"Sub $600 Autopilot" Progress

[BOAT]

Or even better - install one of these remote steering arms that Highlander found:

Hey BOAT, what is this steering arm you speak of?

It's basically a wheel for your boat - it works the same way the cable works on our helm only instead of a wheel it has a stick. Also, our wheel steering has a rack and pinion in it so you must turn the wheel like three times to make a turn but the stick steering does not have a rack - it's just a direct cable to your steering arm - so you pull the stick a quarter turn and you get a full turn out of your steering.

My idea was to have one of these connected to one of the steering arms below decks as a secondary steering system - perhaps not connected all the time but only when I want to steer the boat from inside the cabin. I also thought it would be a good place to hook up a cheap tiller pilot for those guys that are trying to put a AP on their boats.

I think one of the best aux tillers I have ever seen was offered by one of the MAC dealers - he ran a post from the cockpit down to one of the rudders so you could steer the boat with a tiller in the cockpit - a great idea for taking advantage of the cheaper auto pilots too.

My desire was for an alternate helm that I could use to steer the boat also, but my use was for bad weather to stay dry so being in the cockpit did not interest me.

Highlander came up with the stick drive. Here is the link he gave us:

http://www.boatstoreusa.com/steering/ez ... model-840/

[Russ]

Ah, very interesting.
As you mentioned, there are many interesting applications for this stick thing.

And of course Highlander would have one. His boat must sit 10" lower in the water with all the gear he's installed.

[Don T]

Really Boat??
The idea of an AP whose mechanical drive is completely contained within the pedestal saving precious room in our cockpits along with no obstruction to the wheel or larger tables mounted to the top of the pedestal...... That does not intrigue you? Those are the reasons I have not purchased an AP to date.

Don T

Really guys?

You can get a top notch aeronautical multi axis AP from RayMarine now for less than 1000 bucks by shopping the discount marine places like Anchor Express when they have a sale and when Ray Marine is running their rebate programs. The Evolution Pilot at 1000 dollars is the better than anything else you will ever buy at any price anywhere. So the difference between a 1000 dollar unit and a 600 dollar unit is really worth waiting 5 years??

And if that 400 bucks is so important to you why not just spend LESS than 600 on a regular tiller pilot:



These little guys are available all day long for less than 350 bucks from Simrad and Raymarine and others and on sale I see them as low as 299!!! Just throw one of these on one of the steering arms below decks and your all set!
Or even better - install one of these remote steering arms that Highlander found:



And just hook up the cheap tiller pilot to that thing. I'm seriously thinking of putting in one of the remote steering sticks on one of my tiller arms as an emergency/backup steering drive or even for steering the boat from inside the cabin. It's cheap and creates a nice way to stay warm and dry in a storm.

I have all the respect for Captain Vic and I'm sure his AP is working great in the sea trials and all but like anything else he probably has a lot of other things going on too - maybe when he is retired he will devote his full time to the project but in the meantime don't miss out on advantages of having an AP on board if you really need one badly.

[BOAT]

Really Boat??
The idea of an AP whose mechanical drive is completely contained within the pedestal saving precious room in our cockpits along with no obstruction to the wheel or larger tables mounted to the top of the pedestal...... That does not intrigue you? Those are the reasons I have not purchased an AP to date.

Don T

Yeah I know - me too - that was my main reason for holding out too - but sooner or later you need to face the reality that it may never happen. If you can wait another 5 years that's fine - but I would not think it wise to go so long without a pilot if you really need one. And besides, Captain Victor is not even responding to the posts so don't you think he is just hoping that all you guys will just eventually forget about this thing? I dunno.

Seems to me like we are asking too much of the good captain.

[Phil M]

Several years ago I installed the Raymarine http://www.macgregorsailors.com/modt/in ... ?view=1389 X-5 wheel pilot and my cost was $1,250 at that time. I can't imagine the newer model of Raymarine SPX-5 is cheaper, as I couldn't find it for sale anywhere.
It was one of my more expensive mods but certainly worth it.

[BOAT]

I just typed in ev100 and got several places selling for 1100

https://shop.hamiltonmarine.com/product ... swod5RgMww

There is a rebate from raymarine for 75 too. You just need to shop it. (but really, are we really talking about 1 or 2 hundred bucks here? Comon - a good restaurant meal for the family costs more than that.

