I would like to put homemade bow and stern thrusters on by 28 foot boat. I plan to buy used trolling motors; cut handles off; mount to homemade aluminum brackets directed port-starboard.
Here is what I envision:
- 12 volt system
- An 8 position joy stick. Reference directions North South East West NE SE SW NW. For now N S are not used, in a future version I might mount a second motor on stern directed bow-stern and use them.
- One relay at bow and one at stern. Each relay takes two control lines and can switch positive or negative on the trolling motors for forward or reverse.
- An on/off toggle "reverse switch" which causes the thrusters to go in opposite directions to double up the turning force.
I would like the joystick to control the bow and stern thrusters as shown below:
West - both thrusters to port East - both thrusters to starboard NW - bow thruster to port SW - stern thruster to port NE - bow thruster to starboard SE - stern thruster to starboard
With reverse switch (RS) on: NW - bow thruster to port; stern thruster to starboard SW - stern thruster to port; bow thruster to starboard NE - bow thruster to starboard; stern thruster to port SE - stern thruster to starboard; bow thruster to port
Logic table Control Lines Joystick Bow Stern N S E W NW SW NE SE RS Port Starboard Port Starboard
1 0/1 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 1 0/1 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 1 0/1 1/1 0/0 1/1 0/0 1 0/1 0/0 1/1 0/0 1/1 1 0/1 1/1 0/0 0/0 0/1 1 0/1 0/0 0/1 1/1 0/0 1 0/1 0/0 1/1 0/1 0/0 1 0/1 0/1 0/0 0/0 1/1As above there are nine input lines and four output lines. What is the simplest way to implement the control logic?
Thanks for reading. Mike