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Orange Pi Zero 3 2GB?
#1
So, not sure how I got to this point, but for some reason I settled on getting an Orange Pi Zero 3 for use with PyPilot.

 Bear with me... Currently I have a Pi5 running openplotter 4. This is all new to me and I love the idea of open source and its lack of limitations. So, I got to adding some sensors via ESP32's to a signalk server in the Pi5 and was on a roll, cheap wind sensors turned wireless, etc.

The plan is now to send instructions to my Raymarine ST4000 AP but I'm slightly confused as to how this should work, and whether I should be looking at running a second board at all?

I've got the ICM20946 9 degrees of freedom sensor working.

Can somebody steer me in the next direction please Smile
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#2
does pypilot run on the orange pi and read from the sensor? The minimal setup would be to ensure a hardware serial port on the orange pi is working, and wire that to a motor controller. Once you have this it is sufficient. Getting the lcd display and other stuff (like pypilot hat) you might run into a few issues, but there is technically nothing preventing it. I had pypilot running on the orange pi 5 years ago and it did work, but I stopped using it because the orange pi zero used twice as much power as the raspberry pi, and it didnt support tinycore linux which I considered more stable (doesnt depend on microsd card once booted)
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#3
(2024-02-01, 11:48 PM)seandepagnier Wrote: does pypilot run on the orange pi and read from the sensor?    The minimal setup would be to ensure a hardware serial port on the orange pi is working, and wire that to a motor controller.    Once you have this it is sufficient.    Getting the lcd display and other stuff (like pypilot hat) you might run into a few issues, but there is technically nothing preventing it.    I had pypilot running on the orange pi 5 years ago and it did work, but I stopped using it because the orange pi zero used twice as much power as the raspberry pi, and it didnt support tinycore linux which I considered more stable (doesnt depend on microsd card once booted)

Thanks for the reply Sean!

The Orange Pi Zero 3 just came in, I didn't consider the power usage but will look at it. In the mean time, to get my feet wet, I'd like to give it a go on this board.

Lets assume I do get everything installed, getting readings from the IMU sensor, and that this board is able to communicate with SignalK running on the Pi5. Would it make sense to send the course commands to the existing St4000 Wheel Pilot via NMEA or would you bypass that and wire the PyPilot board directly to the motor controller?

Again, I'm a little early here as far as figuring out how this is all going to work. Maybe I should look for some existing PyPilot hardware designs / layouts to get the bigger picture.
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#4
you would want to run power directly to the motor using a pypilot motor controller. The orange pi can communicate to the pypilot motor controller using a uart.
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#5
(2024-02-01, 11:48 PM)seandepagnier Wrote: does pypilot run on the orange pi and read from the sensor?    The minimal setup would be to ensure a hardware serial port on the orange pi is working, and wire that to a motor controller.    Once you have this it is sufficient.    Getting the lcd display and other stuff (like pypilot hat) you might run into a few issues, but there is technically nothing preventing it.    I had pypilot running on the orange pi 5 years ago and it did work, but I stopped using it because the orange pi zero used twice as much power as the raspberry pi, and it didnt support tinycore linux which I considered more stable (doesnt depend on microsd card once booted)

Have you got a rough idea of what the power consumption is with the Raspberry Pi (and which version). Have the Orange Pi running, installing dependencies and then will be looking at linking sensors and to SignalK. Once I get it set up (if I do), curious to compare numbers.
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#6
pi zero draws 0.07 amps at 12 volts (12 volt converter to 5 volt usb) with wifi running. It is just under 1 watt.
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#7
(2024-02-03, 07:18 AM)seandepagnier Wrote: pi zero draws 0.07 amps at 12 volts (12 volt converter to 5 volt usb)  with wifi running.  It is just under 1 watt.

That sounds tough to beat, see what happens.

I've got it all mostly installed, pypilot connected to the SignalK server on the remote Pi5. Is there a way to somehow simulate this on a desktop without a motor connected and without a physically moving IMU/GPS etc? I'm guessing that would have been a pile of extra work for little gain on your end so not expecting much. Canadian winter, kinda stuck as far as testing anything and would love to try and get it a step or two further.
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#8
you can run pypilot on most systems. It just wont do anything useful without both an IMU and a motor controller... It is easy to connect a motor controller via usb port which is serial but the inertial sensors are generally i2c.

I purposefully do not support external inertial sensors. The reason is mostly, they would have a lag, or time-delay from the measurement to processing and this would enable people to use configurations that give pypilot a bad reputation. Of course being free software you can modify it to support this, but this is my reasoning for discouraging it (encouraging people to wire directly i2c sensors)
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#9
(2024-02-04, 12:27 AM)AndyV Wrote: Is there a way to somehow simulate this on a desktop without a motor connected and without a physically moving IMU/GPS etc?

Hi, I‘m using that little free prog for simulating NMEA0183 on a windows desktop:
nmea0182 simulator (https://www.kave.fi/Apps/NMEA-Simulator/...mulator.7z)

You just need a usb-serial-converter to send the simulated nmea0183-messages in your system.
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