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Day 18: Electronics on board!

30 June 2024 · 1 min · 2K views · Bay of San Carlos de la Rápida

What this video covers

Pablo Berrus builds a low-cost backup navigation system aboard his boat at anchor in the Bay of San Carlos de la Rápida, Spain (40°36.5'N, 0°36.5'E), as part of day 18 of preparations for a solo circumnavigation.Watch The core of the system is a Raspberry Pi single-board computer paired with a touchscreen, both sourced from AliExpress, powered through a 12-volt cigarette-lighter adapter, and paired with a UFAMO GPS receiver.0:18 A microSD card loaded with worldwide electronic charts runs navigation software that displays the boat's position.0:48 Berrus verifies the setup by comparing its GPS readout against the boat's existing chartplotter; both return identical coordinates, confirming the system's accuracy.1:15 A battery-powered handheld GPS serves as a third independent backup.1:36 The existing helm electronics are described as outdated, making the redundancy worthwhile.0:08 The practical point: duplicating navigation electronics with a Raspberry Pi and AliExpress components costs a fraction of proprietary marine chartplotter hardware while delivering equivalent positional accuracy.

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