Wind mode display + tack function

[kalle]

Sailing upwind I have an apparent wind angle of about 36°. After the tack I want to have the same angle on the other bow. On my simple arduino autopilot I just changed from stb (+36°) to port (-36°). It was working but I only tried it on

Do you suggest it display wind angles as + and - for starboard and port then?

flat water and my boat is very heavy. On ther boats and condition this can of course be different. On my

 It is not hard in flat water with a heavy boat in steady winds.

tacking in all cases the best way possible is difficult.  

For this reason, I think there need to be parameters specifically for tacking that are tuned otherwise the autopilot needs to learn from its mistakes, and this is even harder.

Navman autopilot you could preset a Tack angle for example 100°. Doing it like that you will have more rudder reaction. After reaching the new desired angle the autopilot should start steering to that angle. The boat will overshoot a little bit but good for taking up speed. That could be a simple solution.

As I said before, it already supports this.   You can add angles like 100 (I use 110 in stronger wind) to the button angles in the plugin.   The autopilot itself doesn't have a concept of tacking, only course changes, but it probably should understand tacking specifically.

The tack delay on the Navman was simply the time between pushing the button and starting the tack, time to go to the winch.

Nice idea.  Could also have a max turn rate for tacking.

so settings:
1) tack angle.   In wind mode it is automatically determined from current course
2) tack delay.  how long to wait to tack after hitting button
3) tack speed  how quickly to tack
4) tack complete... when to revert back to normal filter.  Typically half the tack angle but adjusting this would be useful to prevent overshoot.

 basic idea when you hit tack:


1) wait tack delay (setting #2)
2) change course to tack angle (setting #1) or opposite wind angle
3) move rudder at tack speed (setting #3) until it hits end of travel, or boat is through the wind (setting #4)

Once the boat is through the wind it would revert back to the normal filter which will move the rudder back toward the center from the gyro gain.

Not sure if this is the best way to do it, but it's an idea, I should try it out next week.   What do you think?

I agree it should work this way. Good idea, with settings #3 and #4 it can be adjusted to every kind of boat. Remember when tacking by hand we first give full rudder and turn it back when boat is through the wind at an definite angle.