Boat build part 9 - First time drive, and app setup

[@Spyder_Tech_RTK]

Great first fish and again a great descriptive video 👍

[@sallysnail1795]

Perfect...just perfect.well done 🎉👍

[@olacarpe6676]

thank you again for this fantastic video with a great fish what more could you ask for 👌👍💪

[@Nature-bt5ip]

I’m building a houseboat, but it’s slow, and sitting at the wheel gets boring when you’re traveling 60 km across the lake to your destination. How hard would it be to incorporate your bait boat technology into my boat? Thanks!

[@TheCarpPilot]

@@Nature-bt5ip not that straight forward I think. The autopilot would have to directly control motor(s) and perhaps a separate rudder. I read some posts on electric outboard motors (like torqeedo) on the ardupilot discussion forum. Houseboat sounds heavy...

[@marom7949]

Hey, great videos. I have recreated the self-driving automatic, unfortunately the wifi module breaks down again and again! It only lasts about 5 minutes, then it's gone. I have now tested the third module and after a short time they are defective. Would you have any idea why that is? I took this module: 2,4G Wireless Wifi Radio Telemetrie Modul Mit Antenne,MAVLink2 Pixhawk APM Flight Controller FPV Drone

[@TheCarpPilot]

@@marom7949 I showed a module in video 3 that I have used a lot. Never let me down yet. But if every sample of your module gets destroyed after a short while my first and best guess would be a possible issue with the power supply.

[@marom7949]

@@TheCarpPilot I redid everything and now it works. And the mavlink was also a problem😅

[@nick-ll1be]

hello, I want to replace my rt4 v3 brushed motors with brushless motors. Do you know a good motor and speed controller for my boat? the boat runs on 3s lipo batteries

[@TheCarpPilot]

The motors I built and the ESC I used in the video about building a bait boat: See video 1. In that video I used a spitzt motor. The ESC you can use, but the motor should e of a slightly bigger size. If I remember correctly you need a motor with a 5 mm shank. Maybe join the Carp Pilot Pro user group on Facebook instead. Well above 1000 members with the same interests, they likely have more thoughts on this than I (also a collection of RT4 users there).

[@CosminFrinculescu]

HI. What is the alternative connection to the boat if I don't have a sonar with wifi, just pixhawk with gps and 433 mhz telemetry? Shoult I build a wifi telemetry and replace the 433 mhz one? Te app is just great and i covers all posible needs for me and I just installed but at the moment I don't have any "wifi ap"on the boat.

[@TheCarpPilot]

Adding a wifi AP in the boat also require you to add some kind of booster or add in wifi router in boat and on shore as the regular serial to wifi adapter does not have signal strength to reach very far. If you are pleased with the performance of your 433 radios then stick with them. Now, some don't like to have to plug the 433 radio in by cable. And build a box on shore which holds the radio, a hc05 or hc06 Bluetooth serial adapter and a rechargeable battery. Maybe even a tablet holder attached to the box as well and fix the box to a camera tripod. A fairly clean setup doing exactly what it should.

[@CosminFrinculescu]

@@TheCarpPilot Can I use your app with the 433mhz telemetry sistem? I really like your app and I purchased it, but I don't know how to connect my boat to the app, that is why I asked about the Wi-Fi telemetry wich I saw you used in your videos.

[@TheCarpPilot]

@@CosminFrinculescu Bluetooth, USB and wifi UDP/TCP are supported. 433mhz radios is usually connected using USB cable and works well.

[@CosminFrinculescu]

@@TheCarpPilot Thanks. I will give it a try with 433 mhz and then I will see.

[@fishingforfun3294]

Is there an emergency return in case of signal loss?

[@TheCarpPilot]

Yes there is. And this was also briefly mentioned in video # 8. This is something you set up as so called failsafe. You will see in that video where it is documented. I would recommend failsafe action to be RTL. If you select "HOLD" then you need to swim out to the boat to retrieve it (I have actually done that more than once, but then with boats with no autopilot onboard). Loosing communication with the Carp Pilot Pro is a so called GCS failsafe. Loosing the control with the radio transmitter is another option. Look at the video 8 and do some research on the ArduPilot pages!

[@mohamedshaat9898]

how does the steering works in the boat?

[@TheCarpPilot]

The boat has two motors, no rudder. It steers like a tank (the term is called "skid steering"): More thrust on one side makes the boat turn. The remote transmitter I chose to buy for this boat build (Skydroid T10) does not have a built in mixer. But that does not matter when used with the autopilot. I cabled left motor to ch 1, right motor to ch 3 on the pixhawk. And then, in the pixhawk setup (check out video number 2) I set ch 1 as throttle left and ch 3 as throttle right. On my remote transmitter, ch 1 and ch 3 I set up for the right stick (I prefer to have it on the right side, some would prefer to have gas and steering on the left side and then needs to adjust that accordingly). And that's all there is to it. Ardupilot (the autopilot) will, when I drive manually, mix the channels and everything works and I can drive and steer using a single stick.

[@rickgarner5496]

Can I use skydroid h12?

