BlueROV Interconnect Diagram

Blue Robotics Vehicles BlueROV2
1

We are assembling our ROV with std setup including Pixhawk, 3DR gps/compass, Pi 2, etc. Could not find photos / interconnect info.

I put together attached diagram which depicts key electrical components and how they are interconnected.

Can someone review and update diagram as I think it would be helpful to others building the ROV

Also, some photos of an assembled electronics chassis assembly would be helpful to those wanting to get up and running with a minimum of guesswork.

See Attached

Thanks

Paul

bluerov-block-diagram (657 KB)

2

Added to diagram

see attached

 

bluerov-block-diagram-20160227 (1.36 MB)

3

Paul,

Excellent work on this diagram. I’ve got a few comments:

  1. The “safety sw” is currently disabled in our recommended parameters. The buzzer is optional.

  2. I would recommend supplying power to the Raspberry Pi via one of the auxiliary outputs (shown on page 3 of your slides)

  3. If you are planning to use a pressure sensor for depth, you will need to use the I2C expander that comes with the PixHawk to connect both the pressure sensor and GPS/compass. (Slide 5)

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

-Rusty

4

Rusty,

Thanks for the inputs

I will revise accordingly and repost.

Paul

5

Attached is updated Diagram

Let me know if you se any errors or need for revisions

I will update as we proceed with build and test

Paul

bluerov-block-diagram-20160229 (1.26 MB)

6

Hi Paul,

In your diagram, how does control data get to the pixhawk?

John

 

7

John,

I put together the diagram to help address questions we had while trying to interconnect our BlueROV that we are trying to build in a stock Mechanical/Electrical/Software configuration. Your question is funny/ironic as we just noticed this morning that the C2 link between the Raspberry PI and the Pixhawk was missing. As we are still Newbies trying to get our BlueROV up and running.

Perhaps someone from BlueROV can answer your/our question:

We have not been able to determine what the proper connection between the Raspberry Pi2 and Pixhawk is.

  1. Do we connect a USB between a USV connector on the Pi and the micro USB on the Pixhawk? or
  2. Do we use a SPI Connection? or
  3. Something Else?
    Please let us know or point us to a link in the BlueRobotics Documentation.

Once Answered, I will update the Block Diagram. Thanks in advance. Paul

8

Hi,

I’ve had success with the following approach to linking the RPi2 to the Pixhawk. The only change I made was to drop the +5v line and just run with the Rx, Tx and GND

RPI Serial

9

Paul, I asked because I dont know… I hope to use a different scheme that doesn’t involve the raspi… Seek my postson on other forum topics.

John

 

10

I have the the pi and pixhawk connected directly with just a micro usb cable, the default rate for the usb port on the pixhawk is 115200 baud.

 

-Jacob

11

I updated block diagram using micro usb cable as described by Jacob above. Let me know if you see any other missing connections or errors. Thanks to all Paul

bluerov-block-diagram-20160310 (1.26 MB)

12

Additional Details added.

Paul

bluerov-block-diagram-20160318 (1.43 MB)

13

As someone new to electronics/robotics and trying to plan a first build, I find this extremely helpful Paul – thanks a lot for sharing!

14

Christian,

Glad this diagram is helpful. Feel free to edit/add to the the powerpoint file as you work on your BlueROV project. We will do the same and hope others help to contribute as well. We are getting to the software load part of the task now and plan to contribute to that documentation as well as we have questions and move forward.

Best of luck with your build, Paul

15

Will do Paul! I was wondering what you are planning to do for external lights?

16

Awesome work, helps greatly in making my initial design decisions.

17

Re: External lights - We have not done anything yet.

I have posted a few ideas in a new topic under forum - build thread.

Paul

18

Hi,

We worked the past two weeks to consolidate the information on all the new electronics packages, and your powerpoint was incredibly helpful. I edited it for our build and included some extra documentation to help anyone else trying to build the BlueROV with the new software recommendations.

Alicia

bluerovforum (5.18 MB)

19

Alicia,

Thanks for all of the updates - you did a great job adding detail, correcting errors, and just cleaning up the crude documentation - we will have to delve into this as it appears you have found some details on the wiring and interconnections that we were not aware of - many thanks.

I added another update (FWIW) with a few slides towards the end documenting a few other items and options:

slide 12 - Lumen Light connections.

slide 13 - OPTION - Use of an Ethernet Breakout / terminal strip to allow removal / replacement of penetrator from endcap without cutting wires. Many versions available on Amazon or Ebay for under $5.

slide 14 - OPTION - Adaptor for USB Connection Between Pixhawk and Pi - looks like this is not needed if connect GPIO rail to Telem port 2 as shown on your slide 2 works well. We found that Coms thru the USB port on side of Pixhawk was unreliable because the connector (even with a right-angle micro-USB)kept impacting the inside of the housing and getting bent. We changed the standoffs on the chassis for the pixhawk (from 25mm(~1-inch) to 7/8-inch) and this reduced the problem and made assy and disassy of the housing easier - less binding.

BTW, Has anyone seen documentation of the HW/SW/interconnection for the new BlueROV2?

Thanks for the inputs

Paul

bluerovforum-interconnectdiagram-with-options-added (6.56 MB)

20

Paul and Alicia,

This looks fantastic! We are planning to draw a lot from this document to make official diagrams for the ArduSub page. Keep the good work! It’s incredibly helpful.

-Rusty