[Russ]

Really Boat??
The idea of an AP whose mechanical drive is completely contained within the pedestal saving precious room in our cockpits along with no obstruction to the wheel or larger tables mounted to the top of the pedestal...... That does not intrigue you? Those are the reasons I have not purchased an AP to date.

Don T

I agree. This is why I've been waiting. The silence from Vic has me thinking he's gotten too busy to keep up on this.

However, BOAT has engineered a good alternative where the entire business is all below decks and can easily be disengaged. With the nice Raymarine head unit, it's a good solution.
If I had more time to install it, I might pull the trigger and do the "BOAT" AP mod. I still might.

--Russ

[BOAT]

If you really hung up on the idea of having the wheelhouse free of any devices then the tiller pilot below decks is a good second option (plan B) - if you want a wheel pilot the Ray Marine is pretty good too but it does not fit inside the wheel house like the Captain Victor pilot.

That's why I think the 250 dollar tiller pilots are good choice just to get things started - you can put a cheap tiller pilot below decks or on an auxiliary tiller in the cockpit and still get out for less than 300 bucks. At least by doing that you can sail with an AP while Captain victor is getting his wheelhouse pilot finished. (Truth be told, I now have a wireless radio and control heads and ballast control switches and so many other things crammed in my wheelhouse now that I don't have any room left for an AP in there), yet I am still thinking of installing an iphone mount inside the pedestal - but I just don't think I have anymore room.

I learned that once you get a wireless remote control for your AP it pretty much does not matter where it's mounted. I pretty much have everything operating over the wifi network that the boat broadcasts now. The meters and gauges I add in the future will not even need wires.

[Russ]

Hey BOAT, what WiFi stuffs do you have onboard?

I ditched all my WiFi stuffs. (Stereo input receiver). The boat is now WiFi free again.
But I'm interested. As a techie, I want to geek out my boat.

[Highlander]

I,m not sold on WiFi my back-up cam on my trk has it & some times pick,s up alot of interference
so if I do go with Raymarine Radar I,ll go with the Ethernet data cable but still have WiFi if I ever need to use it say for my lap-top inside the cabin !

Lot,s of room on ur pedestal if u plan it right ! for the most part my A/P is inside the ped. & clutter free
http://vid235.photobucket.com/albums/ee ... 010031.mp4

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee20 ... 010003.jpg

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee20 ... 0008-2.jpg

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee20 ... 010009.jpg

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee20 ... 0013-1.jpg

I added three deck plates on my ped for better access

J

[BOAT]

Hey BOAT, what WiFi stuffs do you have onboard?

I ditched all my WiFi stuffs. (Stereo input receiver). The boat is now WiFi free again.
But I'm interested. As a techie, I want to geek out my boat.

When your char-plotter and AP are on the same backbone you can send navigation instructions to the AP through your chart-plotter over the backbone. That is the normal way to send coarse instructions from your chart to the pilot. If you can control your chart-plotter over WiFi you now have a way to control your pilot over WiFi - see how that works? My Garmin chart-plotter has a radio in it that sets up a WiFi network for the entire boat. Any WiFi device, (iPhone, iPad, computer, tablet) can log on to that WiFi network and fully operate the chart-plotter thus accessing anything on the Garmin backbone.

I also have a RayMarine backbone.

My RayMarine Backbone has a wireless antenna module. The wireless antenna module is inside the pedestal (it's only about 3 inch by 4 inch box) and that module makes everything on my backbone available each other and to any RayMarine wireless device like wind indicators or remote towed sonar devices or any RayMarine remote control device. That little gadget puts all my RayMarine stuff including the auto pilot on a RayMarine propitiatory wireless. I can control the AP two ways: One - directly over the RayMarine backbone using the RayMarine dongle or Two, over the Garmin back bone using the chart-plotter or any device in the chart-plotter WiFi (like a cell phone)

I can sit below decks and operate the chart-plotter and all of it's features on an iPad including sending course instructions to the plotter which will control the AP over the backbone. The RayMarine wireless system is proprietary so it can not be accessed directly except with the RayMarine remote dongle I wear around my neck (it's very small). I need the dongle to control the AP directly or I can control the AP indirectly by sending course instructions from the plotter over the Garmin WiFi from my iPhone.

Because the Garmin WiFi network is a fully functioning router I can also put other devices like cameras or stereos on the network and view all over the iPad on the network.

