I saw a Blue Robotics post on LinkedIn yesterday for this new product and after a quick review of the specifications I promptly ordered one. Normally I am not one to be the shill for products but after playing with a ROV for a MATE team and seeing the issues that others were having with interface considerations … this is fargin awesome.
Since I hate making circuit boards for the heck of it, I have already pieced the USB to RS-422 communications part together for our ROV and frankly it cost more than just buying this set. Only thing that annoys me is Rusty didn’t put it out sooner!
After my units arrive I plan on putting them through the ringer for at least the circuits that I plan on using. Right now, I have camera’s etc. wired up via a different path but depending on what the communications rates can be with the boards (I know what RS-422 will support), I might come up with my own communication standard and package message traffic from various topside / ROV units to decrease wiring requirements.
In case you didn’t happen to scroll down far enough to see the blog post, which I never bother scrolling myself, read the blog and check out this latest product. This could be the answer that a lot of people have been posting about on here.
I’ve also been a beta tester for the Fathom “S” boards and can confirm Tom’s comments. Rusty and his crew really crammed a lot of functionality into these two tiny boards and are constantly updating the ArduSub software which is designed to operate it. I have tested the SD video and it works very well. The camera they offer has a nice picture and the low light performance is nothing short of amazing. The topside board includes a video amplifier which should provide clear video even with longer tether lengths. There are so many things that this board set is capable of it’s pretty amazing. For example, by changing the “power on” jumper you can free up a twisted pair for even more flexibility, which in my case will allow me to run the RS485 signal from my sonar up a separate twisted pair. Last but not least, everything has been well thought out and easy to integrate. I had my Pixhawk, camera, servo and a motor connected and running via ArduSub and qGroundControl in less than an hour. Not bad considering I’d never worked with the boards, Pixhawk or ArduSub before.
