Hmmm .... ya making me feel dumb now .... Might revisit this, maybe I watched the wrong vids, can you recommend any specific ones?sailboatmike wrote:Gee mate, I have never been a electronics engineer, these days its all pretty simple, I recommend you have a look at some of the videos on projects made with the Arduino or Raspberry Pi controllers, its so simple this is what they are using to teach kids in primary schools.
I think its great, its bringing the ability to build electronics to the masses with most of the hard work done, you just buy the module you need and add it on and being open source there are no secrets in the programming language
In addition (and a bit off track) on a Mac with minimal electrical storage (just two batteries, no solar) the idea of adding home made (not always dependable) electronic and motorized devices, then having to upgrade the electrical resources just to keep up with demand is'n't always appealing. .... Is all this tech stuff really worth it? ... or am I defeating the objective of having a sailboat? ..... I mean why stop with just auto steering? ... I could go full hog... Scrap the current mast and sails (and outboard), Fit a wind generator on a lower mast, cover the deck in solar panels and run a motorised outboard???
Funny you say that..... An idea came to me just yesterday. KISS project plan currently under developmentIxneigh wrote: I'm surprised no one has figured out a sail based self steering system.