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Helm Dashboard

A clean helm display that turns incoming wind data into a large, readable instrument for quick decisions underway.

Current build

WINDHelm instrument

What it does

Built for a clear view

Small numbers and busy interfaces are hard to use on a moving boat. The Helm Dashboard prioritises glanceable wind information and a clear visual hierarchy for use outside.

Key features

Large-format wind display

Responsive layout for helm screens

Clear direction and speed readings

High-contrast interface for changing conditions

Under the panel

How the system works

A practical map from the onboard sensor or controller to the value shown in the browser.

01
Boat instruments and motor controllers supply wind, temperature, GPS and CAN information to the onboard nodes.
02
The HAL connection publishes each live measurement as a named reading.
03
The helm page subscribes over secure WebSockets and keeps a short rolling history for the wind graph, gust and average calculations.
04
Direction rotates the large pointer; speed, motor temperatures and position are written into dedicated readouts.

Wire reference

Data format

Transport: Secure WebSocket subscription to the HAL data stream
Envelope: JSON chat envelope; text is hal: followed by key and value

Example payload

{
  "type": "chat",
  "text": "hal: windSpeed 12.7"
}

Other lines: hal: windDir 217 | hal: Temp1 38.4 | hal: GPS 53.7441,-0.3342

Field reference

windDir

Apparent wind direction in degrees, 0–359

windSpeed

Wind speed in knots

Temp1 / Temp2

Port and starboard motor temperature in °C

GPS

Decimal latitude and longitude separated by a comma

Source code

Take it apart. Make it yours.

The ZIP contains the web project and its matching ESP/Arduino firmware. Passwords, private keys, tokens, logs and live location data have been removed.

Firmware: ESP32 motor and helm firmware

Helm dashboard HTML
ESP32 Arduino sketch
On-device web interface
HAL server and display artwork

Download helm-dashboard-source.zip