Electronic Coaching Assistant

Originally posted by Peaky Like the idea about two boat tuning - increases the market too! I definitelty agree about a more precise approach to boat tuning - how many times did 'marginal gains' get mentioned at the Olympics?

About as often as race-tracks and the playing of jokers - but maybe they got it right on the marginal gains?

I believe the basic Pi Garda is based around GPS, whereas this is built on an IMU (inertial measurement unit) with a Kalman filter to get accurate heading and attitude (heading being direction the bow is pointing, not moving - couple it with GPS to get leeway angle). The Pi is also v expensive, I believe.

The sampling rate and accuracy of the gyros and acclerometers is plenty good enough to cope with waves. Even in waves I think you would want to know how averagely flat you were and how much you pitched as you worked through the waves.


Edited by Peaky - 13 Sep 12 at 3:14pm

Good question - accelerometers. An inertial measurement unit uses gyro's and accelerometers (and magnetometers in this case, for heading). The combination allows accurate attitude and heading to be measured, and is commonly used for inertial guidance and inertial navigation systems (aeroplanes, missiles, etc). With modern technology it is now possible to create accurate 'consumer' versions at reasonable prices.

They can also be used for speed and location, but suffer badly from drift, hence the need combine with GPS to 'refix' periodically (which gives much better results than GPS alone).

I might have misunderstood your question Kev. How do you know the device is mounted to a bit of boat parallel to the waterplane? I guess you have to measure or make an educated guess. A Laser foredeck looks pretty level to me.

Some boats have a flat place, like Lasers, so that would be easy. For others you may to press a "set" button, either with the boat level on a trolley or in calm water.

In some ways it wouldn't matter as long as it was placed consistently.