Talking about going back to production

[unkn0wn107]

Hello everyone,

To follow-up on the initial discussion from Peter doing an indefinite pause on Maiana production.

Some people, including a friend and me, are interested in producing some boards and eventually making it available again for order (kit or naked).

This discussion aims to bring together people interested in this adventure. Don't hesitate to reply and share your goals and development stages.

[tooluser]

I would love to see this happen; no hardware skills myself to speak of. I mean I can solder and probably have a flow oven around but I’m not on this level!

[ay-b]

I was too slow to order one while it was possible so I'm signing in for the next possible batch.

[Haimana]

Hello,
I am also interested in the Maiana production.
In fact, I already stared and my first ordered PCBs are on the way, 10 sets for now.
Should arrive in few days (in Bucharest, Romania), maybe little bit delayed because Christmas Holiday. For now, only the PCBs for the base kit, semi-populated so, will be a busy holiday :) :)
I also intend to refactor the NMEA adapters but this will be the next stage, after I'll see the base kits up and running. I'm thinking to make them in some panel mount enclosures, like 57mm dia gauges. Just a thought for now.
Good luck to everyone
And Merry Christmas
Seb

[ay-b]

Please, keep us updated on progress.

Happy holidays!

[sailoog]

Glad to see that there is more than one project going on. At OpenMarine we will try to support them all. Here is what we can offer:

• Worldwide distribution with flexible rates. We will also be happy if you do it yourself. Our goal is to keep the project alive.
• Support on OpenPlotter.
• Prototype testing.
• Free use of OpenMarine resources like cloud space or dedicated forums.

And here is what we would ask for:

• No part of the kits should be longer than 45 cm. Any longer and shipping is very expensive.
• There are already hundreds of MacArthur HATs in the wild. New products should maintain compatibility with them and, if possible, with the old Maiana adapters.
• As a bonus, antenna mounting could be improved by using a standard base or adapter.

Good luck and happy new year!

[unkn0wn107]

Cheers Mate @Haimana ! Glad to see someone real close to board hardware completion :)

Will keep you updated when being there.

And thanks @sailoog for your support !

For the enclosure, we kept most of original components for now like good quality tubing and shrinking.
We aim to reduce the kit size and number of components if possible. And will try to use more standard antennas for people to buy locally or globally available used or new antennas. 3 different types to test first : portable VHF (like 20cm), 40cm and mast 1.5m.

I didn't really get your idea of panel mount 57mm, can you explain ?

And have you found out the use for all TPs and a testing recipe to mark each piece as conform ?

I will probably focus on migrating the kicad project to a copy in version 8, I had some issues with refills and couldn't install version 7 anymore. Or some firmware fix or upgrade that could be required first. Maybe would be soon a good momentum to prioritize issues and move together toward an interesting direction.

Merry christmas and end of the year.

[Haimana]

Hello,

I'm thinking about this kind of gauge, 52 or 57mm.

And to have the switches and the LEDs instead dial, and the connectors (RJ, NMEA, USB on the back side)

For now, I'll keep the original design for antenna. Looks good and cheap for me.
The antenna_cap and lower_antenna parts will be made on a lathe and not 3D printed. Should be faster and cheaper.
Maybe I'll change the diameter of the fiberglass tubes, depending on local providers

TPs... not yet. I preferred to have the boards first, which should happen Monday, 2 days from now. Still have a lot of parts which have to be soldered. I hope I'll have some fully populated boards ready next week and move on to the next step - bench testing.

Best regards and Happy New Year!
Seb

[SirReal-surreal]

Great that some fellows try to push this forward. I think for the overall setup AIS is one main pillar and the real joy to get MacArthur on the right level.
My two cents:
As GPS runs at many positions also below deck, I still think that using the VHF antenna with a splitter is still a good idea. This would reduce the efforts, splitters are available on the market and the main component we need would be the AIS PCB which needs to be connected to the splitter and to MacArthur on the other side.
The installation would be much easier as the antenna is already there and it could be placed below deck somewhere, where GPS reception is acceptable. A housing would be nice. Also maintenance would be much easier as the PCB can be reached easily.

[Haimana]

Hello,
I'm somehow on the other side: against any splitter or cable between AIS board and antenna.
Any splitter or cable in between will introduce a lot of loss performance for both Tx and Rx.
This is one of the best features Maiana has.
Best regards,
Seb

[unkn0wn107]

Starting electronics rebuild on my boat and plan to have fallbacks on almost everything (later for central unit).

So I see the Maiana as a built-in AIS antenna in the back balcony for daily Tx Rx usage.
Also planning to double this with a fallback splitter for mast antenna on a dAISy for minimal Rx back-up, or when wanting to go under the radar. Ideal situation would have minimal loss or provide on-demand splitting for VHF, FM and AIS. And separate GPS receiver (I had on the boat) on the front. That's when MacArthur will become handy to centralize communication !

There should be some good passive or active splitters out there ! And maybe dreaming, open-source ?

[ZbynekTM]

Hi,
I was also too slow to order a kit...
But since xmas I've been working on my revision of the board with STM32L432KBU6TR, the same radio chips, but with ublox gps module and a complete layout redesign, maybe in the future I will be able to publish it and theoretically bring it to production (maybe even certify it in europe), but I'm still a student so I don't have that much time...
With that said, amazing work by Peter, good luck to everyone trying to bring the kits back!

[unkn0wn107]

Woh, eager to see the redesign and even contribute to it if you want / need ?
What is your motive in switching to ublox ? Which one are you thinking of ?

I was thinking of alternative antennas for the GPS, found 2 serious candidates, showing better datasheets. Less power hungry and higher gain and cheaper on top of that :

• https://octopart.com/ant8010ll05r1575a-pulse-116647048
• https://octopart.com/ant6230ll01r1575a-yageo-27810913

I also want to move forward certification, maybe in another branch / revision if original design philosophy is to keep it for development purposes, with less regulatory constraints.

STM32L432KBU6TR is also the one I chose for my first batch, I saw compiled fw STM32L432 4.4.1 for the 11.3 but not for the 11.9.3. I am thinking of compiling it to provide a binary, have you done it ?

Or maybe @peterantypas you prefer that the binaries are compiled from you only ?

[ZbynekTM]

The GPS module Is ublox max m10s, i would like to use ublox because i am familiar with it (used it on past projects) and have few of them already.
Thanks for the tip regarding the GPS antenna, I'll look into them, also i want to change the SMA to mmcx which i just like a lot more but haven' decided on that one yet. I expect to finish my board design later this month and dedicate as much time as possible till august for testing and revisions. i'll (i Hope to) make the kits for sale in september.
I haven't compiled the firmware yet, but hoping to keep it (on the transceiver) as stock as possible