Hello, my group and I are extremely new to Arduino and coding in general. We are supposed to control 4 T-200 Thrusters with a Logitech 3D Pro-Extreme. We are extremely lost and have no idea where to start. Can someone please help?
Scratch the Logitech 3D Pro, we have decided to go with a wired xbox controller. We have 4 ESC's, 485 Max's, USB Host, and everything we need for the ROV, we are just stuck on the code for the xbox controller with the thrusters. (We are using arduino uno's)
For some reading.
One place to start would be to learn how to read the joystick output using an Arduino. Google will find examples.
Read about the thrusters starting from here: T200 Thruster: ROV thruster for marine robotics propulsion
Yikes! $200 each? You will need motor drivers that can handle 20V and 32A unless you want to run at lower power. What is your power source? A big LiPo pack or a lead-acid battery?
You will need a way for your Arduino to act as a USB Host. Some (Due?) can do that natively. The UNO can use a USB Host Shield.
Curious. School? Commercial?
I'd love to help you spend money you must have in a large bag over there!
But you can get a long way starting with things that will have to be done anyways but require very little (relatively) money.
You haven't said what means you are planning to use to communicate with the "remotely operated vehicle".
But certainly you can start by getting the input data from a "Logitech 3D Pro-Extreme" to display on the serial monitor.
A handy trick is to use google. Ok, you know that. But simply adding the word arduino to almost anything you can dream up to do will show you that you are not the first to struggle with this, and therefore it won't be a struggle for you. I did:
Logitech 3D Pro-Extreme arduino interface
and it looks like this
https://chome.nerpa.tech/mcu/using-logitech-extreme-3d-pro-joystick-with-arduino-hid-library/
is the kind of thing you will need to slog through and adapt.
When you get to the real stuff, please make one of you the battery expert. The batteries on offer at the website that has the thrusters are bare naked cells in series. They require good care and handling. They can deliver enormous current and when they do, it's best if that was to plan, and not on accident.
is an excellent source of essential knowledge. Find and read about Lipo chemistry and all what goes into not burning down your lab (or school (or house)) when you use them. Or just plain not rapidly wrecking a spendy battery.
Small steps. Joystick to serial verification. Then oystick numbers transmitted through whatever will get them to the ROV, where again in testing and dev you could just echo at a remove the inputs from the "Logitech 3D Pro-Extreme".
Sounds like fun. Please keep telling us about the excitement, the good and let us hope not too much of the bad.
a7
The ESC sold on that site costs $36, which seems like a bargain compared to the cost of the thruster.
However, the thruster engineering appears to be truly superb, and the cost is very likely warranted.
It would be a cool summer project to mount a couple on a kayak or paddleboard.
That kind of ESC is used in r/c "toys" and it is easy to find more voltage and current for less cost.
From reputable sources, even.
Break out the heavy wires.
a7
Wow, save $11!
Scratch the Logitech 3D Pro, we have decided to go with a wired xbox controller. We have 4 ESC's, 485 Max's, USB Host, and everything we need for the ROV, we are just stuck on the code for the xbox controller with the thrusters. (We are using arduino uno's)
USB Host
Does this means USB host shield? If so, you should look at the USB Host shield library 2.0. It supports various xbox and playstation gamepads.
If you are thinking that for this project some experienced users will post 20 to 30 sentences of explanation and 100 lines of code and then everything is up and running you are greatly underestimating the effort it will take.
To learn the first 15% of knowledge you will need to realise this project which is giga-fundamentally-nescessary
Take a look into this tutorial:
It is easy to understand and has a good mixture between explaining important concepts and example-codes to get you going. So give it a try and report your opinion about this tutorial.
best regards Stefan
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