OpenMarine

Sorry to bother anyone, but his forum is my last hope…
I have searched for a long time now, for clear instructions on pypilot and found the hardware and software suggested ,but not how to marry the stuff together.
They say. ”it’s simple to do”.          Well,…….maybe for them
Yes, I’ve seen a couple of freehand sketches, but they don’t make much sense to me
I am looking at boards with 40 pins and 40 holes..What goes where??
 
Anyway, I accumulated the following, as suggested on various sites:
Raspberry pi 3 32bit
Raspberry pi 2W zero 64Bit
Raspberry pi Sense hat
4 x 32GB sd cards (class 10)
12v wiper motor (Uses 4A at high speed, not connected to wheel)
Toothed belt & gear to suit the motor shaft
2 x 9-Axis SPI/IIC Attitude +Gyro+Accelerator+Magnetometer Sensor MPU-9250
LCD module Nokia 5110
DC Motor Bridge Driver Module 12V 10A  type: QF-M06
Arduino Leonardo 
A couple of 5A DC Volt step-down modules
What else do I need?  Oh yes, A lot more knowledge.
 
 
 The boat is steel, cutter, 38’,  13T, Hydraulic steering(Turning the wheel displaces oil, that pushes the rudder ram to P/SB)
I used laptops since 1994 (Dos 5 era), currently run Windows  XP, 7 & 10,  But not any on linux or Ubuntu.   I don’t have a monitor
Navigation: Data from AIS via WiFi or USB to OpenCpn v 4.6
Been cruising for over 25 years & the Electrical Auto pilot died   RIP.
 
My question is :
Is there a simple to follow set of instructions (like step by step) on HOW to build the pypilot and How & Where to actually connect all the components together for  utilizing a car wiper motor on wheel steering, driven by a windows (Ocpn) laptop via USB .
 
Many thanks in advance
Jo

Hi Bowsprit,

Building the electronics hardware from the components (LCD, MPU etc) is not so simple and requires quite some electronics/Linux/Arduino knowledge. If you don't have it, or don't want to invest time into acquiring it, your best option is buying the boards from Sean. It may actually be cheaper to buy them already made than acquiring the parts and building it by your own (you need the pypilot hat and the pypilot motor controller).

Once you have this, you just add your Raspberry PI Zero, download tinypilot on your SD card, and it should already work (and we can help here it you struggle).

You will have to figure out how to wire your wiper motor with the toothed belt by your own (Sean posted a small video on Youtube using a wiper motor a while ago, you can start from this).

You may find some interesting reading here: https://pypilot.org/wiki/doku.php and here: https://github.com/pypilot/workbook/wiki

Good luck !

Yes, I suggest reading the workbook also it should give a lot of useful knowledge. There is no pressure to buy anything from me, you will receive support here regardless. It may save you some time but there is something satisfying about making your own path. For this, I suggest studying:

https://pypilot.org/schematics/

Also be aware that my official images do not yet support pi4 or zero2. They are mostly intended for pi zero (unavailable at this time) and will work on pi3 (though I am not sure about pi3b+) stelian has released an updated image which unfortunately I have not had the time to verify (I like to make sailing tests etc) but reportedly it will work on newer pi's.

A big "Thank you" to both Stelian & seandepagnier for your replies.
I have taken your advice under consideration.