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Autopilot for small boats

JDLinn

JDLinn

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us-southcarolina
2 Qustions ... Autopilot for boats ...

1. Is there a way to get a boat to track the gps route?
2. What turns the "water rudder" on and off on a plane, (When you hit CTRL-W, what is happening "inside" the software? Could this be done for a boat (part of the autopilot problem is the boat 'skids' and doesn't turn quick enough). Is this part of the "model" itself, or is this something we can deal with in the aircraft.cfg?

Thank you
Doug
 
Hey JDLinn,

Here is what I found out on Floats with water rudders.

The 'amount of turn' for a water rudder is plugged into the 'floats' in the contract points. The contact point is a type 4. Here are the ones for the Kodiak for FS9.

point.4 = 4, 5, -5.05, -6.7, 1600, 0, 0, 0, 0.85, 2.5, 0.85, 0, 0, 0
point.5 = 4, 5, 5.05, -6.7, 1600, 0, 0, 0, 0.85, 2.5, 0.85, 0, 0, 1
point.6 = 4, -8, -5.05, -6.5, 1600, 0, 0, 30, 0.95, 2.5, 0.85, 0, 0, 2
point.7 = 4, -8, 5.05, -6.5, 1600, 0, 0, 30, 0.95, 2.5, 0.85, 0, 0, 3

Note on the last two, the '30' entries. That is 30 degrees of turn, each way, max angle of 30 degrees.

I can almost swear (but havent double checked this) that if you have the water rudders 'raised' and you land, you still have steering. I 'think' it is only for animation, but I could be wrong. I'll check it out and varify this.


Now, water rudders are basically like tail wheels. Rudder input 'steers' them. So, I believe you could run auto pilot with your water rudders for ships. I cant see why that wouldnt work. Just a quick test should tell you that.

It was very hard to find out how floats steer. I think it was Milton that found that out.



Bill
 
Bill .. I'll give it a try. We are playing with the DeltaSim Daisy and Malibu. Put the gps/nav switch on them, so we can get input from the gps. The boat seems to "track" but skids so badly. Also, it tips over when it gets to the waypoint ... like it is trying to turn but the rudder isn't working just the ailerons. We're close, so I'm figuring its the water rudder. I'll play with what you sent me and let you know. The "contact points" is new to us, so we are just stepping "onto" the learning curve to understand this one.

We are hoping to make cruise plans for Misty Moorings (In Return to Misty Moorings) so they guy and gals can take their favorite yacht for a spin to go see something. We are using ORBX PFJ and have discovered the view from the water is actually better than from the air ... which is beautiful. But when you are down "on it" and the shoreline is 30 feet away and it still looks good (like going up a river) ... then you know you've got something special. So we are trying to get the boats "running" as smoothly as the planes. It looks simple, but we are sure missing something. What you sent may be them missing link. Thank you for the time and idea.

Doug
 
Hi,
"skids so badly":
Try increasing the steer angle in the contact points section. Maybe it is set too small?
"tips over"
Try reducing 'roll moment due to rudder' in section 1101 of air.file (using e.g. Aired).
 
Thank you ... we'll add that to what we are doing. Hopefully we can get a couple of models that work fairly well. This, by the way, is for the Return to Misty Mooring site (http://www.return.mistymoorings.com) ... (Misty Fjords area). We've discovered it is just as much fun ON the water as flying over it. The PFJ scenery is amazing, you can go up little rivers for MILES. But we need some vessels that can handle the blue water around the fjords too ... and hopefully, these would follow a pre-planned route that would take such vessels AROUND the hundreds of islands and rocks that are naturally there. We have a forum topic at RTTM called "The Moorings" where we are discussing these things.

We have the "flying" part of the site fairly well working ... but the water navigation is new to us and we've got a lot to learn. Don't hesitate to look over our shoulder and offer criticisms. When we get things "together" we'll have another web page in the set called "The Moorings" where we'll put all of this. (Hopefully I can keep both plane and boat people happy)!

Really appreciate the ideas you folks have had for us. Of course anything we come up with is "yours" too ... we are a commercial free site and just do this for aggravation, er, I mean, pleasure! :-)

Sorry for the "long" post, but with the help you folks are giving us, I thought you should know why are are asking.

Doug
 
Many thanks Doug for the info. Sounds like it will be one awesome package.

I remember long ago, Bill Lyons had a motor launch complete with interior and working gizmo's in there on one of his elaborate packages. That boat was amazing. (He was amazing).


A thought occurred to me that if you want a 'large' yacht to handle 'heavy' (not bounce around alot), then weigh it down in the weights and balances section in the aircraft.cfg file. The liter, the bouncier, I would think. Also, making your lift scaler 0 should help it to not fly. Zero out your aileron max angles as well to keep it from rolling.

If you want it to not turn too fast, make the rudder angle less, like 15 degrees or less. That way it will cut a wide turn like a heavy boat.

So much you can do with FSX.... I would like to see some buildings with interiors and have it where you could walk around. That would be awesome. Farm Sim has that ability, the German simulator. (I keep meaning to get that to check it out... )
 
There's got to be a way to do it. I spent the last 4 hours trying again with some of the things you folks have sent me. The problem is, it's like asking a 5 year old to work on a NASCAR engine ... I just don't have the training for messing with these. I changed those settings to "30" and the boat jumped around like it had ants in its pants! What ever I did, was the WRONG move for sure. That's the progress we are getting used to ... "I won't do that again!" :-)

It's just that we can't get the Nav Stack/GPS to "see" the route. Sometimes it kind of works, (with the boat rolling over at a waypoint), other times it goes merrily by and ignores it.

I just have this feeling we are either missing something totally basic, or that the answer is somewhere in the modeling that just won't let it work. If we could just get it to hold a "heading" that would help ... but it doesn't even seem to do that. CTRL-H turns the heading light on and off on the stack, but the boat could care less if the little light is on! :-)

The Daisy yacht is pretty heavy, so I don't think weight is the problem, and it is relatively slow. I've changed the rudder size, etc. I think those things will "tweak" it when we get the more basic ... keep the darned boat tracking the gps ... problem.

We'll keep working on it and if we nail it, we'll let you folks know here. I really appreciate the help ... we are "way" over our heads on this one. (But could that be the reason we enjoy this so much?)

Doug
 
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