2024-10-12, 08:05 PM
Pages: 1 2
2024-10-17, 02:16 PM
Mea Culpa!!
I would like to report that I had inadvertently switched the power supply polarity. I don't know how I could have done it because I double checked, but there was and error in the Tinypilot Display "no Motor Control" which was absolutely correct. At Sean's suggestion I brought the entire unit home to my bench and rewired it properly with the correct polarity on the MC!! Now there is a red LED on the motor control just above the two round capacitors. Sean has built in protection for reverse polarity on the MC. Once polarity is correct, it works!
Knowing that I had the MC wiring correct, I then wired up tiny pilot and the keypad using fully insulated spade connectors. On the leads coming from the power, I put the female connectors on + and the male connectors on -. Then used the reverse on the other + and - leads. This helps to avoid getting connections incorrect later. Also when I made up the main power + and - leads, I added two short wire with the insulted spade connectors because you should not stack on more than one connector on the motor control panel, it just does not work properly. I probably should be using a terminal block for this but I don't know the layout yet.
When I plugged it all together, reviewed the wiring, and then connected the two main power leads to my prious battery, the red MC led lit up and the Tinypilot leds also lit up going from red to amber to green and the display showed the pypilot sailboat and version 0.56 and "Standby". I pushed the "Auto" button on the keypad and two compass readings came up.
The photos of this setup on the bench are in the dropbox folder (I will add a link). Today I am going to try connecting my laptop to tinypilot, running opencpn and using the pypilot plugin. I will also test the drive A and B leads when I push the plus and minus buttons on the keypad to see if we have power to the wheelpilot.
The viewing link to my dropbox Pypilot Folder is https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/3rurhx9qe...zt4au&dl=0
The next step will be to connect it all at the boat and calibrate and then see how it works.
Thank you Sean for your help identifying through a photo what I had done.
Use of Pypilot USB Connector
Part of Sean's email to me, answering some questions about data and use of his Pypilot USB connector, which I think I will get:
The board has reverse polarity protection. So if the + and - are swapped no damage occurs but it wont power on.
Your picture shows the red and black wires in the wrong polarity.
You should switch the wires going to the motor controller and see if it powers on. It should work.
Yes, the tinypilot should work without the MC connected. You can still play with it using opencpn and pypilot_pi.
The connection in OpenCPN is optional. Normally Pypilot sends pitch, heel and compass heading nmea messages. It also can relay other nmea messages from sensors for example wind or gps connected to the usb port. It can receive nmea messages as well, for example, wind, gps, or APB route following as well as a few others.
Without the connection you can still use the Pypilot plugin which connects directly to Pypilot (Tinypilot) and uses pypilot data format, not nmea.
The Pypilot plugin has an option to automatically forward nmea. In this case it autodetects Pypilot (Tinypilot) and relays the nmea data automatically so that you do not need to make a connection in the Opencpn Connection list. So this can be convenient, but to be clear it can work either way.
If you do not use the pypilot_pi plugin or do not enable this, you would have to make the (USB) connection if you wanted to follow routes. I hope this clears it up.
Another of Sean's emails:
Anyway, as for the tinypilot, are you able to connect to the pypilot wifi access point? If you do, you should get an ip in the 192.168.14.X range. Can you ping 192.168.14.1?
If all that is working, normally the pypilot plugin will detect and everything will work.
Another of Sean's emails answering question about extending wiring, for the boat setup.
As for distance, you can extend the wire as long as you want. I can send you additional connectors eventually. I usually used 4 wire phone cable, but you could use ethernet too, it is really not that picky since it is pretty low baud rate of 38400.
It is not nmea2000 it is serial ttl. You can extend the motor wires as well.
I am quite impressed about the number of great features this system has, including the wifi connections, the keypad and reomote controls, the fine grained control of AP settings through Pypilot_pi and the thoughtful addition of settings "Profiles" for differing sea and wind conditions. I haven't seen this kind of control in the standard B&G, Simrad, Raymarine or Garmin AP system. The only systems that rival this are for racing (NKE and B&G H5000 systems). I happen to know, that on the forums there are many users who would not use a different AP than Sean's!
