Autopilot for small power boat

Posted by Zeljko Vincic on November 5, 2015 at 2:29am

Hello everyone!
I have a small powerboat and want to make the autopilot to sail.
I ordered APM 2.6 with a local retailer,
The idea is the following:
- Control only over the compass, so take a course manually and then run the autopilot
- Control must be +1, -1, +10, -10 degrees for course correction
- Display for the course and heading
- Engine at the helm over the belt
- Rudder angle sensor as feedback
- GPS just as an option, I think that I will never need or if it already exists as a possibility, why not?
Slightly collect materials and opinions so I will inform the group about the progress and so will be free to ask some questions.
Calm sea!

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Replies

  • Zeljko Vincic January 6, 2016 at 10:35am

    Hello Fred R
    That job has dropped a lot bigger than I thought. Weather for me is very bad and the testing is paused (I can not run a test drive), but as things stand I am not far from the solution.

    U7mkAnG.jpgspT0Rkl.jpg

    • Fred R > Zeljko Vincic January 7, 2016 at 9:54am

      Hi Zeljko,

      Thank you for the quick reply. You have really advanced a lot. The mechanical part must have been quite difficult to make. Like I see you have dropped the Ardupilot and are developing your own system. That's not bad option at all for the dedicated task like yours. Good luck with the project and hopefully you will be on the water with it soon.

      Regards
      Fred

    • Darius Jack > Zeljko Vincic January 6, 2016 at 1:37pm

      Hello Fred,

      @Zejko is exactly out Autopilot master

      I have limited my activities to cut project budget.

      So my small boat autopilot technology is based on bow-mount trolling motor.

      I have replaced foot control (controller) by servo controlled by GPS.

      I use fair-priced 2-stroke motor for tests.

      Track is preset on GPS-enabled 10 inch tablet and recorded GPS track is displayed

      in the same window to visualize diff and corrections.

      Control commands are sent to servo via Bluetooth.

      The same 2-stroke gas motor can be easily disconnected and used to power up brushless generator to charge battery if necessary as add-on power backup (UPS).

      So I get 2 functionalities at a single price:

      1. 2-stroke bow-mount tralling/ autopilot motor

      2. gas powered generator

    • Fred R > Darius Jack January 7, 2016 at 9:54am

      Hi Darius,

      Thank you for the quick reply. Your project sounds very interesting indeed. So are you using this setup in real trolling process? How does it perform? Is the speed control manual or preset?

      I'm intending to do something similar. I've bought a servo from China which is powerful enough to turn electric trolling motor. Have not figured out yet how to do simple and reliable servo to trolling motor connection. There are many options indeed. For my purpose GPS is really overkill. Steering by compass and manual speed control is all I need. There are arduino scripts out there that do that but I would like to do that with Ardupilot. It's incredibly versatile and elegant software / hardware solution which is just awesome and fun to use. I've tested it on a toy rover setup. I am not capable to code but maybe some day somebody comes along who can code a custom mode for compass steering.

      Best regards
      Fred

  • Darius Jack November 5, 2015 at 5:54am

    Hi Zeljko,

    I tested twin motors race boat.

    2 brush motors by default, no need for rudder and complicated rudder angle sensor.

    GPS is not bad in  your case so you can get real heading readings clocked 1Hz

    as well as real-time clock data ( clocked 1Hz) to calculate travel time, battery life, if telemetry is out.

    Ok, you don't need GPS if your boats remains in sight.

    darius

    • Zeljko Vincic > Darius Jack November 5, 2015 at 6:03am

      I'm afraid I was not precise enough. It is not a model, it's a real boat length 6.20 meters.

    • Darius Jack > Zeljko Vincic November 5, 2015 at 9:23am

      Manned, plated, registered ?

    • Zeljko Vincic > Darius Jack November 5, 2015 at 9:26am

      Sorry, my english is not so good. I don't understand this question :(

    • Darius Jack > Zeljko Vincic November 5, 2015 at 3:15pm

      It is not a model, it's a real boat length 6.20 meters.

      Do you really have plans to control your real boat, length 6.20 meters

      remotely alike smaller model boat ?

      I am not sure if under local legislation you are allowed to control remotely

      real boat of this size.

    • Zeljko Vincic > Darius Jack November 5, 2015 at 9:01pm

      You really do not understand me.
      I do not want to make a remote control rather than help in navigation.
      Such devices are much in use but are very expensive.
      This is one of the cheapest:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3miLtxjl9Fs

This reply was deleted.