Why buy one? (Oh, that's why)....

OK. Lets discuss stupid idea number 24434.

So, this model boat/ship/headache has a huge amount of features. Just from memory, on the right is a list of stuff that 'operates'.

So, I thought I would do some testing with WiFi to see if I could get a decent range for my own system.
An Arduino Nano + nRF24L01+ module (with the correct aerial) actually gave me a pretty reasonable range.  This thing is going on a pond, not the ocean.

So I sourced a bright yellow, industrial enclosure and laser cut a bezel to go inside
A pair of Chinese joysticks and a Nextion touchscreen later.... we have a controller.

The touchscreen seemed a better option, as I can add and subtract from the controls as I want.
Nextion screens are a bit clunky, and this is the basic model, but for this job it works fine.

2x Drive motors
1x Bow thruster
Rudder
2x Radar motors
Crane rotate left/right
Crane boom up/down
Crane winch in/out
Towing winch 1 in/out
Towing winch 2 in/out
Anchor winches in/out
Aft capstan winches
Lighting (oh so much lighting)
Sound effects
So inside there are a pair of large Lipo batteries.  The touchscreen is pretty power hungry.

Front panel has a Micro USB port for programming the Nano, and another Mini USB for charging the Lipos (via a charging controller).

Some Red LEDs on the enclosure lid provide night illumination.

Nextion screen

The Nextion screen interface is made using Photoshop.

I basically took a blank 480x800 start page and designed my pages with buttons etc as I needed.
There are the following pages:

Main Bridge control
Towing control
Crane control
Aux settings
Ships systems
Navigation lighting

There are a couple of other pages that cover the whole screen when there is a warning.
There are a couple of pages not used yet (Navigation for example).  
Nearly all the pages have a live feed from the ships Peto tube (speed) and onboard compass (Heading).
Also live reporting of the transmitter and the receivers battery levels.

Bridge control:

  1. 2x Throttles (Port and Starboard engines)
  2. 1x Bowthruster 
  3. 1x Rudder
  4. 1x Rudder lock button (hold rudder in set position)
  5. Start and stop engines buttons
  6. Start and stop Bowthruster button
  7. Fog horn sound effect button
  8. Ambient sound effects button
  9. Fire alarm sound effects button
  10. PA announcement (random) button

Towing control:

  • Port towing winch on/off
  • Starboard towing winch on/off
  • Port winch in/out
  • Starboard winch in/out
  • Port winch speed
  • Starboard winch speed
  • Rear deck capstans cw/ccw

Crane control:

  1. Crane power on/off
  2. Crane winch on/off
  3. Crane winch in/out
  4. Crane boom up/down
  5. Crane winch speed
  6. Crane rotate left/right

Aux settings:

  1. Bilge pump on/off
  2. Radar motors on/off
  3. Anchor raise/lower
  4. Anchor motor speed
  5. Navigation lighting button (takes you to the Navigation lighting page)
  6. Deck lighting (floodlights)
  7. Search lights (2x Spotlights on the main superstructure)
  8. Interior lighting (lighting inside the superstructure and the helm
  9. Below decks lighting. Lighting under the main deck (engine room etc)
  10. A keypad to allow you to directly trigger any sound effect by number (they are listed on the Ships Systems page).                         This also allows you to control the volume and the amplifier power.

Ships systems:

  1. This lists all the information about the ship.
  2. Sound effect numbers
  3. PA announcement numbers
  4. Amplifier and volume control details
  5. Live reporting of all the ships sensors (Crane limits, anchor limits etc)

Navigation lighting:

Not all of these apply to this ship.  But in the interests of making a universal controller, I just added every combination I could think of.
I will be updating and editing these as I go.
  1. At anchor (combination lighting button)
  2. Pushing ahead or towing alongside (combination lighting button)
  3. Vessel restricted in her ability to manoeuvre (combination lighting button)
  4. Not towing (combination lighting button)
  5. Vessel not under command (combination lighting button)
  6. Vessel restricted in her ability to manoeuvre making way (combination lighting button)
  7. Towing astern <200m (combination lighting button)
  8. Vessel not under command making way (combination lighting button)
  9. Vessel restricted in her ability to manoeuvre at anchor (combination lighting button)
  10. Towing astern >200m (combination lighting button)
  11. Vessel constrained by draft (combination lighting button)
  12. Vessel aground (combination lighting button)
  13. Side Navigation lighting (combination lighting button)
  14. All lighting off button
  15. Individual lights can also be controlled by simply touching them