I am looking forward to getting this working on our boat, using it and learning how to efficiently run the AP with Sean's tools and equipment.
The viewing link to my dropbox Pypilot Folder is https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/3rurhx9qe...zt4au&dl=0
I would like to report that I had inadvertently switched the power supply polarity. I don't know how I could have done it because I double checked, but there was and error in the Tinypilot Display "no Motor Control" which was absolutely correct. At Sean's suggestion I brought the entire unit home to my bench and rewired it properly with the correct polarity on the MC!! Now there is a red LED on the motor control just above the two round capacitors. Sean has built in protection for reverse polarity on the MC. Once polarity is correct, it works!
Knowing that I had the MC wiring correct, I then wired up tiny pilot and the keypad using fully insulated spade connectors. On the leads coming from the power, I put the female connectors on + and the male connectors on -. Then used the reverse on the other + and - leads. This helps to avoid getting connections incorrect later. Also when I made up the main power + and - leads, I added two short wire with the insulted spade connectors because you should not stack on more than one connector on the motor control panel, it just does not work properly. I probably should be using a terminal block for this but I don't know the layout yet.
When I plugged it all together, reviewed the wiring, and then connected the two main power leads to my prious battery, the red MC led lit up and the Tinypilot leds also lit up going from red to amber to green and the display showed the pypilot sailboat and version 0.56 and "Standby". I pushed the "Auto" button on the keypad and two compass readings came up.
The photos of this setup on the bench are in the dropbox folder (I will add a link). Today I am going to try connecting my laptop to tinypilot, running opencpn and using the pypilot plugin. I will also test the drive A and B leads when I push the plus and minus buttons on the keypad to see if we have power to the wheelpilot.
The viewing link to my dropbox Pypilot Folder is https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/3rurhx9qe...zt4au&dl=0
The next step will be to connect it all at the boat and calibrate and then see how it works.
Thank you Sean for your help identifying through a photo what I had done.
Use of Pypilot USB Connector
Part of Sean's email to me, answering some questions about data and use of his Pypilot USB connector, which I think I will get:
The board has reverse polarity protection. So if the + and - are swapped no damage occurs but it wont power on.
Your picture shows the red and black wires in the wrong polarity.
You should switch the wires going to the motor controller and see if it powers on. It should work.
Yes, the tinypilot should work without the MC connected. You can still play with it using opencpn and pypilot_pi.
The connection in OpenCPN is optional. Normally Pypilot sends pitch, heel and compass heading nmea messages. It also can relay other nmea messages from sensors for example wind or gps connected to the usb port. It can receive nmea messages as well, for example, wind, gps, or APB route following as well as a few others.
Without the connection you can still use the Pypilot plugin which connects directly to Pypilot (Tinypilot) and uses pypilot data format, not nmea.
The Pypilot plugin has an option to automatically forward nmea. In this case it autodetects Pypilot (Tinypilot) and relays the nmea data automatically so that you do not need to make a connection in the Opencpn Connection list. So this can be convenient, but to be clear it can work either way.
If you do not use the pypilot_pi plugin or do not enable this, you would have to make the (USB) connection if you wanted to follow routes. I hope this clears it up.
Another of Sean's emails:
Anyway, as for the tinypilot, are you able to connect to the pypilot wifi access point? If you do, you should get an ip in the 192.168.14.X range. Can you ping 192.168.14.1?
If all that is working, normally the pypilot plugin will detect and everything will work.
Another of Sean's emails answering question about extending wiring, for the boat setup.
As for distance, you can extend the wire as long as you want. I can send you additional connectors eventually. I usually used 4 wire phone cable, but you could use ethernet too, it is really not that picky since it is pretty low baud rate of 38400.
It is not nmea2000 it is serial ttl. You can extend the motor wires as well.
I am quite impressed about the number of great features this system has, including the wifi connections, the keypad and reomote controls, the fine grained control of AP settings through Pypilot_pi and the thoughtful addition of settings "Profiles" for differing sea and wind conditions. I haven't seen this kind of control in the standard B&G, Simrad, Raymarine or Garmin AP system. The only systems that rival this are for racing (NKE and B&G H5000 systems). I happen to know, that on the forums there are many users who would not use a different AP than Sean's!
