Kanardia Amigo User manual

Amigo — Manual
© Kanardia d.o.o.
October 2020
Revision 2.0

Amigo — Manual
Contact Information
Publisher and producer:
Kanardia d.o.o.
Lopata 24a
SI-3000
Slovenia
Tel: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
A lot of useful and recent information can be also found on the Internet. See
http://www.kanardia.eu for more details.
Copyright
This document is published under the Creative Commons, Attribution-Share-
Alike 3.0 Unported licence. Full license is available on http://creativecommons.
org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode web page and a bit more human read-
able summary is given on
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. In short, the license
gives you right to copy, reproduce and modify this document if:
 you cite Kanardia d.o.o. as the author of the original work,
 you distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license
to this one.
Credits
This document was written using TeX Live (L
A
T
E
X) based document creation
system using Kile running on Linux operating system. Most of the figures were
drawn using Open Office Draw, Inkscape and QCad applications. Photos and
scanned material was processed using Gimp. All document sources are freely
available on request under the licence mentioned above and can be obtained
by email. Please send requests to [e-mail].
Revision History
The following table shows the revision history of this document.
2 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual
Rev. Date Description
1.0 June 2018 Initial release
2.0 October 2020 Servo motor settings and tuning capabilities,
new screenshoots, new definitions, prepared
to work with Horis and Emsis as well.
3 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual CONTENTS
Contents
1 Introduction 6
1.1 Icons Used Trough the Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2 General Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Technical Specification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2 Operation 7
2.1 General Precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 UserInterface............................ 8
2.3 StatusLine ............................. 9
2.4 Autopilot Lateral Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4.1 Track Hold Mode – TRK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.4.2 Horizontal Navigation (HNAV) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.5 Autopilot Vertical Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.5.1 Altitude Hold (ALT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.6 External Button Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.7 Disengaging The Autopilot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.8 Options ............................... 15
3 Settings 15
3.1 Units................................. 16
3.2 Screen................................ 16
3.3 About ................................ 17
4 Autopilot 17
5 Installation 18
5.1 Mounting Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
5.2 Connections............................. 18
5.3 TheAUXPort ........................... 19
5.3.1 External Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
6 Maintenance & Repair 21
4 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual CONTENTS
7 Limited Conditions 21
7.1 Two Years Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
7.2 TSO Information — Limited Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 1. Introduction
1 Introduction
First of all, we would like to thank you for purchasing our Amigo. Amigo is
an electronic device, which enhances autopilot functionality. Amigo can not
act alone and it must be combined with some other Kanardia device. This
can be Nesis, Aetos, Horis and Emsis PFD. In addition, it must be connected
with autopilot servos.
This manual describes the technical description, operation, installation and
tuning.
1.1 Icons Used Trough the Manual
A few icons appear on the side of the manual, which have special meanings:
This icon denotes information that needs to be taken with special
attention.
This icon denotes background information about the subject.
This icon denotes an installation tip.
1.2 General Description
Amigo is an electronic device which is used as a remote unit for Kanardia
autopilot system. It serves for easy changing of the autopilot parameters like
desired track and altitude. It is also used for autopilot tuning.
Amigo can not work standalone and it must be connected with other Kanardia
devices to exchange information. You can not use third party devices. The
connection is made with a CAN bus. Typically, Amigo is connected with:
 Nesis, Aetos, Horis or Emsis PFD device. They all host an AD-AHRS-
GPS device internally, which is essential for proper AP operation. The
AD-AHRS-GPS device provides attitude, altitude, airspeed, heading
and GPS data required by an autopilot.
 Two servomotors, which are connected to the command system in order
to steer an aircraft.
6 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 1.3 Technical Specification
Amigo has a high-brightness IPS LCD display. The panel has two rotary-push
knobs and two simple buttons, which are used to operate Amigo.
On the back side, Amigo has two primary CAN bus connectors, which allow
simple autopilot integration. A RS232 connector is also provided for possi-
ble future extension of Amigo functions. It also host two secondary CAN
connectors, which are reserved for future use, too.
1.3 Technical Specification
Table 1 shows some basic technical specification of Amigo autopilot controller.
Description Value
Weight 170 g
Size 100 x 48 x 30 mm
Operational voltage 7 to 32 V
Power consumption 2.4 W
Current 200 mA at 12 V
100 mA at 24 V
Operating temperature -30 ∼+85 ◦C
Humidity 30 ∼90 %, non condensing
Communication CAN bus, 29 bit header, 500 kbit, Kanar-
dia protocol
Table 1: Basic technical specifications for Amigo.
Figure 1 shows vertical version of Amigo. Amigo exists also in horizontal
version. From technical point of view are both versions are identical.
2 Operation
2.1 General Precautions
The approved Pilot’s Operating Handbook (POH) always supersedes the in-
formation in this manual.
