Oh. I see. You are referring to a “rudder vane” system long distance cruisers often use.
I have just had a chance to have a proper look over the paper. I think in this application there is probably limited value. You would have to add a completely mechanical system that could engage and disengage somehow. This would just save a few small corections from the rudder servo that is already there, I think you would be better off adding solar panels or something to generate more energy rather than trying to use less.
we could do a sort of ‘endurance’ mode or something, will only bother moving the rudder if we get of course by 10 or 15 degrees or something.
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I haven’t had much time to test recently but should be picking it back up next weekend. A thought crossed my mind. How can we get a custom GUI/Widget view in mission planner for sailing. Something like this.
As mission planner is now you can put this information up on the HUD. You can see the heel angle, boat speed, wind speed and angle if I remember correctly.
I am preparing how to hook up the calypso NMEA unit to my OP Revo-mini board when I get it. So, a serial port is needed for the RS422 protocol.
Can I config the GPIO pins to make that work?
If not, the wiki say these are the serial defaults, and there is Serial2 now that I don’t use, but I don’t know where its located on the board. ‘NN’ - does that mean its not defined yet? Like No-Name or similar.
Default UART order¶
- SERIAL0 = console = USB
- SERIAL1 = Telemetry1 = Mainport
- SERIAL2 = NN in default config
- SERIAL3 = GPS1 = FlexiPort
yeah, you only get 2 serial ports on the revo mini unfortunately, there maybe something that could be done with the pin definitions but that would take a fair bit of messing about. Maybe it is time for a flight controller upgrade…
Thank you, that saved time.
Yes, shift to another with more ports, sd-card, and at the same time move the compass and gps away from the tiny waterproof area will all disturbancies.
However, I need a small controller, very limited space. You have a short list to consider?
I have had good luck with the Matek boards, the F405 and F405 wing. You get a built in bec on the wing to power your servos. The Kakute F7 has also been good so far.
Each require a little messing to get working, the F405 serial ports are in a funny order and the servo outputs on the F7 are mixed up. Neither have compasses so you will need a external one.
Did some research and in the end ordered a couple of kakute F7 all in one boards. I have a DJI compass/gps -unit not in use and hope it can be connected, DJI typically only have 4 wires.
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no idea about the DJI gps, sorry, I have a kakute F7 AIO in my boat works well.
No worries, i will find out when I get there 
Hi, I do not have my boat here but I have received the Kakute F7 (successfully flashed with Rover Stable 3.5.1) and the Calypso wind instrument. Also have a ESC with motor.
What version of the code should I use to experiment with you think? @iampete
you will need to be on master to get support for the Calypso sensor.
http://firmware.ardupilot.org/Rover/latest/KakuteF7/
The motor stuff has not made it to master yet but I can build you a test firmware if you fancy giving it a try.
Thanks let me try the calypso stuff first then.
I flashed the ArduRover latest, V3.6.0-dev (84ba6e85) to the board successfully.
I have used the same board and wire connections as you did in your earlier post.
The board is powered by a 3s LiPo and connected with a USB cable to PC for telemetry.
Then kept all parameters at default except:
SAIL_ENABLE = 1
WINDVN_TYPE=4 (NMEA)
WINDVN_SPEED_TYPE=4 (NMEA)
SERIAL1_PROTOCOL=20 (NMEA output)
SERIAL1_BAUD=4 (4800) The manual say: 4800/38400 (8n/1) bauds
What else needed?
The Wind Velocity and Wind Direction meters in the HUD window show rock steady 0.00.
Thanks a lot
This should be 21 for windvane. Hopefully that will fix it, I will check the other parameters against my setup this evening.
Thank you.
No hurry 
Nope, setting protocol to 21 did not make the meters move when I blow air to the instrument for some 20 secs. Also tried with SERIAL1_BAUD=38 (38400)…
I have,
SERIAL1_BAUD = 4
SERIAL1_OPTIONS = 0
SERIAL1_PROTOCOL = 21
WNDVN_SPEED_TYPE = 4
WNDVN_TYPE = 4
So it should be working. You have the wired standard? The Bluetooth one might need you to connect with the app and setup the NMEA stuff. We are looking for a ‘MWV’ message if it gives you a option to turn messages on and off.
Lovely, Its working now.
In the end I got the basic wind instrument with 6 cables.
The problem was that I started up the autopilot with USB connection to PC and Mission planner, then connected the LiPo. When first start up with the LiPo and then connect to PC it works. At least it seems that was the problem. It works.
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Hello,
I am a student using your ArduPilot Sailboat program and was wondering what is the name of the data that gives you wind angle with respect to the boat. I think it is WindDirApp or WindDirAbs but I don’t know which one.