Control speed of Minn Kota Trolling Motor

[mgrouch]

You can try drone software and ardupilot which can control drone subs.
Basically imagine your own vessel is your sub drone.
BBN OS for pi4 includes software to control such drones
which would be running ardupilot.
Worth trying.

Cheers

[fsnew]

You can try drone software and ardupilot which can control drone subs.
Basically imagine your own vessel is your sub drone.
BBN OS for pi4 includes software to control such drones
which would be running ardupilot.
Worth trying.

Cheers

Hi. Ok I thank you very much. I have however to study in detail the software in order to do a realistic evaluation and be confident that it would be compatible with my necessities. Of course my main purpose is to have the possibility for my boat to hold a gps point.   
Many thanks again
Francesco

[fsnew]

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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Ok, Sean. I would only ask if it is too hard or impossible to integrate in the pypilot a dedicated single mode that allows to hold a position gps through steering a motor dc decoupling the control of it's propeller speed. Do you think that the software would need big upgrades?
Best regards
Francesco

[seandepagnier]

It depends on what you are trying.

To hold a position can require the boat to spin around if it has to oppose a current especially dynamic currents. Also would need both speed and direction control, or perhaps 2 motors each with speed control.

I intend to support these configurations with multiple motors like people with multiple hydraulic pumps or multiple rudders even as well. The new boards I'm making have 2 motor controller outputs. This will be eventually but not in the next version.

If you hacked in a new "pilot" it would be the easiest way to try this out. Alternately a new mode could be added for position hold, but to really work it needs at least 2 outputs not just a rudder.

[fsnew]

Hi, thanks. Do you mean that it would be necessary to know the boat speed and direction? If so, I could think to try for alternative solutions regarding the boat speed . Would it be manageble by pypilot the only boat direction and it's distance from the gps target to hold?
Again excuse me if my questions are wrong.
Best regards,
Francesco

[seandepagnier]

position holding is a different control loop entirely from what pypilot currently uses. To work well it would have to figure out what direction is best to face by estimating "drift" but the value varies by angle depending on windage.

Holding position over ground with significant wind and current from different directions would be a challenge.

Basically you could implement this logic in a separate pilot and use that to minimize the amount of code to a few lines but holding position is not yet implemented.

[mgrouch]

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?

You might want to take a look at this design and code called VAnchor:

https://github.com/AlexAsplund/Vanchor

Also: https://www.reddit.com/r/boating/comment...iy_my_150/