I would like to to build an underwater ROV I'm thinking that in order to communicate with the arduino and control the ROV I could use the Ethernet Shield. I don't know for sure if I can do this though. So I need to know if I use the arduino ethernet shield would I be able to make a program in processing which would basically be a remote control on my computer. On the information page for the ethernet shield it says it can communicate with the internet. However I don't know anything about coding web pages or anything. Any information you can provide would be helpful.
I don't know processing, but I would assume that it has a "socket" object, that would allow you to open a connection to communicate with the device at the other end. Depending upon the particular socket library, it may not be much more complex than a serial connection.
I don't know about transmitting through water, but you may find it just as easy to use a serial Bluetooth or ZigBee.
Ok thanks for your input. The problem with wireless is that radio waves don't travel through water very well. Also I would have the ROV tethered no matter what.
Simple RS232 should work fine. How long do you expect the tether to be?
A single ethernet segment can be 100m long; I seem to recall RS232 at lower speeds can do 1500ft.
By RS232, I mean true RS232 signaling (including voltages) such as a MAX232 equipped serial arduino clone would provide (as opposed to TTL level signals directly off pins 0 and 1, for example, or the voltage stealing trick of the transistor-style RS232 interface of the original Arduino serial).
Not really; the hardware I mention is like this; the software on the arduino side would use standard Serial.whatever() calls. The board will plug in to a standard serial port (aka COM port), or USB adapter providing that connectivity. I've never used processing, but I suspect its use with the hardware I describe would be identical to a typical USB arduino.