Pontoon Remote Survey Vehicle (RSV)

Hi All,

I have started a little aquatic vehicle project that will be used to do depth mapping of the various ponds, lakes, and canals where I live in southern Florida. The mapping will allow the owners to determine their silt levels and silting rates.

My RSV is based on a similar RSV, only smaller, that appeared in the July/August 2010 issue of Robot Magazine and can be seen here: eTrac RSV

I chose to use fiberglass pontoons for a .60 size R/C plane and can be seen here:

The pontoons are manufactured by Great Planes and can be found at Tower Hobbies.

For propulsion I was originally going to build a couple of small outboard electric motors using Johnson-Mayfair 750GPM bait pump cartridges and 50mm Robbe three bladed propellers.

The housing for the bait pump cartridges was going to take a little bit of machining and the jaws in my Tag lathe still needed to be machined to allow me to chuck up plastic pipe couplers that are bigger than 1" in diameter.

Since I like Traxxas products, I found that the geared propulsion system for the discontinued Villain R/C racing boat might fill the bill as there are quite a few of the legacy Villain parts to be had on eBay for cheap:-).

So I downloaded the Villain exploded hull and drive train views and the parts list and proceeded to buy what I needed to put together two of the Villain geared propulsion drive trains.

At this time, while searching for Villain parts on Amazon, I found one last Villain built hull for sale and proceeded to order it so that I can build up a competition autonomous boat for competitions like the Sparkfun AVC only on the reservoir.

I began the installation of the Villain drive trains by cutting two sections out of the right pontoon just aft of the wire connecting bridge mounting points. I reinforced the sides and ribs of the pontoon, where I removed the fiberglass glass sections, with thin strips of poplar wood.

The toughest part of mounting the drive train was spotting the hole for the stuffing tube in the pontoon stern plate and getting clearance for the motor under one of the pontoon ribs. Pictures of the installation are below:

550 motor_reduction gears_and stuffing tube

Stuffing tube exit on stern plate

The propeller drive shaft is attached to a universal joint that is coupled to a short propeller shaft that is supported by an outdrive housing that is attached to a hinged trim support that allows the pitch of the propeller to be varied up and down vertically. I plan to epoxy the motor mount to the bottom of the hull once I have installed the rest of the propulsion hardware beyond the stern plate.

Right and Left Pontoons with Bridge

More build details and pictures to come.

Regards,

TCIII ArduBoat Developer

Hi All,

I was pretty busy this last weekend working on completing the Depth Finder interface to the Adafruit GPS/Data Logger.

There are now three plates on top of the Transducer support bridge.

The plate on the left provides support for the housing containing the Transducer wiring interface to the GPS/Data Logger and power control.

The plate in middle provides support for the Transducer/Data Logger 12vdc NMHi 4500mahr battery that is covered by a removable waterproof housing.

The plate on the right provides support for the GPS/Data Logger which is also covered by a removable waterproof housing.

The Transducer/GPS Data Logger Interface housing (blue case) provides termination for the Transducer cable to the Data Logger and Battery power. Since the Transducer is under warranty I did not want to shorten the 18 ft transducer interface cable so I mounted the cable under the navigation controller plate on the pontoon bridge. The Transducer cable wires are connected to a barrier strip inside the blue box from which the transducer serial data signal and 12vdc power connections are routed respectively to the GPS Data Logger and the Battery through a waterproof switch.

The middle plate supports a waterproof housing that solidly holds the 12vdc 4500mahr NMHi battery that provides 12vdc power to the Transducer and 12vdc power to the GPS/Data Logger Arduino processor through a six diode drop voltage reducer that reduces the voltage to the Arduino to ~9vdc.

The plate on the right supports a waterproof housing that contains the Adafruit GPS/Data Logger,its accompanying Arduino Duemilanove 328 processor, and the six diode voltage reducer. There is also room to add a Xbee Pro 900MHz telemetry transmitter in the top of the waterproof housing.

