OpenMarine

So I was really doing well, I had connected everything in situ, and after a little work I got the Motor controller trying to drive the auto pilot.  But my solonoid wasn't working. So I jury rigged a manual switch in to test. It worked rudder turned and I was a happy man. Wanting to tidy up my early testing wiring so switched off. And tidied up some of the wiring including splitting the white joining wire.

Ever since I have no Motor Controller error!

Ls -l shows serial0, as the correct one /dev/ttyAMA0 - (against the workbook) 
The motor controller has 4 led's next to each other, no 2 is solid and when the pi starts 4 goes nuts and flashes  like mad.
Web is all working the IMU is remotely and locally reporting and updating.
I am running on a Pi4 with a Pypilot Hat and Seans motor controller.
I am running PYpilot as a service and all are up and runing.
I have tried stopping all the services and running pypilot_servo and get a errno13 permission denied error against the serial port.
I have double and tripple checked wiring.


Can anyone confirm if there is any issue with the ram being on a separate power feed ( they should all be earthed together) but just want to rule it out.

Any help/direction for me to hunt in would be gratefully recieved.


Thanks

James

It seems most likely the data wire from motor controller has broken somewhere.

Test continuity to ensure the 4 wires from controller reach the pi header.

If you get permission denied, then perhaps the user is not in the dialout or tty group? Did you try running as sudo?

(2022-05-16, 11:04 PM)seandepagnier Wrote: [ -> ]It seems most likely the data wire from motor controller has broken somewhere.

Test continuity to ensure the 4 wires from controller reach the pi header.

If you get permission denied, then perhaps the user is not in the dialout or tty group?   Did you try running as sudo?

Sean, thanks for coming back to me.

Continuity tested fine on all cables.

ttyama0 is root dialout
serial0 is root root
both on 777 permisions.

running as sudo, for py_servo, It started, warning about lack of config file, then polled the serial quite happily, however no data was returned.

I have tried reenablling the ttyama0 service.

Really worried something has happened to the motor controller. 

I will try a fresh install tomorrow if no other ideas. Any thoughts would be welcome.


Thanks

James

Did it initially work then and stopped now? Yes it is possible to damage the motor controller from wrong clutch wiring. Do you remember exactly what you connected where?

I did briefly have the clutch wired the wrong way round. But then. Then I had it working when I had no clutch connected, I just manually ran a switch to engauge the solenoid. Do I need to order a new motor controller? Thanks janes

I dont think the clutch can be wired the wrong way, since it can be powered either way?

Not sure what has happened to the controller: if you damaged it or not.

please, contact me by email so we can discuss replacing the controller. If you can return the old one perhaps you can just cover shipping?

Thank you for coming back to me sean, I am going to try one last time with a fresh install... then go from there, I will email after that test.


James

Hi 
I have a similar problem. Everything was good all last season and for the first couple trips this year. 
I changed nothing. 
I returned to the boat yesterday and I get the “warning no motor controller “. 
Wiring all looks good and I have cycled power many times. I’ve jiggled all the pin connections.  Everything is installed in a sheltered dry area in my catamaran. 

I have the hydraulic controller (I think it’s “discontinued “). 

Thanks for any ideas where to look. 
Mark

check the leds in the motor controller. The red one generally indicates power. There is a yellow and green that flash with communication. Are either flashing? Check the connection between motor controller and computer.

If you still cant get it, contact me by email to discuss possible replacement.