2021-06-09, 10:03 PM
After a lot of false starts with bad IMUs and numerous software gremlins I finally have a reasonably working autopilot. It has steered our F31 Corsair for about 250 miles in nice weather without any misbehaving. I built a rough prototype of the drive mainly to get speed and gearing dialed in before I spend the time to build something nicer. I started off with Sean's idea to use a windshield wiper motor but quickly ran into the problem of attaching a pulley to the non-standard shaped output shaft. Ended up using a 50 rpm Makermotor PN01007-38 gear motor with a standard 3/8" shaft. The video shows details of how this super simple, parts bin drive works.
Simon
Simon