Homebuilt ROVs Forum

Hey guys,
My team is building an ROV for our marine engineering senior design project. This is my first experience with robotics/rc stuff. I need to design a control system for our experimental propulsion system. I need to be able to control 8 solenoid valves that will be used to steer and propel the ROV. I need some hand-holding as far as choosing software and hardware. I know we want to use an arduino board with a MEMS chip on the ROV but i dont know about software to control it, the actual controlling of it, how to communicate, etc... I apologize in advance for my n00bness.
THANKS!

As far as programming goes the Arduino IDE from http://www.Arduino.cc should do the trick
I'd probably use Python for the interface from the PC side of thing http://www.python.org

Both sites have great tutorial sections on how to get started and offer lots of example code.
Communication wise I know some of the newer Arduinos have built in Ethernet but I would personally still probably opt to use the serial (RS232) to communicate. Since there is less code/resource overhead getting that setup but it really all depends on what you need/want to do.

As far as the sensors anything MEMS is probably going to be SMT so I would personally buy a breakout board just to avoid the hassle of trying to solder SMT. Also most newer sensors use 3.3v logic and the Arduino uses 5v logic so you will have to make sure that the breakout is either compatible with 5v logic or you will need to pick up a logic level converter. Otherwise trying to communicate with them over the Arduinos 5v logic will fry them.

On the plus side most of the people who sell breakouts also tend to offer tutorials on how to get their products up and running. I know http://www.adafruit.com andhttp://www.sparkfun.com have good support tutorials from personal experience.

You will also need some sort of power/motor control board since the Arduino can't source the power to control the solenoids directly. It should be an easy build just a hand full of discrete components and some MOSFETs should do the trick. Also since Solenoids are just inductors you will probably want to put some discharge circuitry on them because when they are powered down and the magnetic fields collapse they will induce a decent negative voltage that could potentially damage your electronics or at least cause some unwanted "strangeness".

If your team has someone with some background in EE it should be a cakewalk for them. Otherwise you might want to hit up a site like http://www.instructables.com they have a lot of good entry level Arduino hardware tutorials. Alternately you could always buy an Arduino shield that meets your needs.