NB: This article will be updated until the end of this project.

I’m really really enjoying my vacation. Mostly thinking about the ROV even doh i have tons of other things i should do first. Also currently it is only 46 days to a dream come true!

So what have I been doing. I’ve got the hull ready, frame ready. Most of the electronics (see below) The motor hulls will be made this or the next week. Hopefully a success at first try. Now the programming and the final build is the only thing missing before i head of 50 meters down in the sea 🙂

I still have to find an good idea for the 3 lights I’ll use. (2x white 10x led lights and 1x 10x IR led light). And the way to get cables trough each item. The LED’s I’ll probably just epoxy tight since the LED it self is kinda pressure resistant. So its mostly waterproofing the wiring.

Hardware used on Arduinos

I might start of by telling the slave and master will both be driven by Arduino. I’ll use an Arduino UNO unit in the dry and an Mega 2560 for below water levels. The reason for this is that for future developing the ROV I’ll be in need of more I/O’s to e.g. sensors and manipulators maybe even more motors / cameras.

To explain a little about electronic I’ll use I use a table.

Control Station

• Arduino UNO
  Will act as a brain, don’t think it need future explanation.
• 12V 500mAh 3S Battery
  Powering the system.
• MAX488
  Used as RS485 Full Duplex communication over greater length.
• PS2 Controller
  To control the ROV
• 16×2 LCD for information
  Small data from the ROV, depth, temp, heading
• 15.6″ LCD for Video
  As stated, for video
• DVR to record the rides.
  This will be to record the flight so I can show it / store it for other usage.
• LiPo Buzzer
  To monitore the base voltage. Should be able to swap battery without the ROV noticing 🙂

Slave (ROV)

• Arduino Mega
  For controlling
• 12V 5000mAh 3S Batteries
  For powering
• MAX488 (RS485 full duplex)
  As above, RS485 full duplex communication
• Current Sensor
  To monitore the mAh used, taking care of my batteries! (Thanks to: Ragnorok and BJfreeman for codehelp @ #arduino irc.freenode.net)
• Water (Humidity) Sensor
  This will be a sensor under the glass to sense any droplets coming trough the only part i know of that can fail.
• 9DOF IMU (MPU-9150)
  Compass, and level monitor to see if its 100% level under water.
• Water Pressure Sensor
  To measure depth, its a 0-100 psi monitor should give me accurate data 🙂
• BlueRobotics T100 Thruster
  Pretty, powerfull and cheap thrusters for around $100 each.
• 20A Brushless ESC
  Just to be sure I’ve added 20 ESC since the motors are capable of 11.5A max power.
• White LED
  Will make two underwater lights of 10x leds each.
• Camera Servos (Pan / Tilt)
  For future when i get a dome 😉
• Camera (GoPro or Brick cam)
  I’ll start with a brick cam, and use gopro as a outside camera (its housing can take that kinda depths)
• OSD
  For voltage monitoring