PyPilot on OpenPlotter with dAISy hat

[skyeyedoc]

I too have considered wireless extension of the serial line. Because I have experience with the ESP8266 it is my first thought. I have two broadcasting GPS and AIS over wifi to my boats router that seem reliable. I also have two more sending MQTT to a nodered server through the boats router, they are not as reliable. My battery monitor reboots every few hours and I haven't had time to figure out why. The fridge monitor deepsleeps for 15 minutes between readings and seems ok.

LoRa may be less power hungry. I've read some about it but not actually played with it.

A Pi Zero W might be ok if you use something like the tinycore linux to run entirely out of RAM, otherwise you might get variable delays and unpredictable latency.

Reliability is very important in an autopilot, depending on where and how you sail. Latency between the pypilot and the motor controller is also a concern. Especially in adverse conditions.

If pypilot see a GPS, it offers waypoint/track steering called GPS mode, so it says. I haven't got that far myself yet.

Since you are using the RPi headless, did you consider the TinyPilot installed near the motor and control accessed the same, VNC or such?

--
Larry  s/v Katie Lee Passport 45 Ketch somewhere in Japan

Hi, Larry,
Wow, there is so much helpful thought here to unpack. Thanks for taking the time.

I'm impressed by what you're describing with the ESP8266 devices. That's a new one for me. Are they sending only, or bidirectional? You imply that they are a bit power hungry? I'm guessing they are configured like a wifi access point? I took a quick look at LoRa on wikipedia, but it gets deep fast.

I have thought about simply building or buying a TinyPilot and mounting it dry in the binnacle, at some remove from the motor-controller, of course. It's an electrically quiet area on my boat, as we only use handheld devices there, so they can retreat to below if things get wet. (we've a Tartan 37). I'm mindful of the advantages, as it runs from RAM, and being so simple.

I don't yet have a very clear mental picture of the building blocks that make the motor respond. Working backwards, there's the motor, which responds to 12v, needs maybe 4amps ambient/ maybe 30amps at cut-off, and reverses with dc polarity. It's fed from the motor-controller, which will be signaled by a low voltage/low amperage input around 3 to 5 vdc...  I'm not certain, but imagine that it, too, reverses polarity to command L or R instructions to the motor.

Now, between the PyPilot software, and the motor-controller 3 to 5 v. input signal, there is in my head a soft wind blowing, and the sound of slack, slapping sails...  I've studied Sean's helpful videos very closely, stopping and starting the video to try and parse the hardware in his motor-controller. But I'm still quite the noob in that area.

I don't yet understand the nature of the PyPilot's command data stream to the motor-controller,  and I really know almost nothing how arduinos are programed and used.

In Sean's motor-controller, I think I appreciate why he's got optical-isolation between the high current and low current circuit. I'm not sure my controller would require that, if I can signalling it through something simple and low-cost; something easy to swap out underway if it gets fried.

Egad, so much to think about. So much to learn.

(BTW, nice blog there, Larry. We're at blog.swiftpassage.com , but not active with it.)