I am totally new to this type of programming so please go easy on me. I had a touch panel in my boat go bad. New panel is crazy money. I got to thinking could I get a waterproof touch panel, small computer, and a relay/GPIO board that would allow me to control things again. I do a lot of control systems for homes with products from Crestron and Control 4 and so on. Building the hardware I think I can do once I select the best hardware. What I can’t figure out is what software will be best for me to use. Any help would be amazing!
Hi Jon,
Take a look at Tim’s latest video, I think it’s right up your alley!
Once you’ve done that, feel free to come back here with any questions you’ve got as to how to adapt this to your project 
-James
Thanks for the link. I had watched that and it does prove that what I am doing can certainly be done. So that is awesome! What I am a little confused on is can I use any touch panel to do what I am looking to do? I need a 7" touch screen that is waterproof (boat is a surf boat and wet all the time) and sunlight readable. I have found a number of them but how do I know they are going to work or work in the easiest way I can get it to go? Raspberry Pi looks to be the way to go with the PC as it will boot up very fast and I can find them that run on 12 volts. I see the relay board he used is stackable so that is great. I think I need about 12 relays so 3 boards. I assume I could use different relay boards that maybe are USB connected or? What about GPIO’s for feedback. Once things like the bags are full it would be killer if I could have the GPIO tell the system the bags are full and to run them for another 15 seconds then shut them off. I had never thought about voice control but it would be kind of cool to hook the boat up to my phones hot spot and be able to say “turn on the navigation lights”. That way I could keep the screen dark at night and control things easily with out killing my night vision. I can 3D print a case for this that is water resistant I think is probably good enough as the PC will be up under the dash. Again thank you so much for any help. Just don’t want to waist a bunch of money buying stuff to find out I am in way over my head!
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This is why a replacement screen is “crazy money”. Water proofing is hard and salt water just adds another level.
If you can provide links to the screens you have found, pretty sure someone on the forum would be able to advise as to what hardware and software may be appropriate. But keep in mind people on this forum are hobbyists and provide help to other hobbyists, there is no guarantee the advice will work for your situation.
Cheers
Jim
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