[@TheCarpPilot]

Sure you can. But how to reach the mavlink data by internal UDP connection (within the H12 when the Carp Pilot Pro runs on the H12) is kind of a secret that Skydroid never revealed. Two known workarounds: There is a Chinese app developed by HEQ who uses the H12 for their drone. If you install this and run it, then Carp Pilot Pro can do UDP internally. But only for 30 minutes (which probably is the maximum flying time for that HEQ drone, my best guess). The second workaround is to install another bluetooth connection. I personally built in a HC06 internally in the H12. I found 3.3V and GND, and as it turns out the mini jack has the mavlink data available as serial data. Such a modification is not without risk. The way I did it was published in the Carp Pilot Pro User Group on facebook with pictures and description. The H12 screen is bright and clear. The screen size is a bit small to my taste. So I prefer to use the Skydroid T10 and a tablet on a tripod. I also have quite a collection of Android compatible game controllers and just released a video on how to use it and set it up. Especially one of the controllers (Ipega PG-9083s is high quality and can take large tablets - i managed to squeeze in my Galaxy tab 7+ which seems to be the limit).

[@bartoszkosinski1879]

Witaj gratuluję połowu. Potrzebuję twojej pomocy. Pisaliśmy już kiedyś aktualnie moja łódka pływa na apm. Zamierzam właśnie założyć pixhawk . Mam do wyboru mini lub 2.4.8 . Który wybrać ?

[@TheCarpPilot]

That's a personal preference perhaps. I know several that reports they are happy with mini, but the regular 2.4.8 is what most people use ( it only for boats, it is used in a high volume for drones in general) and thus any problem you may encounter is a problem someone else already have had: Asked, and answered. So if in doubt I would choose the 2.4.8 any day. I used a Pixhawk4 mini in the KZbin boat because it was small and, also important, since I already had it available in my drawer. Next boat I build gets a 2.4.8.

[@MrGaby2744]

I would like to ask you what is the range of your wifi telemetry? If I use sik telemetry radio is there option to connect to your application? Thanks in advance and what a nice cath for first time! :)

[@TheCarpPilot]

Hi. SiK telemetry works very well. And Carp Pilot pro still has USB (which is how you typically connect the onshore SiK radio) as the default connection option. To avoid that physical connection you can build yourself a box with, as an example, a Bluetooth adapter (my guess is that HC06 should work). WiFi telemetry using a Booster like in this boat build: I have not yet tested this particular boat on range, but the previous boat I built I got into connection problems at about 340 meters. Which for me is totally acceptable, I prefer to fish the smaller lakes. I remember I struggled a little with SiK radio range. Until I finally found the antennas that worked. Using regular 100mW radios I had no problems to reach 350 meters (and probably a bit more, just did not test it), but not with the stock antennas provided with the kit. I ended up with a pair of 433 MHz coiled dual dipole designed by ibcrazy, bought at a regular US drone shop. Amazing performance.

[@TheCarpPilot]

And yes... Here I baited up in a hurry, and spent time editing video. 19+ in an hour is probably the best start I have ever had on a long session. Fact is I had one 21.6 kg (common) as well only hours later, the run came just minutes after I started to upload the video 😅. Wow 😍

[@MrGaby2744]

Hi, thanks a lot for your suggestions. The wifi booster is only for the sonar bicause it is needs a phisicaly connection as I thougt, but you connected the udp adapter too as you said. The udp adapter as a separate wifi adapter to send telemetry through wifi, so im a bit confused :) Could you please make a short explain of it? On the ground use only the wifi antenna of the tablet?

[@TheCarpPilot]

@@MrGaby2744 It is basic wifi network stuff... Say you have a deeper and the Fish Deeper app. Or a Dragonfly Pro 5 and the belonging Wifish app. To use the app you connect your tablet's wifi to that fish finder. And then you can use that app. The fish finder is then a wifi access point. And it will allow more than just that tablet to connect to it. And exactly THAT we also do with that wifi telemetry adapter. It connects, gets and ip address and starts to send telemetry data. Now you have a network. The tablet, the fish finder and the telemetry adapter are all part of one single network. And in this network, just as the Wifish app can reach that echo sounder then Carp Pilot Pro app can reach that wifi telemetry adapter. Usually using UDP protocol and Port 14550 (typically printed on the back of that adapter). So no magic. Just a data network 😉

[@TheCarpPilot]

@@MrGaby2744 when several devices is connected to the same wifi access point (the fish finder wifi) then they are both on the same wifi network. And can reach each other. And yes, on shore I would then only use the tablet and its built in wifi antenna. The wifi adapter is made from an esp. It has a physical 4 wire connection to plug into a pixhawk serial port that you connect to the telem1 or telem2 port and set the serial1_protocol (or serial2 for telem2) to value 1 for mavlink 1. Then you enter the wifi adapter's GUI and configure it to connect to the wifi of the fish finder using "station mode". You can build the solution also following these instructions. ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-esp8266-telemetry.html And you can obviously use it stand alone without any fish finder. If so select a model with a uFl antenna socket wo you can mount an external antenna (and also a Booster in-between).

[@jrjohansen100]

Watch out for that thrower . It will spin the boat 😊

[@TheCarpPilot]

That's true. Spinning might be a bit of an exaggeration. But it will for sure turn the heading of a boat at stand still. Not that much. Haven't given it any thought to be honest. Maybe because I always drop tray with hook and lead first, thrower runs second. After tuning down the power this particular thrower spreads a basket of smaller pellets over an area of 10 meters (+/-) in diameter. Resulting in scattered offerings surrounding the more concentrated area around the hookbait. I love it, all of my boats have it fitted.