Here is a final shot of the Transducer support bridge with the waterproof housing covers removed.

I am presently working on completing the GPS/Transducer data capture and data logging firmware so I can test the Depth finder Transducer in the Association swimming pool. So far I have the GPS data capture and data logging working satisfactorily and am working on getting the Transducer data capture and data logging integrated into the existing firmware. More to come.

Regards,

TCIII AVD

Replies

- Admin
  
  Thomas J Coyle III > David Boulanger October 24, 2014 at 7:41pm
  
  Hi David,
  
  Thanks for the tip. I will give it a look see.
  
  Regards,
  
  Tom C AVD
- Admin
  
  Thomas J Coyle III > Thomas J Coyle III October 26, 2014 at 7:20am
  
  Hi David,
  
  I bought four of the 1/2" rubber pipe right angle couplers, modified them to fit, and attached them to navigation controller and GPS/Data Logger waterproof covers in the suggested positions.
  
  Here are pictures of the vent installations on the Navigation Controller and GPS/Data Logger covers:
  
  Navigation Controller Cover
  
  GPS/Data Logger Cover
  
  Regards,
  
  TCIII AVD
- David Boulanger > Thomas J Coyle III October 27, 2014 at 5:12pm
  
  Tom,
  
  That should work. Water resistant ventilation and I can't imagine any problems having it designed like that.
  
  Regards,
  
  David R. Boulanger
Admin

Thomas J Coyle III October 20, 2014 at 8:38am

Hi All,

I would like to report that I have successfully tested the Garmin Intelliducer Depth Finder, mounted on my Pontoon RSV, in my Association's community swimming pool!

The Transducer reported a depth of 3.6 ft where the pool transitions from the 3 ft depth to the 4 ft depth. I had to work in a shady spot as I had my laptop attached to the Arduino Duemilanove output through a USB cable. The pool has a maximum depth of 5 ft that was not presently in the shade during the test.

At first I was not getting any data due to the way that the Transducer terminates a complete $SDDBT 0183 NMEA depth and temperature sentence. My GPS Shield uses a \r (Carriage Return) where as the Transducer, as it turns out, uses a \n (Line Feed) to terminate a sentence.

I had started out with the \r terminator, as is used by the GPS, and as a result was receiving no depth data. So I selected the \n terminator, reprogrammed the Arduino Duemilanove 328, and tried again.

When I opened the Arduino IDE Serial Terminal Window I was greeted with both Transducer and GPS 0183 NMEA sentences. The present program will not output the Depth and GPS sentences to the Serial Terminal until the Transducer is transmitting the depth/temperature NMEA 0183 sentences to the GPS Shield.

Now all I have to do is combine the Transducer and GPS sentence capture code with the Adafruit SD data logger code so that I can run some trial depth tests in my Association's community lake.

I also might add a Xbee Pro (900MHz) to either the Arduino Duemilanove 328 hardware serial output or another SoftSerial output and use that telemetry link to capture the Arduino output instead of the USB cable.

More to come.

Regards,

TCIII AVD
- David Boulanger > Thomas J Coyle III October 21, 2014 at 5:50pm
  
  Hi Tom. What rover code are you using? I'm getting to the point now that its time to start laying out the electronics, learn the rover parameters and program my radio. I think Richard Sterling is using 2.47 beta on his project.
  
  Regards,
  
  David R. Boulanger
- Admin
  
  Thomas J Coyle III > David Boulanger October 21, 2014 at 5:59pm
  
  @David,
  
  Right now I am using ArduRover2 v2.44 because that it what is on the APM2.6 I am presently using on the RSV and I do not need the dual GPS function in the later versions.
  
  I do know that ArduRover2 v2.45 does work, but v2.46 has a skid (differential) steering issue and should not be used.
  
  ArduRover2 v2.47 beta 1 has a skid steering function that does work correctly and I have personally verified that function. However, I have had trouble getting the rangefinder (sonar) function to work correctly.
  
