Auto Yoke System - Mooney strap on autopilot

[DXB]

I like the scrappy innovation shown by these two guys in creating a startup to develop a low cost, removable, non-STC'd autopilot that sits on the yoke of a vintage C model. They will have a booth at KOSH.  The prototype in the video is obviously not ready for prime time, but I find their posted development timeline more credible than BK's Mooney STC promises for the Trutrak/Aerocruze  

http://www.autoyoke.com/?fbclid=IwAR36S09W-Omv3MFxjiE8VYyueW2pQ-ZHDCIbIn-nBXryWHPwhwJt0K6oodQ

 

[hammdo]

Very cool idea!

-Don

[EricJ]

Nice!   That looks promising.

 

[carusoam]

That sure is interesting…

The interconnection in Mooney’s rudder/ailerons makes it elegant…

Fun….  Installed while flying…

 

lots to learn…

Best regards,

-a- 

[0TreeLemur]

Makes Brittain stuff look down right space-age and modern.  I love Brittain.

[apriav]

Now they need bob weight for the pitch and you have a real autopilot......brilliance 

[N201MKTurbo]

So, about a year ago, Brice calls me up and asks if we could build a portable auto pilot. I thought about it and put together a little power point. It is attached. It was August of last year.

I am a looser! these guys actually built it! I am genuflecting to them right now!

 

Trim Assist.pptx

[carusoam]

Do we know the Mooney flying AP creator?

Best regards,

-a-

[EricJ]

10 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

So, about a year ago, Brice calls me up and asks if we could build a portable auto pilot. I thought about it and put together a little power point. It is attached. It was August of last year.

I am a looser! these guys actually built it! I am genuflecting to them right now!

 

Trim Assist.pptx 120.04 kB · 6 downloads

There was a time that with a power point like that you could've gotten multiple large investments from silicon valley VCs.

[N201MKTurbo]

2 hours ago, EricJ said:

There was a time that with a power point like that you could've gotten multiple large investments from silicon valley VCs.

I have a word document with a lot more detail. I have a Raspberry PI and an AHRS/GPS module. I was working on it when my engine went south. Oh well...

[EricJ]

1 minute ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I have a word document with a lot more detail. I have a Raspberry PI and an AHRS/GPS module. I was working on it when my engine went south. Oh well...

Yeah, it's not an overly complex system.   It is not dissimilar to what many High School robotics teams crank out with fair regularity, but it is a fair amount of work.

 

[chriscalandro]

3 hours ago, EricJ said:

Yeah, it's not an overly complex system.   It is not dissimilar to what many High School robotics teams crank out with fair regularity, but it is a fair amount of work.

 

I have a new CNC, some ARM development boards, steppers and free time…

[EricJ]

11 minutes ago, chriscalandro said:

I have a new CNC, some ARM development boards, steppers and free time…

There ya go!   I'm guessing you remember how to design a 2nd or 3rd order control loop as well.   The availability of cheapie displays and input devices for RPi is amazing these days.   Plugging an AHRS and/or GPS onto one is NBD any more.

 

[jamesm]

weight shift control for roll control  interesting

[chriscalandro]

54 minutes ago, EricJ said:

There ya go!   I'm guessing you remember how to design a 2nd or 3rd order control loop as well.   The availability of cheapie displays and input devices for RPi is amazing these days.   Plugging an AHRS and/or GPS onto one is NBD any more.

 

I know how to use PID.H!

 

come to think of it I believe Dynon now streams ADAHRS data over their WiFi. 
 

this might actually be pretty easy from the software side now that I think about this more. 

[chriscalandro]

I have enough experience with programming and robotics to know that the weight shift model above probably will not work.

 

Here is a good start to anyone that wants to do this.  I'm going to work on the hardware side for now in my spare time, but here's a good start to the ARM side.  If there are people here that are interesting in working on this, lets try to build it the correct way

 

https://github.com/fonducando/AutoPilot

Edited July 28, 2021 by chriscalandro

[N201MKTurbo]

13 hours ago, chriscalandro said:

I know how to use PID.H!

 

come to think of it I believe Dynon now streams ADAHRS data over their WiFi. 
 

this might actually be pretty easy from the software side now that I think about this more. 

