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I'm looking for a way to contol the speed of a Minn Kota RT80EM, this is an 80lb electric motor that is engine mounted to the cavitation plate of my outboard and has a simple rotary control of speed in forward/reverse. I already have Lowrance Autopilot and HDS so in that sense steering control is aready taken care of. What i would like, is to be able to control the speed of the electric motor to the point I could hold a position i.e spot lock. Is this possible?
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basically no.
These motors draw more current than my controller can supply. There is also no algorithm for what you are asking. To do this, the autopilot would need to control speed and direction, so it would need two outputs, and this is not implemented yet.
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I think you would need 360deg steering as well wouldn’t you?
I love the idea of being able to take any base electric motor and give the features of the top line models especially on a diy budget.
Great idea!
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also, ardupilot may be of interest to you.
pypilot is intended to replace systems where you really don't care about boat speed for now, but I can see how this may be useful. Eventually pypilot could control sails as well.
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Hi! Me too thinking to use a pypilot software to steer an electric dc motor to reach a gps point. Dimensioning appropriately motor and it’s control, do you think it would be possible? My issue would be the possibility to implement a “ lock position” feature too, that is a steering movement to hold a gps point. Would be a personal fantasy tour only?
Best regards
Francesco