed sensor. I built a level shifter which it was responsible for switching/alternating the voltage level so the arduino controller can connect with nexus system. Also i helped with programming the arduino micro controller.
What I learnt:

Stefanos Athanasiadis

I was responsible for updating the wiki page and documenting the project progress. I also help testing the functionality of arduino micro controller, did some run testings. Another thing I did was making the presentation, and some various small tasks.
What I learnt:

Kristjan Tõnismäe

My task here was updating the wiki page and documentation the project. Also helped with some tasks, helped to make much better UI design. I helped to understand java and Android parts. I tried to give as much ideas to the project as I could.
What I learnt:

Jesse Koski

What I learnt:

Final documentation

Analysis

The client wanted a fully functional system, or a toolset for race sailing performance analysis. With this Instrument trainers and analysts want to calculate new courses and provide assistance to the Estonian Olympic race sailing team. Also the client desired a marine sensor measurement visualization, and a minimalistic GUI design with a map, that means that they can use a simple portable device to overview the course. Also they required some physical buttons that they will let the trainers to collect and show the necessary information. During the collection of the data, difficult conditions such as bad weather and full wind speed, will not allow the trainers to use a touchscreen tablet device, that is why the client desired the physical buttons.

Solution

We are creating a system for sailing purposes that consist three parts. Nexus Marine sensors, Arduino micro-controller, android tablet application. The marine sensors are especially made for sailing purpose to gather information about boatspeed, gps coordinates, wind direction and wind speed. After collecting the information, we are forwarding them to arduino and from there to an android tablet with an android application. The marine sensors are wireless connected, the connection between the nexus and arduino is done by serial port RS-232 and the final connection from the arduino (android shield) to the tablet is made via usb cable. We have Big Physical buttons to control data since our client doesn't want to interact with the tablets touchscreen, this tool will be used on-boat thats why the physical buttons are needed, also the tablet will be in a special waterproof case, so it will be protected from the harsh conditions. The Graphical User interface will be simple, using Google-android API v.2 the background will be a map, the controls will be easy also, and simple to improvise for the use of trainers and analysts.