I am looking forward to getting this working on our boat, using it and learning how to efficiently run the AP with Sean's tools and equipment.
The viewing link to my dropbox Pypilot Folder is https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/3rurhx9qe...zt4au&dl=0
2024-10-19, 01:58 AM
This morning I tried connecting to the Tinypilot wifi with a SurfacePro3. After finding the Tinypilot "pypilot" SSID from the computers wifi and connecting to it (unsecured), after temporarily turning off AV and firwall, I then started OpenCPN and enabled Pypilot_pi and was immediately given access to the keypad menu, Auto, Standby, +10 -10 etc, calibration, gains, profiles, etc. and they all worked, except the wheelpilot was not connected, but I could see with an amp meter when the MC was trying to steer when I hit the buttons. +10 and -10 etC.
I will be able to connect my android cell phone or tablet too.
Thank you Sean.
Next step is to get it on the boat (tempory test install)
I will be able to connect my android cell phone or tablet too.
Thank you Sean.
Next step is to get it on the boat (tempory test install)
2024-10-24, 04:25 PM
Mea Cuplpa. I had the MC Power wires reversed for some reason. Please See https://forum.openmarine.net/showthread....4#pid31844
Sean,
Two days ago, I took the Tinypilot + Keypad + Motor Controller back to the boat and reconnected to the batteries properly and then connected the wheelpilot http://pypilot.io to the drive A + B connections and was able to turn the wheel using +/-1 and 10. (I had to reverse the drive wires to get port and starboard working in the correct direction.)
Then I centered the rudder and hit center. There was an entry for 60 degrees. Is this entry for 60 degrees from Center to Port and same for starboard? I tried tacking and the motor ran to the stop and continued with the belt slipping, so I had to hit quit and exit the menu. I never got the correct degrees entered during this session. Perhaps I need to read more.
I then tried to calibrate the tinypilot, using the menu on my laptop (with my laptop wifi connected to the tinypilot server) and Opencpn and using the Pypilot_pi interface.
Level Calibration - This completed successfully.
Compass Calibration - At first I could only get 7 (I think I needed 12-14). So I twisted the tinypilot around in a circle 400 degrees vertically gradually and got up to about 11. Then I turned it around a horizontal axis going athwartships and the calibration completed with a note that calibration was the same as previously. So I decided to lock that calibration.
Accelerometer Calibration - I let this sit for awhile and it kept showing some 0.5 -0.6 value that was too low. So then I tried accelerating the tinypilot, up and down and sideways, and fore and aft, about 2'. I never got that to complete properly. What do you suggest I do to give the sensors the motion they need to complete?
Display Orientation Offset - I was able to enter an adjusting degree offset for the display orientation which seemed to be working.
I then got familiar with operation on the powered keypad and the remote TV Keypad. I understood the powered keypad much better than the remote. It does have all the menus available for settings, calibration, etc. When using the remote garage door keypad, I could get the compass reading to change by hitting buttons, but I found no page explaining what each button did. Is there such a page? Or are we supposed to program this somehow? Sorry but I was looking for this information in the manual and did not see it.
I was able to access most of the Tinypilot/pypilot menu using my cell phone (with wifi connected to the pypilot.io). It appeared to me that using the computer to access TinyPilot gave me the full set of menus. I realize after further reading that the sensors will automatically rotate the display orientation, or it can be set, and then Tinypilot power cycled for the new rotation.
Satisfied that I will get this all working, I looked carefully for better locations for the MC, the keypad and Tinypilot. I think the MC will be mounted out of the way and not very visible in the cabin above the refridge. The keypad and display may be mounted in the companionway inside the cabin, or on the backside of the cabin where the other instruments are located.
Regarding power to the Tinypilot, the Serial/USB cable is powered from the DC/DC 12vdc to 5vdc converter. Do the connections on that also support transmission of data?
I think the best way for me to send and receive data from Tinypilot is to hard wire it using your UBS/Nmea0183 converter? I will use the nmea0183 rx/tx on the Vesper AIS +wifi to connect to, as this device with be on most of the time anyway and it has direct connection to the nmea2000 bus too.