  Regards,
  
  TCIII AVD
Admin

Thomas J Coyle III October 15, 2014 at 11:25am

Hi All,

I was pretty busy this last weekend working on completing the Depth Finder interface to the Adafruit GPS/Data Logger.

There are now three plates on top of the Transducer support bridge.

The plate on the left provides support for the housing containing the Transducer wiring interface to the GPS/Data Logger and power control.

The plate in middle provides support for the Transducer/Data Logger 12vdc NMHi 4500mahr battery that is covered by a removable waterproof housing.

The plate on the right provides support for the GPS/Data Logger which is also covered by a removable waterproof housing.

The Transducer/GPS Data Logger Interface housing (blue case) provides termination for the Transducer cable to the Data Logger and Battery power. Since the Transducer is under warranty I did not want to shorten the 18 ft transducer interface cable so I mounted the cable under the navigation controller plate on the pontoon bridge. The Transducer cable wires are connected to a barrier strip inside the blue box from which the transducer serial data signal and 12vdc power connections are routed respectively to the GPS Data Logger and the Battery through a waterproof switch.

The middle plate supports a waterproof housing that solidly holds the 12vdc 4500mahr NMHi battery that provides 12vdc power to the Transducer and 12vdc power to the GPS/Data Logger Arduino processor through a six diode drop voltage reducer that reduces the voltage to the Arduino to ~9vdc.

The plate on the right supports a waterproof housing that contains the Adafruit GPS/Data Logger,its accompanying Arduino Duemilanove 328 processor, and the six diode voltage reducer. There is also room to add a Xbee Pro 900MHz telemetry transmitter in the top of the waterproof housing.

Here is a final shot of the Transducer support bridge with the waterproof housing covers removed.

I am presently working on completing the GPS/Transducer data capture and data logging firmware so I can test the Depth finder Transducer in the Association swimming pool. So far I have the GPS data capture and data logging working satisfactorily and am working on getting the Transducer data capture and data logging integrated into the existing firmware. More to come.

Regards,

TCIII AVD

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- Dragos > Thomas J Coyle III November 26, 2014 at 10:08am
  
  Hello Thomas,
  
  Nice work, thanks for sharing :)
  
  I have a similar project for a bait boat and I will use Garmin Intelliducer and
  Adafruit GPS/Data Logger, I checked the code that you posted and I have a question:
  - how did you connect the interface of the Intelliducer to Adafruit GPS? In the code
  I saw that you are using pin 6 and 5 but is not clear for me how it is supposed to
  be connected the TxA(+) and TxB(-) to pin 6 and 5 of Adafruit GPS (I meanTxA to 6 or to 5)
  
  Thank you in advance for an answer :)
  
  Regards,
  Dragos
- Admin
  
  Thomas J Coyle III > Dragos November 26, 2014 at 10:43am
  
  @Dragos,
  
  The serial output of the Intelliducer is actually a differential output (TXA(+) and TXB(-).
  
  I chose the TXB(-) output to use it as a single ended connection and attached it to the Adafruit GPS Shield on DIO pin 6 (SoftwareSerial sonar(6,5); // RX, TX).
  
  You can use the TXA(+) if you want to.
  
  Regards,
  
  TCIII AVD
- Rafael B > Thomas J Coyle III January 23, 2015 at 10:16am
  
  Hi TCIII AVD, from the Garmin Manual you should use the TXA as the default choice... Did you have any problem for not using it?
  
  "If your NMEA 0183-compliant device has only one receiving wire (Rx), connect it to the gray wire (Tx/A) from the Intelliducer, and leave the white/red wire (Tx/B) from the Intelliducer unconnected.
  
  Note:
  
  The orange (accessory on) wire is used when wiring the Intelliducer to a Garmin
  
  chartplotter, or other NMEA 0183 device that has a defined accessory signal wire. If you are wiring the Intelliducer to a device that does not have an accessory signal wire, the orange wire from the Intelliducer should be connected to ground"
  
  Thanks for sharing with us!

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