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Limit switch
#1
does limit switch need 2 wires each?
What would be a good chose for a hall effect switch? pull up? or pull down?
I was thinking of putting a magnet on my main gear and counting rotations. So i could know the absolute position of the screw. Polarity could be used to determine direction or 2 magnets. The main gear rotates 16 times/inch of travel.
A pot would be nice as it would retain its value but pain to build.
I want to make a decision soon so I can order parts and the M/F plug for the MarinePilot 1600.
 
Any Ideas on a client i could mount in the MarinePilot screen/buttons. I have a Nextion screen that would fit and a esp8266 nodemcu board and a few nanos in my bin.

I would like to be able to steer course then turn on the marinepilot have it move the actuator to the appropriate position to connect to tiller then enable autopilot.
To disengage i want to disengage autopilot remove from tiller, park actuator then power off.
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#2
The limit switches are 2 wires each, but 3 for both limits because there is a common ground. So you could use reed switches megnets etc The arduino has internal pullups, so the digital input io is pulled high, and when grounded, the limit switch is triggered. You could use hall effect as well, but I don't see much advantage over a reed switch and it would need more wires.

As for counting pulses.. I don't really recommend this because it won't give you absolute position. This relative position could be useful, but it would make more sense and be better to have absolute position.

So to get absolute position, consider using a potentiometer that is arranged to vary voltage depending on rudder position.


To make it automatically move to the position to connect to the rudder would require two position sensors. One for the actual rudder position, and another for the actuator position. This is technically possible but not implemented. As for parking the actuator, it's a great idea too, but not implemented, again you will need two absolute feedbacks, one for the rudder, and another for the actuator to do all of this.

As for the esp8266 to make a control.. sure it's possible but I have no code for this. It would be a lot easier to run a raspberry zero with nokia5110 screen and buttons, and have it wirelessly connect to the actual autopilot and this is already fully implemented.
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#3
I thought i could use 3 wires good. I will look for reed switches.
I plan to a a rudder sensor another trip to boat to grab rudder and tiller yo tha.
I have to go and pull my 1977 water speed though hull sensor and repair it any ways
Where is the code for the RPiZero. I have a fare bit of space in the Marinepilot after removing the old control board.
I was hopping that your were going to tell me i could just send a command to the motor controller to have it move it to a start position.
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#4
I provide images for the pi zero on the downloads section:

http://pypilot.org/


As for moving to a starting position (I'm assuming you mean centered) Unfortunately it just isn't implemented yet since I don't use rudder feedback much. I only have rudder feedback to prevent end of travel and report it via nmea0183 so opencpn can display it. It's a really good idea to do much more with rudder feedback, and I plan on this in the future.

For now you can manually move the rudder in standby mode before engaging.
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