Refer to the approved Pilot’s Operating Handbook (POH) for emergency pro-
cedures.
7 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 2.2 User Interface
50
102
31
7 18
Figure 1: Front and side view of the Amigo with its principal dimensions.
Dimensions are given in mm. Figure is not in scale!
2.2 User Interface
Amigo user interface was carefully designed with an ease of operation in mind.
The result is a device with only two rotary knobs and two push-buttons which
provide an easy access to most commonly used autopilot functions.
LCD display is divided in two parts. The top part (or the left part) refers to
the lateral modes (directional modes) and the bottom part (or the right part)
refers to vertical modes (altitude modes).
Figure 2 illustrates knobs, push buttons and LCD screen division.
1
O Lateral knob – TRK: Rotating the knob changes the reference track.
2
O Navigation mode – HNAV: Short press on the button activates the hori-
zontal navigation mode. The navigation data for this mode must come
from some other device, Nesis for example. If such data is not available
the command is ignored.
3
O Vertical knob ALT: Rotating the knob changes the target altitude. The
knob is also used for selections.
4
O Option knob – OPT: Short press on the key selects the optional parameter
for vertical mode – vertical speed. This is the target vertical speed to
be used during climb or descent towards the target altitude.
8 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 2.3 Status Line
1 3
7
2 45 6
2
4
3
1
7
5
6
Figure 2: Amigo controls and screen layout.
5
O Lateral info: This part of LCD display shows lateral mode information.
6
O Vertical info: This part of LCD display shows vertical mode information.
7
O Status line: Displays status of the autopilot limiting conditions.
2.3 Status Line
Amigo LCD screen always displays status line in the middle for vertical orien-
tation or in the bottom right for horizontal orientation. The status line tells
if conditions for the AP operations are met. Figure 3 shows an example.
Figure 3: The status line.
 IAS . . . shows a small slider. If indicated airspeed is within limits for the
AP operation, the slider will be green. When the airspeed is close to
the either limit, but still inside the valid range, the slider will become
yellow and when it is outside limits, it will be red.
9 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 2.4 Autopilot Lateral Modes
 V. . . stands for vertical speed. Same logic as for IAS applies also here. If
current vertical speed is within limits, the light is green, close to limits
the light becomes yellow (amber) and outside limits the light is red.
 R. . . stands for roll angle. Again, green, yellow and red lights are shown.
 P. . . stands for pitch angle. It can be green, yellow or red.
When any of the above mentioned parameters is red and autopilot is en-
gaged, the autopilot refuses to take control. Also, when AP is active and
any of the status parameters becomes red, the autopilot will automatically
disengage both servo motors. An error window is shown, which explains why
the autopilot is not accessible.
Please refer to the Autopilot manual for more details on how to set the pa-
rameter limits.
2.4 Autopilot Lateral Modes
Amigo consists of two lateral modes: track hold (TRK) and horizontal naviga-
tion (HNAV). Default lateral mode is the track hold mode, which is displayed
every time Amigo powers up.
 To activate TRK mode, rotate the TRK knob – this will change the
reference track and immediately active the track hold mode.
 To activate horizontal navigation mode, short press the HNAV button.
The AP will now follow horizontal navigation from some other device
(Nesis or Aetos are required).
2.4.1 Track Hold Mode – TRK
In short, TRK engages roll servo motor to maintain selected reference track.
When a TRK mode is inactive the first increment/decrement of the TRK knob
sets the current track value for the reference and automatically engages roll
servo motor. Any following rotation of the TRK knob changes the reference
heading value:
 Reference track value can take values from 1 to 360◦with 1◦resolution.
 Rotating the TRK knob clockwise increments the reference track.
10 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 2.4 Autopilot Lateral Modes
 Rotating the TRK knob counterclockwise decrements the reference track.
 Moderate rotation of the TRK knob gives 1◦/step change.
 Rapid rotation of the TRK knob gives 10◦/step change.
 A navigation rose is shown during HDG knob rotation, Figure 4.
Figure 4: Navigation rose is shown for more intuitive track selection. Cur-
rent track points upwards and orange needle points to a new track
selection.
Short press on the TRK knob disengages roll servo motor (when servo was
active) and another short press on the TRK knob engages the servo with
previous reference heading value.
Figure 5 illustrates heading hold situation on the upper part of the LCD
display.
1
O Target track. This value changes with TRK knob rotation.
2
O Current aircraft tracking.
3
O Steering arrow points into direction where AP shall turn. Right arrow
appears on the right side and left arrow on the left side. Size of the
arrow depends on the course deviation. When deviation is small, the
arrow disappears.
2.4.2 Horizontal Navigation (HNAV)
Short press on a HNAV key engages the Horizontal Navigation (HNAV) mode.
