I have no idea where to put this, but I imagine if it works, I will have to implement some sort of microcontroller to make contact with this device.

We have scrapped this marine controller for one of our thrusters because it is defect. I will see if I can find the fault (have two controllers now, one of them looks like it has a burnt voltage regulator)

If I succeed in fixing them, could I somehow make contact with it? It there some device/MCU that I can hook up to it, that hammers it with signals/pulses, until it makes a twitch? I thought it would be fun if I could make it to beep.

I can take pictures of a controller in action, to see which port is in use. But I do not want to share them, because of strict company policy.

It comes with an SD-card in the side, that says which propeller it belongs to. Maybe this has some information?

All of this is most likely proprietary and very well locked. Don't know if this is possible.

 

I'm guessing that the box is essentially a desktop PC - with video card, USB port, serial ports, a network card plus - a CAN BUS.
What are you trying to do? You may need some CANBus devices if you want to communicate with something. @nsaspook might be able to point you to a CANBus device - I saw some photos he posted recently that looked like CANBus. Otherwise, you may need a hard disk (with an operating system) and power supply on the backside of that unless it's internal. Connect a monitor and power it up - see what it does.

 

Yeah, I noticed the Video ports. I am going to see what it does with a screen hooked up.

I am not trying to achieve anything specific, just see if I can send some signals to it to see if it reacts in any way. I don't know...like hack it? Just to see if I could locate some of the thruster functions (like Start Oil Pump, or Low Hydraulic Pressure Alarm)

 

Yeah, I noticed the Video ports. I am going to see what it does with a screen hooked up.

I am not trying to achieve anything specific, just see if I can send some signals to it to see if it reacts in any way. I don't know...like hack it? Just to see if I could locate some of the thruster functions (like Start Oil Pump, or Low Hydraulic Pressure Alarm)

It is likely a Linux or Windows operating system and a normal file system under there. It really depends if the manufacturer locked it down for the specific boat or if there is some kind of setup-mode so you can add some devices to control or monitoring modules to the CANBus. You'll know more when you power it up with a display attached.

 

Luck has it, that I found a control monitor for this device, that speaks the same language.

But I will still try to hook up a computer screen to the device, see if I can access windows or linux.