Arduino boards.

[PaulC]

Does anyone out there know if I need two Arduino boards to make my new ROV work? One topside and one on the ROV.

[sthone]

That is one way to do it, I've actually been looking into that method myself although I haven't gotten to far on it yet.

Another way (in theory anyway) is to run an Arduino on board and control it via a laptop over USB/cat5 cable (using USB extenders) but this requires learning no only programing the Arduino but also writing your own control program for the laptop in something like Visual Basic. I have also been toying around with this but again I haven't gotten to far with this method either.

-Steve

[bigbellydude]

I don't have the exact URL, but there are lots of tutorials on the Internet for using Microsoft Visual Basic 9.0, or 2008. I have done some Visual Basic programming, but I have to give up in frustration whenever I have to deal with drivers. Maybe is someone knew how to do the background code, I could make the interface for you?

Let me know if this would work. Josh

[PaulC]

Thanks for all the current answers. I guess I will have to delve deeper into this.

[cncmike]

PaulC,

If you read my response on Phidgets on this thread viewtopic.php?f=15&t=39, it's not an Arduino, but it's an Arduino compatible and a C# .NET Microframework based package with an Arduino pinout.

So basically, I am building something similar with a Panda in the ROV and use a Laptop to control it and display Video.

I will be sharing all my software once I get it done. I am almost done, just waiting on some RS485 breakout boards to test with then I will be sharing it.

It has a .Net Microframework C# programming on the Panda and a full .Net Windows Form Application which interfaces with a USB Joystick and a video capture device to display video and the joystick side captures joystick states and sends them to the ROV (so far simple, relay on/off, motor forward/back variable with a dc motor controller attached in the ROV).

So stay tuned....

Mike in MN

[bigbellydude]

I would be very interested in the software once you get it done, Mike. If you could post or email the program and the code, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks. Josh

[PaulC]

The problem is that my laptop is a macbook pro, and don't know if it will be compatible. The nice thing is that the Arduino board is open source with its own language, but I don't know if a GUI could be built that is mac compatible.

[bigbellydude]

Again, I am no expert, but if I recall correctly Microsoft has created compatibility software because of how common it is.

You can also use Python... Here is a link to some Python libraries that might be helpful.

http://www.pygame.org/news.html

Hope this helps.

[cncmike]

Well I posted it..

You can find it either on my site.... http://rov.cncbasics.com/

or I made a Wiki page that is set up by the TinyCLR.com site at ...http://www.microframeworkprojects.com/i ... ?title=ROV

Take a look around on the Wiki site, there are also many other projects on there that may relate to someone's ideas.

My site has a pretty detailed explanation on what the programs do, both sites have a YouTube video demonstrating it.(I am not much for videos, but it helps).


Mike in MN

[PaulC]

Hey bigbellydude,
You said in a post something about using python correct. Well, I am a 3d animation student that does this for a hobby. The software that I use is called Maya. It uses python for its scripting language. I wonder if I couldn't just make my entire interface for the rov in 3D just a thought.