Homebuilt ROVs Forum

TwoBeaner wrote:This looks pretty nice, is it available to buy? I tried going to some of the web links but they don't really have much there.

Yes it is available .
I bought it from:
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... 10rPaV1Q0A

Bubbles wrote:Yes it is available .
I bought it from:
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ ... 10rPaV1Q0A

Out of my price range, I figured it would be, it looks very nice and purpose built. Thanks for the link, I may have been there before but the translation helped a lot

Does anyone know if you can hook up servos to one or more of the eight channels on this board?
I guess it should work as ESC's and servos work on the same signals?

Its the same signal you can connect a servo or a esc to each channel, but you have to power up servos (like esc) separat because the X3 cannot supply it.

I have a new question for you ROVER3D.

Would this be possible:
Say I want to use my "home plug adapters" for communications with my ROV as this allows me up to 300m of 100mbit network connection over a single pair of 24AWG cable witch makes for a very manageable and light tether that can transmit all signals including video. (I will be using IP camera)
The X3 board uses RS485 for communication, witch gives far superior transmission length, but will require a "bigger" cable (cat5 suggested).
So my question is, and I know this is a bit backwards, but do you think it is possible to leave the "USB Data" adapter in the rov and then use a "USB over IP" adapter to connect it to the topside computer through the network? These adapters lets you connect any USB device to the network and then access it from your computer as a regular USB device (special software required to set it up)

Link to example of "USB to IP" adapter:
http://www.siig.com/it-products/device- ... -port.html

If this is possible, I will still be able to run all signals through the network.

Also, Is there a built in voltage sensor in the X3 board that will show me how much total voltage I have left on the battery or do I need a separate sensor for this? ?
And would it be possible to implement some sort of limitation to the thrusters so that you can limit the max power draw of the thrusters?

Thanks in advance for your input!

Hey olegodo,

that is a difficult question.
I don't know how the USB-to-IP adapter works. Like you discribe it would be possible, but i don`t know what happend if videostream will sended over same cable to. You have to try out.
There is no Voltage-sensor on X³-Control. There will be a voltage board soon with 4 channel voltage sensor for monitoring Lipoly-Packs up to four Cells simultane. It's important to watch the voltage of each cell and there will be functions to set commands for low-cell voltages too.

In the Thruster-Setup you can set maximum power of each thrusterchannel with the slider.

How soon do you believe voltage board is going to be ready?Do you know any other voltage boards that are compatible with rov control board in the market ?

I played around with the demo software now and I still have problem seeing how I can limit the thrusters.

For example, in the screenshot you attached, say I vat the X-axis to include thruster 1. When I move my joystick, the "X-axis" bar moves with the joystick from max to minimum. I can adjust the slider for thruster 1 and set it, either in a + or - value. If I set thruster 1 to +50, what would this do? Would a full movement on the joystick limit the thruster to 50%? And if so, how whould this thruster behave when I move the joystick in the other direction?

Double post

Are you planning on adding any additional servo channels to the board in the near future? The cointrol and lighting features look pretty much exactly what I want, but I also have a need to actuate 3-4 robot arm servos, one camera pan servo, and one "drop weights so I can bring things to the surface" servo, along with possibly a second dedicated line cutter servo. Right now i'm thinking i'll just have to have a secondary robot arm controller board, but if I can find something integrated that I can use the same control interface for, I would buy it immidiatly.

Anyone have any video of the interface working with a ROV out of curiosity?