hi peeps, I've been a long time lurker, finding most things that i needed by just searching but i have an issue i couldn't find an answer for, I'm into rov's, i build them with my kids and we go looking around ponds and lakes, its a way for me to get them to interact with the real world although with a digital control. I'm looking at making a new one with a few more tricks, 9 axis gyro, multiple camera feeds and possibly a manipulator, now i know that controlling speed controllers and servos isn't hard, i can do that but what i need is a way to communicate with the arduino over a longer distance, at the moment the arduino stays on shore and we use 30 foot of cable to send power to motors in the water, is there a way of using cat5 or cat6 cable in a length of 300 foot to communicate between a laptop on shore and the arduino underwater in the rov?
this may well be a silly question but if i don't ask i may never know. I've been looking at the ethernet shields but there isn't any info on using it for this type of application that i can find.
Hello,
Considering you just wish to control servos and other actuators plus get info from sensors... Have a look in CAN Bus, you can easily communicate over 100m at 100Kbps or 250Kbps. You'll just need an Arduino connected to your laptop via Serial which will forward commands over the CAN Bus so the remote board will receive it.
Depending on your power requirements you might be able to use the CAT5 as well... use 1 pair for CAN Bus, 1 pair for ground and 1 pair for 24V (ideally 48V)... Use a high voltage and a step-down on the other end to reduce the current, otherwise you'll have very high voltage drop.
Now if you still want to transmit video or other high speed signal, might be better trying a RPI and an Ethernet connection. You can use the Ethernet shield, but IMO the TCP/IP stack is something too heavy for an Arduino.
Other alternatives are: floating antenna and RF communication with shore or some kind of sound communication - saw a few topics about this last one here on the forum.
thanks for the info, im now awaiting delivery of the units to make a start.