Homebuilt ROVs Forum

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.