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.