My friend and i have this idea on making a larger remote-controlled ice breaker (boat).. yes english aint my first language
would this be feasible doing with the Arduino? we want it to be controlled by a 10-15 meter long wire since the aim is making the boat in metal and i dont trust wireless stuff around that.
and for the wire being possible it needs to be as light as possible. But ofcourse if wireless makes in way more easy thats a possibility, since a wire always gets in the way one way or another.
i got pretty decent knowledge about programming and what i dont know i will learn. the only thing i really wanna know is if its doable and what different arduino items i would need to buy.
since my friend can hardly connect his iPhone to his computer i would like the control side of it being analog.
so i want to be able to control about maybe 10-20 servos and some LEDs and around 6-10 speed controllers. I would also like 2-3 temp sensors that shows the temp on the control side of the project.
what do i need to buy? not counting the servos etc only Arduino stuff.
we want it to be controlled by a 10-15 meter long wire
That is not a conventional way of doing it.
the aim is making the boat in metal and i dont trust wireless stuff around that.
There is no need to fear anything like that especially at the very short range of 15 meters, radio will be fine or IR.
since my friend can hardly connect his iPhone to his computer i would like the control side of it being analog.
No putting that many analogue things through a long wire is going to be difficult, digital is much easier.
what do i need to buy
The stuff you need. But don't try and buy it all at once. Get bits working one section at a time. Try and learn about stuff before you spend any big money.
However, at 10-15m, you might need repeaters for i2c: I2C FAQ - EmSA
Or possibly have a second Arduino at the other end, and communicate between the two Arduinos via RS-432 or other serial protocols that have error checking. I would think you would want to use something like shielded cat 5/6 cables for the data transmission (particularly having a way to remove the cables easily like you get with ethernet cables).
I would suggest starting small in terms of adding the controls, doing it step at a time (get a few servos working at your distance), and probably expect to go through several designs.
I wonder whether any Arduino has enough memory to control so many servos to do what you want, and whether it would be better to have a small single board computer that acts as the brains with more memory, and several Arduino or clones to control a subset of devices. You may also want to think about redunancy, since if a single system goes out, you lose everything.
I would first get the boat working with an Arduino Mega that has lots of I/O ports and can drive lots of servos. Decide what controls and monitoring you will need. Prototype that and get it all working with the Serial Monitor sending and receiving data.
THEN design your remote control part with another Arduino. Decide what human interface stuff there will be. Joystick? Button?, Slider-Potentiometers? and LCD Display. Or run it all from a laptop?? Up to you.
THEN connect the boat to the control with RS485. Using CAT5 cable you can have 2-way very fast communications over very long distances and also some "fail-safe" connection if the cable is eaten by a Shark.
Thx for pointing my in the right direction got some items on order now and will report, and probably have a lot more questions when i start prototyping.
