hey everyone. I am building a new panel system for longtime Forum member and SX Owner Brad Moss. He has been such a long time supporter and contributor to the site. He made super nice chrome bubbly Epic Marine stickers 15 yrs ago that I still have on my trailer and laptops, etc;) he gets special treatment.
I will be throwing in a lot of extras for him. He has a 2002 or late 2001 (not sure) but it has all bells and whistles. We are programming it for the heater controls and hatch controls with all original function. The Heater button will turn yellow, orange, red when pressed, and the horn and hatch controls will be momentary. It will be completely plug and play as all of my systems are.
ALL my systems offer free VNC wireless access from your phone or cheapo boat tablet to control both the buttons and whatever you like to do on the internet. I stream music or watch youtube videos on such subjects as machinists running 5 axis mills. You can do both at the same time. You can play videos or music and nothing interrupts the button selections, even restarting the boat. I designed the entire system to be robust and easy to install and operate.
Brad's system also has a HiFiBerry audiophile interface. This is a high-end DA converter/soundcard that makes MP3's and internet audio sources sound as good as...possible. It makes WAV and other HQ audio files sound their best, and with a 3000 watt rms system on a modest boat owned by mortals, we don't want cymbals to sound like frying bacon. I just got done playing Van Halen 1 & 2 to my cove neighbors for the last couple of weeks every night. I haven't spoken to them directly in several years, but I am certain they appreciate the high volume and clarity of my audio system.
Brad will have the capability to connect via a powered USB hub directly to the processor. This is an option that allows you to provide a charge sufficient for tablets and a data connection directly to the panel, you can copy files and play media directly from a thumb drive on any of my panel systems, but this remote USB interface mounts in a convenient space and is powered for the application.
There is approximately 45 GB of storage available on the system for media, a wireless, backlighted rechargeable keyboard/touchpad is included with every system.
Speaking of, a spare 64GB extreme duty waterproof SD card, fully loaded with backup software, is included with EVERY system. It can be replaced without removing the panel. I have had one failure of a cheapo SD card, I reimaged it and still use it for testing.
I build a relay box that connects with Cat6 cable to the panel for control of circuits, it is a direct replacement of the factory box. Hole placement is slightly different, drill 1/8" holes.
All other parts are off-the shelf, I can supply them with a handling charge or you can buy them yourself.
The system is easily scalable, if you want to drive a bunch of video screens or have camera inputs, OBD2, daquiri ratio control, whatever. No problem.
