The Voyager Series: 2018

Saturday 1 December 2018

Voyager 2.0 Angle Sensor for Wingsail

Friday 2 November 2018

Voyager 2.0 Bluetooth Controller for Wingsail Servo

Thursday 1 November 2018

Voyager 2.0 Trials Under Motor

Voyager 2.0 Trials Under Motor - November 2018

Navigating a Sailing vessel is more complicated than navigating a motor vessel.

So start with motoring first.

The boat was fitted with motor pod on a stubby fin, instead of the full size sailing fin.

Additional battery power and an Electronic speed controller were added in order to commence trials of the boat and the software under motor.

This proved to be a valuable approach to addressing some of the software design issues, before heading into the complexity sailing.

It allowed trialling of many of the systems in a more controlled environment than sailing would have allowed.:

Steering and course keeping
Executing a mission
Loitering
Telemetry and SD Card Logging
Magnetic compass accuracy

Setting up the motor

Typical scene before commencing

Realtime Telemetry Display - This image highlights compass accuracy problems

Heading off under motor on a mission

Going well

Note: This is part of the ongoing development of a low cost autonomous oceangoing sailing drones, utilising a self-trimming wingsail. This is the Voyager series of sailing drones.

Monday 1 October 2018

Voyager 2.0 Wingsail with Bluetooth Controller

Sunday 8 July 2018

Voyager 1.5 - Build, Launch and Voyage

Voyager 1.5 - Build, Launch, Voyage and Loss.

Following the voyage of Voyager 1 out near Lord Howe Island, I was provided with another unwanted model yacht hull, that I could send offshore.

This time I could employ some the lessons learned from Voyager 1 in the preparation of Voyager 1.5.

The main change was the use of closed cell construction foam to pack the hull and ensure that it is intrinsically buoyant. I want to ensure it doesn't sink.

Another change was the use of larger batteries for the Satellite Transmitter, changing from AA Cells to C Cells. This should yield an estimated 6 months of operating time.

Voyager 1.5 was launched from Woodside Beach in Gippsland Victoria, as per Voyager 1.
Once a suitable weather window arrived, it was launched on 13/6/2018.

The position reports were logged on this page http://ww2.acaciacs.com.au/voyager1.5/.

Progress was slow and after about 2 weeks, Voyager 1.5 hadn't entered the Tasman Sea.

Finally, a big Westerly gale arrived on July 7. This started to push Voyager 1.5 out into the Tasman Sea.
However, at 4am the next morning. the last satellite transmission was received.

What had happened ?
The signal was lost during a gale with winds approaching 50 knots from the West.
That implies that the signal lost due to some sort of breakage.

Possible reasons why it is no longer transmitting:

There has been electrical failure

The has been a breach of the water tight container holding the SPOT GPS, and it has been damaged by the salt water.

The Hull has broken up or been damaged in the gale, and the SPOT GPS does not have a clear view of the sky

.
We may never know....