I’m using a DSL over COAX network to try and connect the BLUE-ROV2 (Blue OS).
When connecting the RPi to the DSL modem,” and look at it via the laptop, the heartbeat intermittently throws and error and the alert reports say “SYSTEM_FETCH_FAIL” and “BACKEND_OFFLINE”.
I have the laptop set to the standard
192.168.2.1
255.255.255.0
(No default gateway)
And the RPi is showing up as 192.168.2.2, when the connection is made.
Is there any documentation or settings that need to be changed, if the Fathom-XTI is not used?
The tether interface boards convert an ethernet signal into one that’s better for robust long distance communication, then back to ethernet on the other end, so the connected devices generally aren’t aware whether interface boards are being used, and should behave identically to if a direct ethernet cable was used from the vehicle’s onboard computer to your topside control station computer.
If your BlueOS interface is struggling to connect to the backend on the vehicle then there’s likely something wrong with your network setup (it may help to do a network test, if you have at least some connectivity, to see whether your setup has poor bandwidth capacity), or the vehicle’s onboard computer is genuinely offline (e.g. because of insufficient power, or some other issue unrelated to the network).
This dsl system is reported to have a minimum bandwidth of about 4 Mbps with 4 km of coax.
Since only 1-2k will be used, I’m assuming we will have about 8 Mbps.
What is the nominal bandwidth needed for the ROV ? (very low res video is okay)
Thank you!
Hi @oceanq -
Typically the telemetry and video stream of an ROV consume 5-10 Mbps, depending on what is in the picture. This can be much higher with additional camera streams. I would not necessarily assume that bandwidth scales with length linearly, so testing with the BlueOS network test tool is a good idea! This will tell you how much available bandwidth you have.
You could also change your video stream type from UDP to RTSP so it is only consuming bandwidth when a client is viewing the video. Your tested available bandwidth will be lower if the UDP video stream is active.
Judging from your reported error messages, the quality of the link may be poor, and inconsistent. Have you had any video stream come through ok?
Good news!
The DSL got adjusted for a higher speed, and the ROV video was downgraded to the lowest and the connection was stable, even with the ping360 running.
Now we have somewhat of a baseline, and can try longer lengths of armored coax to find the maximum lengths for use with the ROV.
Thank you for the info about the bandwidth of the ROV, it truly helped.