I ordered a wind indicator and it goes on top of the mast and will use a cable to connect to the backbone on my boat, but because the backbone has a wireless network I could actually buy any cheap wireless 0183 wind gauge and just tape it to any bulkhead and it will work. Or I can view the wind data over my iPhone. You could have gauges anywhere with no need for wires.

[Phil M]

Boat, that's a lot of stuff. And with two backbones? That certainly sounds sci-fi. My boat has no backbone so I guess that makes it a lowly invertebrate. and I won't be able to launch any misiles from inside the cabin either. Everything will have to be done topside, including straining my neck to look at the wind indicator. Your system sounds like it's going to be able to compete with Highlander.

[BOAT]

Boat, that's a lot of stuff. And with two backbones? That certainly sounds sci-fi. My boat has no backbone so I guess that makes it a lowly invertebrate. and I won't be able to launch any misiles from inside the cabin either. Everything will have to be done topside, including straining my neck to look at the wind indicator. Your system sounds like it's going to be able to compete with Highlander.

Yeah, I installed two backbones because all my stuff is either Garmin or RayMarine so why not have a backbone for each? It actually saved money over buying a bunch of converter cables to plug in Garmin to RayMarine backbones or RayMarine to Garmin backbone. Now I can just use the cables that comes with the devices no matter what the brand is. I made one converter cable that connects the Garmin backbone to the RayMarine backbone so all the devices on 'boat' can see each other.

It's nice to just sit at my chart table below decks and plan my navigation on my computer of choice and then just send the nav instructions directly to the helm and execute the course change all from my comfy warm seat below decks with my coffee.

[K9Kampers]

Boat, that's a lot of stuff. And with two backbones? That certainly sounds sci-fi. My boat has no backbone so I guess that makes it a lowly invertebrate. and I won't be able to launch any misiles from inside the cabin either. Everything will have to be done topside, including straining my neck to look at the wind indicator. Your system sounds like it's going to be able to compete with Highlander.

X2!

I sail old school, chart in hand and do time / distance calculations in my head - if I'm inclined to. GPS and dumbphone stored below.

Difference between the left coast and the Maine coast is that I have more to look at - scenic shorelines and islands, wildlife, lobster pots... No offence, but sailing over here is more rewarding than always being face down in electronics.

[Russ]

Ah. Very Cool!!

The ability to control stuff from i Pad/smartphone would be awesome.

When your char-plotter and AP are on the same backbone you can send navigation instructions to the AP through your chart-plotter over the backbone. That is the normal way to send coarse instructions from your chart to the pilot. If you can control your chart-plotter over WiFi you now have a way to control your pilot over WiFi - see how that works? My Garmin chart-plotter has a radio in it that sets up a WiFi network for the entire boat. Any WiFi device, (iPhone, iPad, computer, tablet) can log on to that WiFi network and fully operate the chart-plotter thus accessing anything on the Garmin backbone.

I also have a RayMarine backbone.

My RayMarine Backbone has a wireless antenna module. The wireless antenna module is inside the pedestal (it's only about 3 inch by 4 inch box) and that module makes everything on my backbone available each other and to any RayMarine wireless device like wind indicators or remote towed sonar devices or any RayMarine remote control device. That little gadget puts all my RayMarine stuff including the auto pilot on a RayMarine propitiatory wireless. I can control the AP two ways: One - directly over the RayMarine backbone using the RayMarine dongle or Two, over the Garmin back bone using the chart-plotter or any device in the chart-plotter WiFi (like a cell phone)

I can sit below decks and operate the chart-plotter and all of it's features on an iPad including sending course instructions to the plotter which will control the AP over the backbone. The RayMarine wireless system is proprietary so it can not be accessed directly except with the RayMarine remote dongle I wear around my neck (it's very small). I need the dongle to control the AP directly or I can control the AP indirectly by sending course instructions from the plotter over the Garmin WiFi from my iPhone.

Because the Garmin WiFi network is a fully functioning router I can also put other devices like cameras or stereos on the network and view all over the iPad on the network.

I ordered a wind indicator and it goes on top of the mast and will use a cable to connect to the backbone on my boat, but because the backbone has a wireless network I could actually buy any cheap wireless 0183 wind gauge and just tape it to any bulkhead and it will work. Or I can view the wind data over my iPhone. You could have gauges anywhere with no need for wires.