Ping Logs for surface vehicles

Blue Robotics Products
1

Hi there, our boat will be running autonomous scanning missions. Currently i see that the ping 2 sending logs to my documents folder on connected base station PC. This will be pointless on long range missions without ethernet or wireless connection. Can blueOS run ping viewer onboard? and or record log file on the navigator raspberry pi or connected storage? this would be extremely useful. Thanks

2

Hi @andrewjamez
We do indeed have a solution to the comms / data issue- have you seen this guide? Let us know if you have issues!

3

Hi @andrewjamez,

This is something we’re starting work on, but it’s in early stages and unlikely to be finished particularly soon.

If you’re just wanting to record and visualise the distance estimates then the guide @tony-white linked to should be a great fit, but if you’re wanting to record the full profiles and replay them in Ping Viewer later then it’s worth noting that Ping Viewer’s log format is open source, and there’s Python code available for storing ping-protocol messages in that format :slight_smile:

4

Thanks guys, i have the extensions for Ping and sonarview installed and collecting data on the bench.
Now to install into the boat and test it all. I see that the Blueboat is using a wifi for the main link?
What range do you get out of it? and what hardware is it based on may I ask?

5

Hi Andrew -
We recently reduced our range specification for WiFi to better reflect operation under most conditions. I would expect that you can achieve 100-200m range, potentially farther with increased BaseStation / Antenna height and the omni directional antennas. Using a directional antenna with the BaseStation can increase this to a kilometer or more under ideal conditions!

If you need to maintain contact with the vehicle over long ranges, adding a cellular modem is the best solution!

6

Hi Tony, do you have any recommendations on brand or models of directional antennas for the base station? If I could get 500m range out of them, range would never be an issue for my needs. Thanks.

7

Hi @Mark_C -
We’ve been testing these units, any one of which should allow you reach 500m range with line of sight and sufficient base-station altitude. You’ll also need a female-female Type-N coupler to connect these to the BaseStation.

8

Thank you sir!

9

Sorry to rehash an old subject, but I had my BlueBoat out on a large reservoir west of here (Calgary, Canada) a week ago, and had the BaseStation sitting on the ground at the edge of a cliff overlooking the reservoir, and using nothing but the stock antennas on both the boat and BaseStation, maintained a solid connection to a distance of just under 950m (it disconnected at 947m, as I recall). I couldn’t believe it, I was expecting maybe 400m or so at most. The cliff was perhaps 6m/20ft high, right at the water’s edge, and I had the BaseStation sitting with the antenna right at the edge of the cliff, while I monitored and operated the boat using QGC at my vehicle, parked about 10m away.

I have both radios set to the canada2 setting, with an “Antenna Gain” of 0 on both ends. Otherwise, stock configuration. And it wasn’t even a glassy day on the water, there was a bit of wind kicking up some chop, so the boat was pitching and rolling a bit. To say I was stunned at that result would be a bit of an understatement…

I’ve since purchased the L-com directional antenna that Tony listed above, and am excited to try it out! (I’ve also been testing a 915MHz 1W radio modem and directional antenna, which I plan to discuss in a different thread – based on my initial tests, I’d imagine I could almost control the boat from the moon with that thing)

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