Hey everyone. Been lurking here for a while and I love the site. I've been bitten by the ROV bug and I'm working through some initial tests and design options now.
I'm a C# programmer and a tinkerer.
My plan is to work out the control and communication issues first, then build the actual ROV around whatever seems to work best.
Step one was to work out a way to control it and I thought an XBOX controller would be a cool way to do it so I found the SDK for XNA and hacked it.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)
Then I wrote a C# interface that would show what was going on and gave a user some feedback and tested my serial comm to an Arduino UNO with a Motorshield from Adafruit.
Here's version 1.0 of the interface: What do you think? (I know it looks similar to some other stuff that's out there, but it's all my own code and there are only so many things you can do with the publicly available XNA base classes).
![Image](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Iua8odiwTik/UiiB-EtZZGI/AAAAAAAAANo/J7jxMhJCEQI/s1600/XBOX+pass-thru.jpg)
I built it so it can be used by anyone who wants to use it for a car, UAV or ROV or whatever. I called it XBOX pass-thru because it just hooks up and works. You set the baud rate and com port and it saves it for next time. You start it up and it starts communicating, no muss no fuss. I can pass along the Arduino sketch code that handles the serial codes on the outside. I can imagine some kinds of code that are used like toggles and volume controls (A button increases light 5% B button reduces it...), others like a 'trim' setting to add power to left rudder to offset a slight current or maintain depth...
Oh, and also, it's set up to handle up to 4 controller inputs so you can have a 'pilot' and 'co-pilot' or someone can work a camera or grabber separately.
Now that I've got the serial comm ironed out, I'm going to see if I can get an IP camera connected and working down there.
My plan is to use one CAT-5 cable to use two independent lines of full-duplex Ethernet comm. I found that I can use one cable if I put a splitter at one end and a joiner at the other with a switch or router, so that's my plan. I found a cheap switch for $14 shipped and I have some Cat-5 to test it with. The camera will be here Friday so that's phase 2.
I'll update as things move along in case anyone is interested.
Thanks in advance for any comments or advice.
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif)