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Can you confirm where the delay comes from? Is there an led or? 5 seconds is very long. If you manually use a switch (no pypilot not software) does it have a delay?
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Hi.
I have the same issue. No big deal, really. But when I disengage the AP, it takes some seconds until the clutch opens. I have installed a manual "emergency switch" that cuts the power to the motor controller in case of communication/remote control issues. When I use this switch, the valve opens immediately.
I also do have the impression (although not systematically verified), that the delay time is influenced by the value of the servo.max_slew_slow and/or servo.max_slew_speed in the configuration menu.
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I tried this on my tinypilot. When increasing the servo.period parameter to 2.5 seconds, it takes ages (>5 sec) for the clutch to disengage. I don't know if this is to be expected/normal, but. I do think that it is a software issue, since the "Sync Engaged" status remains active until the clutch releases.
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Thanks for the feedback.
There is a timeout... It is in the code "self.command_timeout > self.period.value*3"
This feature is not well optimized since I don't have a clutch on my own boats, sorry.
What it is doing, is enabling the clutch for manual control, or autopilot control. It only disengages the clutch if in manual control 3 times the period from the time the last movement was made.
I agree that this is obviously bad logic and wrong. I will update in future versions to immediately disengage when the pilot is disabled. I guess this could potentially interfere if you tried to make manual control immediately after disabling the ap (to dodge something or whatever) as it would have to re-engage, so this is the main issue, and it needs to at least not click the clutch off and on when using the dodge buttons. So a simple change is not simple, but I will find a way to make it work better.
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Sounds good, Sean.
And yes. There has been some seconds of nervousness, waiting for regaining manual control...
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It will be greatly improved in the next version.
I recommend you install a manual switch on the clutch regardless for safety reasons.