I am new to the Blue ROV2 but am developing a unit to help local marine researchers. It is important to gather water quality data at different depths and the team at Atlas Scientific have said their sensors should handle 300m depth.
I would like to integrate one of the I2C interface boards (this one) so I am able to eventually connect 4 sensors. Unfortunatly I am not great at programming and this project is self funded to help groups FOC. The Atlas team have sent me this which I believe has more info on integrating the I2C interface.
Once integrated the next step would be to develop a widget to show on the control screen of Cockpit and allow the readings to be recorded along with the video feed so we can capture the data.
Can anyone help me? I could have a board and sensor sent and I will cover all shipping to have it sent back to me.
Hi @Geoff87 -
This is a solved problem! Checkout Sydney’s guide, as well as Kurt’s.
Keep in mind that while the Atlas scientific sensors work well, they often require (frequent) calibration and are not of the same quality as those used in (very expensive) water quality sonde’s. User’s have had success with short deployments, but I would expect a long, resident deployment to have issues with drift / accuracy, especially due to biofouling.
Kurt’s approach to waterproofing the sensors with large glands seemed to work pretty well! I’m skeptical it could handle 300m, but 50-100m is certainly possible!
Thanks for the links. I have read through both of these but wanted to try connect using I2C direct to the onboard RPi 3 on my ROV to avoid needing an extra enclosure if possible and to simplify things.
I will now look at a BR external temp sensor and I2C splitter board for easy integration.
Would be amazing if in the future you could just plug the Atlas I2C board into the splitter and integrate into Cockpit easily with widgets and enable overlay recording.
Hi @Geoff87 -
I think Syndeny’s approach of using the USB interface makes more sense rather than I2C - the I2C buses are intended for autopilot access, and the potential for conflict with I2C motion sensors / connected pressure/temperature sensors is higher if the bus is shared…
You can capture the overlay in screenshots in Cockpit via the screenshot tool!