This mode selects Nesis or Aetos (or some other device, which can act as
11 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 2.5 Autopilot Vertical Modes
1
2
3
Figure 5: Upper part of the LCD display in the Track Hold mode.
a source) as a primary navigation source. The autopilot follows some pre-
planned route or fly to a direct-to waypoint. It also engages roll servomotor if
it is inactive. The HNAV mode takes care the direction only – it does not set
or commands the altitude. In order to change an altitude use ALT control.
HNAV mode can be disengaged by pressing the HNAV button or by pushing
HDG button.
The HNAV button is illuminted in one of three colors:
White color means that HNAV information is not available. Pressing the
HNAV button will have no effect.
Orange color means the HNAV information is available. Pressing the HNAV
button will activate HNAV mode.
Green color means that HNAV information is available and active. Pressing
HNAV button will switch to the Track Hold mode.
When HNAV mode is active it will remain active as long as some source device
provides required track. If the source stops transmiting this information,
autopilot switches into the Track Hold mode. The reference track is the GPS
track at the time when this switch happens.
2.5 Autopilot Vertical Modes
For the time being, the only vertical mode is the Altitude hold (ALT) mode.
2.5.1 Altitude Hold (ALT)
Altitude Hold mode (ALT) engages pitch servo motor to maintain selected
reference altitude.
When ALT mode is inactive the first increment/decrement of the ALT knob
sets current altitude (it rounds it to nearest 10 ft or meters) as a reference
12 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 2.5 Autopilot Vertical Modes
altitude hold. It also engages the pitch servo motor. Any following rotation
of the knob changes the reference altitude:
 Reference altitude can take values from 0 to 20000 ft (6000 m) with 10
ft (or 10 m) resolution.
 Rotating the ALT knob clockwise increments reference altitude.
 Rotating the ALT knob counterclockwise decrements reference altitude.
 Moderate rotation of the ALT knob gives 10 ft/step (10 m/step) change.
 Rapid rotation of the ALT knob gives 100 ft/step (100 m/step) change.
Short press on ALT knob pauses altitude hold mode (if altitude hold mode is
engaged) and disengages the pitch servo motor. Another short press on ALT
knob reengages the pitch servo motor with previous reference altitude.
ALT mode has an additional parameter vertical speed (VS) which defines the
maximum vertical speed which Amigo will use to maintain or climb/descent
to reference altitude level. Default VS value is 500 ft/min. Short press on
OPT key displays VS parameter dialog. Rotate the ALT knob to change the
vertical speed value:
 Vertical speed parameter for altitude hold mode can take values from
100 ft/min to 1000 ft/min with 100 ft/min resolution.
 Rotating the ALT knob clockwise increments vertical speed parameter
value.
 Rotating the ALT knob counterclockwise decrements the vertical speed
parameter value.
 Rotation of the ALT knob gives 100 ft/min per step change.
Dialog will close automatically about 7 seconds after the last change of the
parameter.
During the altitude transition Amigo will try to maintain the vertical speed
as close as possible to the defined vertical speed. Due to aircraft performance
limitations (engine power, trim position, flight configuration, altitude, weight,
etc.) it might happen that the actual vertical speed will be significantly lower
than the maximal defined vertical speed.
Figure 6 illustrates the information of the Altitude Hold mode.
13 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 2.6 External Button Operation
1
O Target altitude hold.
2
O Current altitude.
3
O Climb, descent marker. The marker size depends on the difference be-
tween current altitude and target altitude.
4
O Current climb/descent rate.
5
O Target climb/descent rate.
4
5
3
1
2
Figure 6: Lower part of the LCD display in the Altitude Hold mode.
2.6 External Button Operation
An external push button can be connected to the AUX port. See section 5.3.1
for details about connection.
 A short press on the external button disconnects autopilot.
 A long press on the external button activates autopilot Track Hold mode
and Altitude hold mode. Current track and altitude are used for refer-
ence.
2.7 Disengaging The Autopilot
Autopilot servo motors can be disengaged in several ways. For more exhaus-
tive list, please refer to the Autopilot Installation manual.
 A short press on TRK knob while the lateral hold mode is active disen-
gages roll servo motor.
 A short press on ALT knob while the altitude hold mode is active dis-
engages pitch servo motor.
14 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 2.8 Options
 A press on AP button on Joyu control stick disengages both servo mo-
tors. Note: Joyu must be properly configured first.
 An external button can be connected to the AUX port. It is usually
mounted on command stick or on steering wheel. A press on this button
will disengage both servo motors.
 Power line for both servo motors must be routed via a circuit breaker
switch. Turning off the circuit breaker will disengage both servo motors.