I then removed the batteries, Sean's AP and the instruments, in prep for being hauled for the winter. The next job is to remove the rudder, inspect the shaft, install a new bearing, and then install the stronger AP drive. I've ordered a Jefa LD100 drive with B&G compatible "RFB" Rudder Feedback as it appears that the 33" will just fit athwartship towards the stern in front of the propane locker.
There will be more learning about Sean's Tinypilot this winter and next spring on the water. I will make a switch to transfer drive power to the wheelpilot to be driving the new Jefa100. The "Profiles" in tinypilot will become very useful for two sets of "profiles" (IE: profiles for each drive).
Best, Rick
Sean,
Two days ago, I took the Tinypilot + Keypad + Motor Controller back to the boat and reconnected to the batteries properly and then connected the wheelpilot http://pypilot.io to the drive A + B connections and was able to turn the wheel using +/-1 and 10. (I had to reverse the drive wires to get port and starboard working in the correct direction.)
Then I centered the rudder and hit center. There was an entry for 60 degrees. Is this entry for 60 degrees from Center to Port and same for starboard? I tried tacking and the motor ran to the stop and continued with the belt slipping, so I had to hit quit and exit the menu. I never got the correct degrees entered during this session. Perhaps I need to read more.
I then tried to calibrate the tinypilot, using the menu on my laptop (with my laptop wifi connected to the tinypilot server) and Opencpn and using the Pypilot_pi interface.
Level Calibration - This completed successfully.
Compass Calibration - At first I could only get 7 (I think I needed 12-14). So I twisted the tinypilot around in a circle 400 degrees vertically gradually and got up to about 11. Then I turned it around a horizontal axis going athwartships and the calibration completed with a note that calibration was the same as previously. So I decided to lock that calibration.
Accelerometer Calibration - I let this sit for awhile and it kept showing some 0.5 -0.6 value that was too low. So then I tried accelerating the tinypilot, up and down and sideways, and fore and aft, about 2'. I never got that to complete properly. What do you suggest I do to give the sensors the motion they need to complete?
Display Orientation Offset - I was able to enter an adjusting degree offset for the display orientation which seemed to be working.
I then got familiar with operation on the powered keypad and the remote TV Keypad. I understood the powered keypad much better than the remote. It does have all the menus available for settings, calibration, etc. When using the remote garage door keypad, I could get the compass reading to change by hitting buttons, but I found no page explaining what each button did. Is there such a page? Or are we supposed to program this somehow? Sorry but I was looking for this information in the manual and did not see it.
I was able to access most of the Tinypilot/pypilot menu using my cell phone (with wifi connected to the pypilot.io). It appeared to me that using the computer to access TinyPilot gave me the full set of menus. I realize after further reading that the sensors will automatically rotate the display orientation, or it can be set, and then Tinypilot power cycled for the new rotation.
Satisfied that I will get this all working, I looked carefully for better locations for the MC, the keypad and Tinypilot. I think the MC will be mounted out of the way and not very visible in the cabin above the refridge. The keypad and display may be mounted in the companionway inside the cabin, or on the backside of the cabin where the other instruments are located.
Regarding power to the Tinypilot, the Serial/USB cable is powered from the DC/DC 12vdc to 5vdc converter. Do the connections on that also support transmission of data?
I think the best way for me to send and receive data from Tinypilot is to hard wire it using your UBS/Nmea0183 converter? I will use the nmea0183 rx/tx on the Vesper AIS +wifi to connect to, as this device with be on most of the time anyway and it has direct connection to the nmea2000 bus too.
I then removed the batteries, Sean's AP and the instruments, in prep for being hauled for the winter. The next job is to remove the rudder, inspect the shaft, install a new bearing, and then install the stronger AP drive. I've ordered a Jefa LD100 drive with B&G compatible "RFB" Rudder Feedback as it appears that the 33" will just fit athwartship towards the stern in front of the propane locker.
There will be more learning about Sean's Tinypilot this winter and next spring on the water. I will make a switch to transfer drive power to the wheelpilot to be driving the new Jefa100. The "Profiles" in tinypilot will become very useful for two sets of "profiles" (IE: profiles for each drive).
Best, Rick
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