Pypilot Hardware Recipes

[seandepagnier]

It's nice that the Pypilot website is up. I've been interested to see a video of it in action, and pictures of the physical installation. I believe there was once a video but I haven't seen it.

I have more videos, not yet posted.

I see the controller is available for sale. I assume Openplotter on our existing Raspberry Pi will eventually play the "computer" role for those who desire it?

Yes, you need a minimum of a raspberry pi, and an imu like the mpu9255 to make the autopilot computer.

pypilot can run on other pi's like orangepi as well, and works on the raspberry zero

The hardware information on github only specifies a "brushed" motor and a ball screw ram, leaving me curious about the specific motor choices that have been tested or would be assumed to work. Of course this could vary from boat to boat. (My boat is probably close enough to the Catalina 32 it was tested on. )

It is tested and working with these motors
1) simrad tp22
2) autohelm linear ram
3) raymarine wheel pilot 4000mkii

Many more can work. I am trying to get a windshield wiper motor because it can also probably work.

A wireless remote like this would seem to be a simple upgrade:
https://www.amazon.com/INSMA-Wireless-Ch...01CCSG2ZY/

Maybe this can wire into the raspberry gpio...? It seems very expensive. My remote control cost $1. But yes, many possible remotes are possible.

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i agree
i would like to see a diagram or something.

Good idea. I will try to draw something for the wiki.

and what about an h bridge instead of an ESC.
i put a pca9685 in for led lighting control,so i got plenty of pwm pins..and a few h-bridges laying around..

jim

You could also the raspberry drive the motor directly from hbridge using gpio, but in this case, you would not have isolation, voltage/current feedback, and other feedbacks, so it's better to use a small microprocessor for the controller.


The esc is better to use than hbridges. It already has power input, motor output, and signal, so this makes the controller simpler and more modular. You are free of course to use your own h bridges. In this case, I would recommend modifying:
https://github.com/pypilot/pypilot/blob/.../motor.ino

And make it drive the hbridges on digital outputs rather than a servo pwm output. You could use the same measurement shunt and temperature sensors, or modify it...