Category: PCB

news about PCB

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sailoQ micro 1.6: a more robust, maintenance-free GPS speed log

The sailoQ micro 1.6 is the evolution of our GPS speed log: the same simplicity as the 1.5, but even better prepared for real life on board. We keep improving!

The micro 1.5 proved we were on the right track: simple, small and doing only what it needs to do. With the 1.6 we have kept that philosophy and thoroughly reinforced everything that makes it work better on board.

Placa sailoQ micro 1.6 con GPS integrado montada en su caja

What’s new in version 1.6:

  • Improved power supply. We have completely redesigned the 12 V input circuit. A boat’s electrical system is far from clean: spikes, voltage drops when starting the engine, noise from other equipment… The board now handles all of this much better and delivers stable power to the rest of the circuit.
  • Improved GPS antenna. Better satellite reception, faster position fix and steadier speed data, even with the board inside its enclosure and mounted on a bulkhead.
  • NMEA sentence filtering. The device discards incomplete or corrupted sentences before processing them, so only valid, useful data reaches the microprocessor. Port usage has dropped from 64 % to 16 %, four times less load.
  • Better receive buffer. We have enlarged and optimised the buffer that receives GPS data, so no information is lost even when many messages arrive in a row.
  • Expanded data bus. More capacity to communicate with other devices, and the board is ready for future expansions.

New software for the 1.6

The 1.6 shares its platform with the 1.5, so its software builds on the micro’s and has been adapted to take advantage of all these improvements. The big news is the diagnostics and controltool, which reports much more clearly what the device is doing at any time (GPS status, data reception, start-up…), so if in doubt it’s easy to see what’s happening and where.

Caja sailoQ 1.6 con logo junto a la placa montada en su interior

And of course, a new custom enclosure with the sailoQ logo, for a clean and professional installation.

In the video you can see it working with a Raymarine Bidata display: at start-up it runs the calibration test, ramps the speed up and back to zero, and from then on shows GPS speed just like a good old speed log. No paddle wheel, no marine growth, no maintenance.

We hope you like it. As always, we’d love to hear any suggestions or anything you’d like to see in the device.

Now available in our shop: sailoQ cube-micro

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New enclosure for the sailoQ micro: screwless, with a custom-fit lid

For the micro enclosures we have a new 3D printer, and it shows: much higher print quality and, above all, much greater precision.

That precision has allowed us to tighten tolerances dramatically, so we’ve done away with screws: the lid fits perfectly and stays firmly closed on its own. Fewer parts, faster assembly and a much cleaner finish.

Base de la caja sailoQ micro 1.5 vacía
Caja sailoQ micro 1.5 cerrada con las bornas de conexión
Caja sailoQ micro 1.5 abierta con la placa montada

What do you think?

Now available in our shop: sailoQ cube-micro

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sailoQ micro 1.5: the simplest GPS speed log

The sailoQ micro is our simplest board: it replaces your boat’s speed log with GPS speed. No paddle wheel, no marine growth, no maintenance. And with version 1.5 we’ve done it again! We redesigned it from scratch to do just that, better than ever.

Placa sailoQ micro 1.5 con GPS integrado

What’s new in version 1.5:

  • GPS built into the board. Everything in a single unit: fewer cables, fewer connections and more reliable communication.
  • GPS on the hardware serial port, with receive buffer. Data arrives complete and on time, so the speed on your display is steady.
  • All-new design. No unnecessary circuitry: fewer components and fewer things that can go wrong.
  • Improved power supply. A buck converter delivers clean, stable 5 V without overheating.
  • Smaller than ever. Our trademark size reduction: it fits in any corner next to your instruments.

Is it for me? If you need to replace your speed log and already have data sharing between your boat’s networks sorted, the micro is for you: simple and affordable.

Available in our shop: sailoQ cube-micro

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New PCB 1.4

After using the board for a while, we decided to develop a version with support for the SeaTalk bus, one of the most common (if somewhat old) data bus standards on leisure boats.

Caja sailoQ 1.4 cerrada con las bornas de conexión
Tapa y base de la caja sailoQ 1.4

We keep the NMEA0183 output and add the new SeaTalk one, so the board acts as a bridge between both, making data exchange between the two buses simple. As announced, the temperature sensor has been removed; a board can be attached via the I2C bus to read temperature, humidity and pressure (though not in a standard way).

Caja sailoQ 1.4 abierta con la placa, el Arduino y la antena GPS

Of course, we have developed new firmware to take advantage of these features and, while we were at it, optimised the code for better performance, gaining speed and error resilience.

We hope you like it.

Interested? sailoQ devices are available in the shop: the sailoQ cube-micro, speed log only, and the sailoQ cube-lite, with NMEA 0183 and SeaTalk. If you're unsure which model to choose, see Which sailoQ do I need?

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Enclosure for board 1.3

Making use of an old 3D printer, we designed an enclosure to make mounting on bulkheads easier.

Here you can see the first prototypes: we designed two models, one more compact and one slightly larger.

Caja compacta impresa en 3D para la placa 1.3
Caja grande impresa en 3D para la placa 1.3
Prototipos de cajas impresas en 3D en varios colores

Interested? sailoQ devices are available in the shop: the sailoQ cube-micro, speed log only, and the sailoQ cube-lite, with NMEA 0183 and SeaTalk. If you're unsure which model to choose, see Which sailoQ do I need?

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New PCB 1.3

The previous board seemed a bit large to us, so we designed a more compact PCB with the inputs and outputs we were planning for our future software, allowing a more efficient assembly without so much wasted space.

After a long design period and a looooong wait, they have finally arrived. Here are the very first pictures.

Placa de circuito impreso sailoQ 1.3 sin componentes
Placa sailoQ 1.3 montada con Arduino Nano y bornas

As you can see, everything is very compact. Apart from the GPS, it accepts an external GPS input, or the on-board one can be used externally.

The NMEA output works provisionally, and we are still testing to output the speed log and GPS data (it isn’t soldered in the photos).

We have kept the SDA and SCL outputs (I2C bus) to connect a 2- or 4-line LCD display, although these screens are very small and the information has to be squeezed a lot, which looks odd; we’ll try to solve this.

The temperature input, although connected and working, may not be available in future versions, as we will use a more flexible system: the I2C bus.

Now it’s time to design an enclosure for the device, but we’ll leave that for another post.

Interested? sailoQ devices are available in the shop: the sailoQ cube-micro, speed log only, and the sailoQ cube-lite, with NMEA 0183 and SeaTalk. If you're unsure which model to choose, see Which sailoQ do I need?