2019-09-25, 03:58 PM
Hello! I found my way here while researching ways to save money on autopilots, as I guess many people did. Im looking for a solution where I can hide away my autopilot down below, not having it take up unnecessary space and clutter the deck.
Im very intrigued by what has been done here, a engineering(all be it very early in my education) student as I am I'm fairly familiar with the raspberry and the potential it brings to the table. Essentially I'm prepared to give the whole combination of Openplotter and Pypilot a go, and build em myself. What I'm not so familiar with are dc motors and mechanical torque needed from the motor the be confident in its reliability when the wind picks up.
i have a First 31.7 sailing boat, and a issue with the design of the boat is that it has very limited space around the steering shaft (English word for that?) meaning its difficult to get good leverage for turning the rudder.
So to get started I'm trying to figure out how powerful of a motor do I need? or rather, how do I calculate how powerful motor I need? I see you guys talking about windscreen wiper motors, but they operate on the tiller arm, that I assume gives them a fair bit of leverage.
Great project all in all, I hope to get this together for next summer as I will try to sail to England
Im very intrigued by what has been done here, a engineering(all be it very early in my education) student as I am I'm fairly familiar with the raspberry and the potential it brings to the table. Essentially I'm prepared to give the whole combination of Openplotter and Pypilot a go, and build em myself. What I'm not so familiar with are dc motors and mechanical torque needed from the motor the be confident in its reliability when the wind picks up.
i have a First 31.7 sailing boat, and a issue with the design of the boat is that it has very limited space around the steering shaft (English word for that?) meaning its difficult to get good leverage for turning the rudder.
So to get started I'm trying to figure out how powerful of a motor do I need? or rather, how do I calculate how powerful motor I need? I see you guys talking about windscreen wiper motors, but they operate on the tiller arm, that I assume gives them a fair bit of leverage.
Great project all in all, I hope to get this together for next summer as I will try to sail to England