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RaspSub Software Overview
Mar 8, 2015 @ 12:10am
- The submarine is composed of two different applications, the first is the controller software, it runs the hardware, provides drivers for all the custom hardware I developed, and will eventually allow the submarine to operate independently from it's remote.
The remote, shown below is written to use GTK+3, it provides all inputs to the submarine (such as the joystick), and lets you view all the run data, including saved runs.
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AVR Programming
Jul 29, 2013 @ 10:41pm
- To control the servos on the submarine I am using an AVR (ATtiny24a). Besides controlling the servos the AVR is also acting as a secondary thermometer, reading the the battery voltage, and interfacing with the pressure sensor. It then forwards all of this over SPI to the Raspberry Pi.
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Electronics Build Up
Jul 15, 2013 @ 9:11pm
- Making an electronics package this complicated pretty much required that I have a proper PCB produced instead of trying to use a protoboard or something. Turns out getting a board made is not expensive, it was about $75 from ITEADstudio. Using the gEDA tools I could make all the schematics and then convert those schematics to the right formats needed for the prototype PCB.
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Raspberry Pi Interface Board Design
Jul 14, 2013 @ 9:08pm
- To control everything I am using the Raspberry Pi, running Raspbian. Everything I need that the Raspberry Pi needs to connect to I put on the interface board, and connect it to the Raspberry Pi through a ribbon cable. This connects both SPI and I2C to the interface board (as well as UART, which I will probably use for GPS). These interfaces are used for communication with the Raspberry Pi and the interface board has all the necessary electronics to power the sensors as well as the valves, pump and LEDs which need a large amount of power.
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Power Supply Development
Jul 12, 2013 @ 10:36pm
- To power the raspberry pi, and sensitive sensors, I need a regulated power supply, but the larger devices like pump, servos, and valves all need a lot of power. The LiPo battery, while rated at 14.8V, can go above it. Wikipedia states that they get up to 4.23V/cell, so my 4 cell battery is 16.92V max. I was uncomfortable with most of the non-RC stuff seeing almost 17V when they were only rated at 12V (40% over spec), so I made a DCDC 17-10V->~12V Power supply, and a very large 5V power supply to power the servos (my searching gave me almost 2A as a spec value for them, and I want 3).
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RC Submarine project overview
Jul 12, 2013 @ 2:42pm
- I decided to build a remote controlled submarine out of PVC pipe, RC car parts, and a raspberry pi. Initial goals were to act mostly like an RC boat on the surface, and be able to dive autonomously and return video. Total cost as of today is about $1k, though I plan on updating that and keeping an accurate count of things.
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New Site, New Post
Jul 12, 2013 @ 2:26pm
- Welcome to my blog, if you find anything broken at all, or even just ugly please comment below and I'll try to fix it.