2.8 Options
Pressing the ALT knob for about two seconds opens the Options window as
shown on Figure 7. This window allows:
 Quick change of LCD brightness. Note that the change of brightness
affects all Kanardia displays connected to the same CAN bus. A change
on Amigo will also change brightness on Nesis/Aetos/Horis/Emsis, etc.
 The Settings option opens a new window, where user settings can be
accessed. These settings affects Amigo only. See section 3.
 The Autopilot options open access to various autopilot settings, options
and tuning windows. Use this with care. It shall not be used on normal
operation. It shall be only used during autopilot tuning. See section 4.
Figure 7: Options window.
3 Settings
The Settings window gives access to some Amigo specific settings as it is
shown on Figure 8.
15 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 3.1 Units
Figure 8: Settings window.
3.1 Units
The following units can be selected. Note that this unit selection affects
Amigo only. Other devices connected to the CAN bus are not affected.
 Direction: true or magnetic.
 Altitude: feet or meters.
 Vertical speed: feet/min or m/s.
 Airspeed: kts, km/h or mph.
Figure 9: Units window.
3.2 Screen
The screen options defines the screen layout orientation: portrait or landscape.
See Figure 10.
Figure 10: Screen orientation selection.
16 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 3.3 About
3.3 About
The About window shows some information about Amigo; its serial number,
software version and software creation date. In addition, it shows informa-
tion about all devices connected to the CAN bus. Left of the colon is the
device name and hardware version, right of the colon are software version,
development version in parenthesis and serial number.
Turn the ALT knob to see all the units connected to the CAN bus.
Figure 11: About window.
4 Autopilot
The autopilot window is used to set and tune various autopilot parameters.
It shall not be used in normal operation. This window shall be accessed only
during autopilot setup, setting and tuning. Figure 12 show all five options.
Any accidental change of any of parameters in this section and subsections
may result of autopilot being inoperative.
The description of all these autopilot items is given in a separate manual,
Autopilot Installation Manual. No further details are given here.
Figure 12: Autopilot window options. Two windows are shown as all options
do not fit into one.
17 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 5. Installation
5 Installation
Amigo requires 48 x 100 mm chamfered slot in the instrument panel, see
figure 13. Position of the slot must ensure good access for knob and button
operations and must always be visible from the pilot’s perspective.
Carefully cut the slot. The slot must be tight. There is only about 1 mm
margin between the slot edge and the Amigo panel end – there is almost no
room for an error.
5.1 Mounting Procedure
The mounting screw holes are located at all four corners of the Amigo front
panel. The device is mounted using four screws type M3. To prevent internal
stresses, please make sure that the instrument panel is flat. It is highly rec-
ommended that the instrument panel is mounted using rubber shocks, which
reduce the vibrations. Figure 13 illustrates the mounting hole.
Remove the mounting screws from the device. Insert the device from the front
side of the instrument panel and fix it with all four screws.
Due to better access it is normally more convenient to connect all cables at
the back of Amigo before fixing it into the instrument panel.
5.2 Connections
Figure 14 shows Amigo’s back side with all connection ports.
POWER connection is seldom used. Amigo has a very modest power consump-
tion and thus it get power from the CAN bus. However, it can be also
powered from the power connector.
Secondary CAN Not in the use for the moment. Reserved for the future use.
Primary CAN is our standard CAN connector. Use standard RJ45 Ethernet
cable. Two CAN ports are provided so that devices can be daisy-
chained. This connector must be used to connect Amigo to main CAN
bus Nesis, Aetos and servos.
AUX – This is a multipurpose D-SUB 9 port. Currently only remote au-
topilot switch can be connected. More functions will be available with
future SW versions.
18 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 5.3 The AUX Port
48.4
100.4
15.14
3.2
44
96
10.7
10.7
Figure 13: Instrument panel cutout and mounting holes. Dimensions are in
millimeters. Some tolerance has been already incorporated. Warn-
ing: Figure may not be in scale.
5.3 The AUX Port
This is a multifunction port in a form of standard D-SUB 9 connector. An
external push button and RS-232 communication can be connected. Table 2
19 © Kanardia 2020

Amigo — Manual 5.3 The AUX Port
Power
Secondary CAN
Primary CAN
AUX
Not in use
Multifunction
Figure 14: Back side of Amigo with connection ports.
defines port pins and Figure 15 defines the pin numbers.
Table 2: Description of the AUX port pins.
Pin Description
1 NC
2 RX (RS-232)
3 TX (RS-232)
4 GND
5 GND (RS-232)
6 NC
7 NC
8 External button
9 12 V output, max 100 mA
5.3.1 External Button
An external button push button can be connected to the AUX port. When
pin 8 is on contact with ground (GND on pin 4) Amigo detects that external
button has been pressed. Figure 16 illustrates the connection.
20 © Kanardia 2020