Hello from Sydney!

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subn00b
Posts: 10
Joined: Oct 18th, 2015, 12:11 am
Location: Sydney Australia

Hello from Sydney!

Post by subn00b »

Sydney Australia that is, not the one up north :)
I've been lurking for about a month, and soaking up lots of the forums knowledge, as I've begun building my first ROV but the time has come to join up and share with everybody.

Of course I'll have some questions, which I'll post in the appropriate sections when the time comes, but for now I'll give a really brief run down of my project and where I'm up to with it.

So my plan is to build a small ROV to explore the bodies of water nearest to me, mainly Sydney Harbour - which should be full of things to see! (the part close to the mouth where the water is relatively clear)
The design I'm going with has 4 parts:
- sub: Arduino powered, controlled through serial via a cat5e tether. Video is sent on one of the pairs up to the float and info from the sub is communicated via an OSD. Brushless motors and ESCs. On board 4.2Ah LiFePo4 battery, maybe 2.
- float: Arduino powered and talks to the controller via XBee radios and talks to the sub via a cat5e tether. Also transmits video via a 5.8Ghz tx.
- controller: Arduino with a PS2 gamepad and XBee communication with the Float.
- monitor/goggles: 5.8Ghz video receiver

I know this is a little complicated but I had a lot of this stuff lying around already so it was nice to find a use for it - especially the XBees and the video tx, and I already have a 5.8Ghz video monitor and a pair of Fatshark goggles.

So where am I at so far? Well I've got most of the Arduino stuff done:
- The controller is basically done, the PS2 gamepad is working well and it's sending data from the analog sticks fine. I'll probably add some more button functions as I need them.
- The float is basically done, it just routs traffic from the XBee to the tether and that's working.
- The sub is getting there. I only have one motor+ESC to test with at the moment but it works fine to arm the ESC and I can control the motor from the PS2 gamepad on the Controller Arduino. Also I have the OSD working and overlaying compass heading, time since power on, and some other stuff onto the video stream.

I have 15 metres of stranded cat5e and I've tested the Arduino serial comms and the video feed over it successfully (without rs485 I might add though I have a couple of rs485 breakout boards so I might use them just to future proof it in case I want a longer tether at some point).

What's left to do?
- Everything to do with the body/frame!
I have a design I'm planning to go with but I wanted to make sure I have all the electronics working first.
- Spend money! I need to buy the rest of the motors/ESCs and also any body/frame materials I don't already have. Also I'm thinking of using one of the BlueRobotics enclosures but I'm not sure yet.
- As I'm planning to use the ROV in salt water I was going to do some basic corrosion protection to the motors by swapping out the bearings for ceramic ones and applying some form of rust proof coating but I'm not sure how necessary, or cost effective, this is. It will probably cost ~$70 for the 6 motors and about the same, or more, for the replacement bearings and rust proof coating. We'll see...

Anyway looking forward to the challenges ahead :D
rossrov
Posts: 383
Joined: Feb 28th, 2013, 5:01 pm
Location: Australia

Re: Hello from Sydney!

Post by rossrov »

Hi subn00b - sound like you're off to a good start by doing the video-control-tether work first. The thrusters and chassis is in my opinion the easier bit. Will be interesting to see the wireless float in action.

Ross
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subn00b
Posts: 10
Joined: Oct 18th, 2015, 12:11 am
Location: Sydney Australia

Re: Hello from Sydney!

Post by subn00b »

Thanks Ross.
I actually find the electronics stuff easier as it's more about learning and less about physical tools.
Ironically I think I'll have at least a fishing line tether connected to the float just in case so maybe it's not completely wireless ;)

Hugh.
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