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[on:]

Hi all, I'm working on a ROV project and am wondering if there is anyway I could tweak the ROV program without plugging into the USB header. The project requires a twisted pair to be connected to serial pins 0 and 1. Any way to program using just these pins?

[Reply #1 on:]

I dont think so. If you were using a UNO, I would have suggested removing the Atmega chip and use another board to reprogram it.

[Reply #2 on:]

The electronics housing onboard the ROV will be filled with tech grade mineral oil so access of the Arduino will difficult if any tweaks need to made.

[Reply #3 on:]

Why not make your own USB extention cable and solder one end directly to the Mega, and the other be feed through a liquid tight rubber plug. This way you can still use the USB port without needing to remove the Mega from the ROV.

[Reply #4 on:]

Can you do the twisted pair serial over a different mega serial port instead?

[Reply #5 on:]

Yea I can do the twisted pair over any of the serial ports, putting a usb header on the box would work but the housing is tight on space and since I'm using industry grade connectors it would require more time/cost

[Reply #6 on:]

The housing is metal right? This might not work but, you could maybe look into is using an jail broken Android phone or tablet. What you would do is, set it up inside the ROV and control it with another Android. Essentially you would be slaving the ROV Android and have it communitcate via Bluetooth. What you do on the master, will transfer over to the slave.

Similar to what computer technicians do to get control of your computer and trouble shoot it over the internet.

[Reply #7 on:]

Hi all, I'm working on a ROV project and am wondering if there is anyway I could tweak the ROV program without plugging into the USB header. The project requires a twisted pair to be connected to serial pins 0 and 1. Any way to program using just these pins?

I don't see why not, if you can arrange for those pins to be connected somehow to a serial port on your PC. Could you use an external FTDI board for that? You'd need to have some way to reset the Arduino to get the bootloader to run, though. It would be possible for your currently-running sketch to do that (with the help of some additional hardware) but then you run the risk of sawing off the branch you're sitting on if anything goes wrong. If you can bring the reset line out too, I think a more reliable solution might be  possible.