I was using the same AHRS module that the Stratux uses. It has a full blown GPS also. You can get them for $25

[ragedracer1977]

On 7/26/2021 at 11:24 PM, N201MKTurbo said:

So, about a year ago, Brice calls me up and asks if we could build a portable auto pilot. I thought about it and put together a little power point. It is attached. It was August of last year.

I am a looser! these guys actually built it! I am genuflecting to them right now!

 

Trim Assist.pptx 120.04 kB · 21 downloads

I have lots of good ideas, I just suck at implementation.  

[Hank]

1 hour ago, ragedracer1977 said:

I have lots of good ideas, I just suck at implementation.  

You sound perfect for BK Avionics! See if they have any openings . . . . 

[N201MKTurbo]

16 minutes ago, Hank said:

You sound perfect for BK Avionics! See if they have any openings . . . . 

I'm pretty sure we would have autopilots by now if that was the case.

[chriscalandro]

2 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I was using the same AHRS module that the Stratux uses. It has a full blown GPS also. You can get them for $25

I have Dynon displays that have everything I need in both WiFi and serial. 
 

im going to get that to work, but I’ve also configured an i2C for a 9dof chip and gps. 

[bavareze]

On 7/26/2021 at 9:58 PM, apriav said:

Now they need bob weight for the pitch and you have a real autopilot......brilliance 

:-)) 

On 7/26/2021 at 11:26 PM, carusoam said:

Do we know the Mooney flying AP creator?

Best regards,

-a-

We're here.  Also you could come to hangar G at Airventure if you wanted to chat. 

On 7/27/2021 at 12:49 PM, N201MKTurbo said:

I have a word document with a lot more detail. I have a Raspberry PI and an AHRS/GPS module. I was working on it when my engine went south. Oh well...

Mine did same thing. One cylinder actually....

On 7/28/2021 at 7:48 AM, N201MKTurbo said:

I was using the same AHRS module that the Stratux uses. It has a full blown GPS also. You can get them for $25

Which one is that?

Edited July 29, 2021 by bavareze

[EricJ]

56 minutes ago, bavareze said:

Which one is that?

This is the AHRS that is usually used with the stratux:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06ZZCHBHT

There are a number of USB GPS/Glonass/beidou/galileo receivers that are in the $15 range also available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EROIUEW

adafruit is selling a really nice 9 DOF IMU with a magnetometer and temperature sensor for $20.   The interface is I2C so it'll talk to just about anything.   I don't know whether there's a library for it on the RPi, though.   This unit is nice because it does the sensor fusion internally and outputs things like a gravity vector, etc., which saves a lot of development.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4646

 

Edited July 29, 2021 by EricJ

[N201MKTurbo]

3 hours ago, bavareze said:

:-)) 

We're here.  Also you could come to hangar G at Airventure if you wanted to chat. 

Mine did same thing. One cylinder actually....

Which one is that?

I was using the REYAX RY836A1

https://www.amazon.sg/RY836AI-Glonass-Antenna-Pressure-Compass/dp/B07NXS2DL2

 

[bavareze]

3 hours ago, EricJ said:

This is the AHRS that is usually used with the stratux:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06ZZCHBHT

There are a number of USB GPS/Glonass/beidou/galileo receivers that are in the $15 range also available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EROIUEW

adafruit is selling a really nice 9 DOF IMU with a magnetometer and temperature sensor for $20.   The interface is I2C so it'll talk to just about anything.   I don't know whether there's a library for it on the RPi, though.   This unit is nice because it does the sensor fusion internally and outputs things like a gravity vector, etc., which saves a lot of development.

https://www.adafruit.com/product/4646

 

Thanks. 

 

I tried the adafruit bno055, the bosch imu as well as the tdk mpu8950. They wll use accelerometers to correct for gross pseudo-gyro drifting. But when subjected to a constant laterall acceleration, such as during a level 360 turn, they all start registering horizon being level with the wings of the plane, in essence mistakenly thinking a pendulum will always point to center of earth. I'll try the glonass thing to see if it is any better. 

 

On the meantime i started coding my own accelerometer-0seudo-gyro fusion method that should be able to reject the above mentioned pendulum error. What a headache!