About 4 months ago JonE posted a link here for a smartphone app that will run nav equipment.
I have a dead TS 10 Simrad Tiller pilot, plus a Fuso FT 1200 and a Raymarine ST 1000+.
After 4 months of farting around, burning out controllers and being unable to download the software properly.
I finally got it to work. Now for a bit of cleaning up the rough edges.
The basic concept is to remove everything inside the TS 1000 except the motor, gearbox and drive shaft.
Replace the control board, buttons and compass with a smartphone and an app.
I also need to make up some limit switches as when the board was removed the Hall sensor switch limiter was also taken out.
Gary
I like your work Gary, I will follow this closely. The only bit of my old
st 4000 left that's any good is the tiller drive / worm drive ram
Hi Woko
The original designer of the app is using it on a hydraulic steering system on a tri based in the Netherlands,
However. with this matched with a generic ram you have a Pelagic tiller pilot at a fraction of the cost. But also with the noise.
I realized that I have a ram (or three) and am experimenting on that path.
This the link the JonE posted and got me started.
I went down the rabbit hole on this and had a lot of fun.
I bought a bunch of sensors for heading, gyro etc and where I got to was this:
A modern iPhone - or probably Samsung etc - has remarkably accurate heading and position sensing built into it for a tiny fraction of the cost of a full-on auto-pilot computer.
This is the genius of the solution. If you can handle putting it together (more craftsmanship than electronics - see Gary's success) you will have a pretty sweet solution.
Basic sea trials.
A bit cold and a crowded location so couldn't really get it sorted.
gary
