Underwater ROV

Step 7: Control: ROV side

This is probably the most difficult part of the entire building process. I have seen numerous different approaches to controlling the ROV. Jason Rollette used a microcontroller, which is really the best way to go. He has full analog control of all motors, and at the data is transmitted up a Cat 5e Ethernet cable. However, unless you have the means to print out a circuit board and program a microcontroller, this is not the easiest to assemble. Jason has a diagram of the circuit and the PCB on his site here

Alternatively you could use relays to switch the motors on and off. this is not as good as full range control, but it is much simpler and straightforward. At Homebuilt ROVs, Steve used relays to control the Seafox, and he has a good guide to assembling any number of relay controlled motors.

This is one of the 4 speed controllers I am using for the thruster control

Comments

[jforb]

We used a vEx signal splitter from vexrobotics with the vEx transmitter and the banebots speed controllers, it's a relatively cheap way to control the speed controllers without much wiring hassle. The BEC on a speed controller will power the signal splitter, you only need one pair of wires to send the tether signal from the transmitter to the splitter.

[jernigan00]

What are the specs on the ESC? I'm acquiring all (or most) of the major components before I actually start mine. I am going with a dome type acrylic enclosure fitted onto ABS and home made a pan/tilt platform out of legos and 2 RC servos.

[SpaceShipOne]

This is a reversible ESC, with 3 Amp continuous draw, 5 Amp 30 second draw, and a 9 Amp over-current cutoff. They came from Banebots.com, and there are other, higher current ESCs there as well