Marine control · In development

Palmnautix Helm

Big-boat joystick control for twin electric outboards.

One joystick for both motors, a GPS virtual anchor and a hardware kill-cord. We designed the helm board, the control firmware and the panel, and you can try the firmware in your browser right now.

Where it stands

In development · Not on sale yet

Done: Helm board fabricated and bench-tested
Done: Control firmware runs in a browser demo against a simulated boat
Still to do: Full helm-to-motor testing on real hardware
Still to do: Trials on the water

Electronics

Custom helm board with CAN bus to a controller at each motor.

Firmware

Joystick mixing, station keeping and heading hold, running on ESP32.

Design

Control panel design and an animated product film, rendered in Blender.

Live demo · Real firmware

Take the helm in your browser.

This is the actual helm and motor firmware, compiled for the browser and steering a simulated boat.

Starting it downloads the firmware and a 3D boat, about 2.5 MB.

Open full screen

Gallery · Renders and real hardware

Helm panel with a joystick, mode buttons and a kill-cord — **Render** The helm panel.

A glowing CAN cable linking the helm board to two motor controllers — **Render** One cable from the helm to both motors.

A boat inside a green ring on a navigation grid — **Render** HOLD keeps the boat on a GPS spot.

A small inflatable boat holding station on a still fjord — **Render** A virtual anchor, with nothing on the seabed.

Got a product idea of your own?

We'll tell you honestly what it takes to get a working prototype.

Send us your product idea Product site

Next project Kai →