Help Needed: Building a Wireless Remote-Controlled Underwater ROV

Build DIY ROVs
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Hi @itsJayMendoza -

  1. The Mikrotik radios don’t connect to the internet. One would act as a Wireless AP (the BaseStation radio) and the other would act as a WiFi client (on your buoy, like the BlueBoat.) This is like running a tether from your computer to your surface buoy through the air. No SIM card is available, and 4G would not likely provide sufficient bandwidth to operate the ROV (video stream is heavy!)
  2. The Fathom-X tether interface is used to run TCP/IP data over the tether using only a single twisted pair. Since Fathom tether does not meet Cat5 spec, this is necessary for lengths greater than ~30-50 meters. You would need one of these boards in your topside buoy, connected to the WiFi radio, and it would link to a corresponding board in your ROV at the other end of the tether (subsea side.) Other modules are available.
  3. We do not have a diagram or example, as we haven’t done this before! Generally, your surface buoy would need to provide power to the WiFi radio (see technical details for input voltage range, on the product page.) You’d connect the Fathom-X to power as well, and run an ethernet cable from it to the WiFi radio. The ROV tether would connect to the green screw terminals on the Fathom-X. From there, you should have network access to the Raspberry Pi in your ROV running BlueOS, and be able to operate the vehicle from there!