New Autopilot from Yacht Devices!

[catsketcher]

I like the idea of having more players in the autopilot market. For my cat, and underdeck autopilot unit was going to cost more than $5000. I already had a Raymarine pilot that was wheel mounted, but I wanted more so my son got me a PyPilot module. It steers really well, much better than my old Raymarine and with no noise.

It has the magnetic sensor inside the control box and uses rate gyros and accelerometers too. I built a drive for it from a worm drive motor and some alloy extrusion. It is really strong, works really well,makes no noise and I use a $5 ebay garage door remote for steering remotely. It does not have an interface yet, I tend to use the remote or my phone, but my son 3D printed a nice case for buttons to interface with it. We will install this sometime soon I hope.

I reckon that copying drones technology, and they are incredibly stable and use internal sensors, is reasonable on a yacht. At least I have found a small system (even with internal sensors) to be a great alternative to Raymarine etal.

[CaptainRivet]

you can combine this autopilot for 349Euro with the orca core for 450Euro which also has a 10HZ fast heading GPS puting out ROT and a 9 axis compass that also broadcasts that on the N2K. orca core can also integrate the Quantum radars I have the orca as backup installed but actually using it more then my raymarine plotter...

Perfect combo.
you just need a nmea rudder angle sensor, the Garmin rm12 for 250Euro solves that.
The 10A, peak 16A should fit an raymarine typ1 drive.
complete is your system.


i am gonna install that as backup to my ST6001,S2G, Type1 linear drive.

[ManekiNeko]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Great to see you here on the forum! What is your name and position with Yacht Devices?

Thank you. I am Alex Korolev, technical support engineer (lead).

Originally Posted by catsketcher

I reckon that copying drones technology, and they are incredibly stable and use internal sensors, is reasonable on a yacht. At least I have found a small system (even with internal sensors) to be a great alternative to Raymarine etal.

I confirm this is a viable option, I know a project that uses Ardupilot-based hardware/software platform for speedboat (competitive water ski sport), they claimed 10 cm (sic!) XTE on straight track.
The main issue here is that this system is not NMEA-2000-capable and NMEA 0183 capabilities are still under development;
e.g. they can not work with TRACK navigation feature under control of NMEA 0183/2000 ECS (MFD/chartplotters) — as I understand, they use dedicated navigation software instead.
However, as codebase is opensource, I reckon someone will adapt the system for NMEA 0183/2000 ECS solutions finally.

Originally Posted by CaptainRivet

The 10A, peak 16A should fit an raymarine typ1 drive.

We need to check the drive max. current specs, can you tell me the exact model/part number of installed drive, please ?

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by ManekiNeko

Thank you. I am Alex Korolev, technical support engineer (lead).

Ah Alexey, welcome to the CruisersForum

We know each other, I am Nick Vermeulen and last contact was end of June when we emailed about using NMEA over wifi as an air gap galvanic isolation to counter damage from lightning

I bought all the components for that and will be installing and testing it soon. Hopefully not with lightning too close of course