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Pypilot Workbook

DISCLAIMER: this workbook was written around 2021. In the meantime many things have changed, both for PyPilot and for OpenPlotter, and for the best! Many of the concepts described are still valid, but practical steps described in this workbook are partly obsolete. In due time I'll update this workbook accordingly, and those chapters that will most likely be affected have -for now- been tagged with a warning. Work in progress will be documented in the Workbook Release Notes.

Originally this was called Pypilot for Dummies, but that connotation was not appropriate. Pypilot is not for dummies. I would say that building an automatic steering device for an oceangoing vessel, and trusting your and other’s lives to it, is the ultimate challenge for a sailor with technical inclination, and it should not be taken lightly. This is not a model RC plane that you can crash and have a good old laugh about it with your mates. This is a device that you must be able to trust when you cross a traffic separation scheme by night, in building winds; it should keep your boat straight when you go out of the safety of your cockpit to set a reef or change a sail.

The reward is huge. To have a classical understanding of your on-board systems, to have the ability to tweak it to your liking and to repair it if needed, is the ultimate self-sufficiency that all sailors should strive for, but not many achieve. Not to be dependent on commercial vendors, ignorant shopkeepers and sloppy repairmen is a powerful feeling. In a good autopilot, you will find a trusted first mate.

Yes, it will be fun to build, but the devil is in the details, and everything will break many times before you have made it robust enough. So let there be no mistake – you are in for a long ride. You need to have some working knowledge of linux and electronics. Even then, the beginning is complex, and that’s what this workbook is for. It is supposed to help you understanding the pypilot system from the ground up and make the learning curve a bit of fun. You learn a lot doing things wrong, but it's more fun to do it right the first time.

For me, I only describe what someone else has created. That person was Sean d'Epagnier and he deserves all the credit for the pypilot. Welcome to the wondrous world of free, open-source autopilots and enjoy the read.

What is pypilot >>>