Running ROV2 Heavy with Cockpit and we have an intermittent connection problem between laptop and ROV. No control or video and our sonar is disconnected which suggests a problem with either the tether of the Fathom X. Last time this happened and would not resolve I examined the board of the Fathom. Whilst doing so the connection was re-established and worked for a week or so. I put this down to a loose connector and added some hot glue to ensure prevention. However the problem has now resurfaced.
Today it happened and despite several reboots the issue remained. As a basic fault finding exercise i changed the battery and all was good. Come the afternoon same fault and battery swap failed to rectify.
Can someone point me in the direction of a good fault finding guide. I’m fine with continuity checks etc. its more testing the software and how to check logs and such like.
If you’re having connection issues, it’s good to verify the link light on the FXTI topside box is remaining lit. You can install the Tether Diagnostics extension in BlueOS (with the system connected to WiFi with internet) and also see how the units are behaving. Posting screenshots of your results of this extension’s interface will help us see how things are going!
After some diagnostics I found that the power supply 2 pin plug to the FireWire/ usb adapter in the FXTI box was making intermittent contact.
I noticed the green power led was going out quickly followed by the link led. Re soldered all connections on the boards before finding this fault with a continuity test.
Removed the plug and soldered + - wires to the pins and all seems well at the moment.
Is there a need for this adapter which seems an unnecessary further point of failure? Can a FireWire socket not just be added to the board?
Asking in ignorance rather than trying to be clever!
A USB mini port accepts 5V (power only), or 7-28V can be supplied via the small black screw terminals. The Fathom-X uses a USB to ethernet adapter to provide a more convenient interface than Ethernet. To extract 5V from this connection, a small PCB in the FXTI connects to the USB-Mini connector that it sounds like was failing on you. Had this gotten wet, or is it old? I’ve not encountered this usb connector failing as it’s not typically subject to any stress or plugging/unplugging during normal use.
The board cost and size would go up significantly if a USB to ethernet circuit was added - much cheaper to use an off the shelf dongle!
We had this fault for a while which was happening very briefly but got significantly worse. Occasionally it would be fine for an hours use with no problems but then it became almost permanent.
I am hoping this was the fault and i have not misdiagnosed. nothing worse than thinking its solved then it is not. however it has been solid for a while now on the bench so time will tell. I will post if it returns.
Obviously if anyone thinks it could be something else let me know.