Thread: Poor mans Ipilot

I like. What pic controller are u using? You writing the program and what language? You get the control board from Carl's Electronics?

Originally Posted by Blacklandlure

I cant afford to drop that kind of money on a trolling motor, so I'm building my own, LOL! Bought me all the little gadgets I'm gonna need and I'm using my humminbird gps unit as a control head. Turns out that this is gonna be pretty awesome because it will navigate to as many way points as your GPS will handle, it navigates unlimited courses, it'll hold me on a way point and with the addition of another program will run creek channels and any pattern I want it too! Most of the software is finished, now I'm actually hooking it up to my foot controller motor, a tiller control would be soooo much easier, but I still want to be able to use my foot pedal. I'll keep anyone interested posted. Here is a video of what I have so far! And thanks to my buddy Brad Chappell for not letting me get discouraged when the electronics and programming was making me insane!

Blackland1 - YouTube

Man that is cool.:Hands Clapping

Love to see some more videos when you get it on the water.

That's awesome, Wayne. Can't wait to see the finished product.

The board and processor are from Microchip, the program is written in C. Loading it all up with a PX200. I just hooked into the NEMA out of the HB and its using the GPS sentences from the HB. I'm installing up a drocker switch as a over ride to make adjustments or to just run in manual. So far the bracket for the pedal attaches with a single pin so it can all be disabled quick. I'm fishing by myself so I needed something to make the trolling motor run itself, so I researched the store bought models, laughed at the small amount of way points they will hold, invested under $75. and here we are. The cool thing is I can load what routes I want to troll in the HB before I leave the house, when I get on the water, flip the switch and let her roll.

Newest Video: Designing and testing the motion control actuator hardware http://youtu.be/shAui_yBJng

That is so cool. Its better than I pilot. You got something figured out for speed? You are an Electrical Genius. I cant say enough that is way out there. Very nice job. Where did you learn all that stuff?

Speed should be the easy part, for starters I'll probably put a latching relay in there somewhere, and I'm far from a genius, I've just done ALOT of research. When you dont make very much $ and you need something, you just have to figure out another way around the problem. I may even have figured out a way to make the GPS super accurate. But, keep in mind this is still in the design stage and it may not be what I'd like for it to be, but I'm still gonna try. Where did I learn all that stuff?? I've had a whole bunch of jobs in my life, LOL!

You are one sharp dude, on electronics anyway. I am impressed.