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Magnetic bearing circut

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Vesselserenity

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Hi
Im looking for a circut that I can add to a spot light on a ship that will follow a magnetic bearing the spot light now has an RC servo and a joy stick to control it from the station how ever we want the light to stay on object even if the ship turns
Using a magnetic bearing seems easy but the integration with the RC circut got more difficult then we thought
It needs to be simple and easy to maintain thanks
Captain James
J
 
You will need more than a bearing to keep the spotlight pointing at an object if either object is moving. A compass and GPS can give you enough information to do it though. As far as controlling the RC servo goes, you can get a microcontroller, e.g. an Arduino, to process the GPS, compass bearing and radio control data to decide the correct servo position.
 
Hi
Im looking for a circut that I can add to a spot light on a ship that will follow a magnetic bearing the spot light now has an RC servo and a joy stick to control it from the station how ever we want the light to stay on object even if the ship turns
Using a magnetic bearing seems easy but the integration with the RC circut got more difficult then we thought ...
Welcome, Captain James!

Is this a real ship or a model (I'm assuming real because of your "nom-de-net")?

Either way, you'll have to add pitch and yaw adjustments as well.

Vesselserenity said:
..It needs to be simple and easy to maintain thanks...

Well, simply put, it will not be simple nor easy.

You'll need a device that can take input data consisting of no less than:
1. extremely accurate ship's GPS info
2. mag bearing of ship
3. mag bearing of object (target)
4. ship's pitch
5. ship's yaw
6. ship's speed

Basically, a fire control (gun lock) situation. Which also then implies a "spot" lock 3 axis servo control that can handle the mass of the spot plus any contibuting torque impediments, i.e., wind and wave action, etc..

And, of course, RC implementation.

I'm being glib, but it would be easier and probably cheaper to put a man on the spot and yell at him.

That said, your current controls could be converted to RC but, from my experience, that might also introduce unnecessary complexity to a shipboard system.

I may have, of course, misunderstood your goal.
 
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Yes just like our fire gun controls but much smaller the light is on a self leveling base your right in saying there are a lot of factors most of the time it is used while sitting idle beside the docks or other ship
I considered a electronics device used for mobile satalite tv but for some reason they are thousands of dollars How about a gps device that would stand alone no computers to mess up and a simple servo motor the light had a RC gyro on it to slow any sudden movements but a slight drift was undetected by those
And yes cheaper to have some one to aim it but I try not to yell at them to often
 
Simplest solution might be to put something together like an Arduino MCU (https://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12268262), a digital compass (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/7915) and an Arduino "Seeed Relay Shield" driver (https://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12665270&clickid=prod_cs).

You could use this rig to digitally maintain a magnetic North heading that could be used to maintain the spot's relative heading.

Now, putting this all together would seem daunting at first, but it would make a relatively inexpensive test bed for your purposes.
 
hi Cpt J,
I agree with Bob, what you are trying to do is is very difficult.

You'll need a device that can take input data consisting of no less than:
1. extremely accurate ship's GPS info
2. mag bearing of ship
3. mag bearing of object (target)
4. ship's pitch
5. ship's yaw
6. ship's speed

I was designing and manufacturing Hydro-graphic surveying and tracking equipment for many years.
GPS will not be fast or accurate enough to enable locking a moving ship borne searchlight onto a remote object.

What is the object you want to track as your vessel moves.?
What is the maximum range of the object.

Could you give us some background on the actual application.

Eric
 
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