Last week, I dove my Model C past 50ft at a lake in SoCal. This was the sub's first dive past 2 bars of pressure while under the control of the Model C app. We're super proud of how well the sub and app performed - the Model C was responsive, and there was little latency in the video stream. We also swapped out one of the weight containers for a GoPro+mount to test stability for varying payloads... Still feels good!
Moving forward, we're going to tweak the sub's yaw control. Right now, it's a bit too responsive, resulting in some jerkiness in motion that's difficult to navigate.
Let us know what you think!
Cheers, understand the UI now. The video is great ! Love the "pool ring" pick up content which nicely shows the fidelity of movement.
Hey Paul,
First of all, thank you so much for joining our forums. It really means a lot to see so much interest in this project!
I'll try my best to answer these questions, and PLEASE keep the questions coming!
1. This post included a screenshot from July, and (thankfully) we've improved lot about the app. I'm really glad you bring this up so people can see the app in its current state. Here's a screenshot from the newest version of the app:
You'll notice those decimal values under the left, vertical, and right prop icons. You're absolutely right - these are the thrust values being sent from the app at any given time. In this case, all the thrusters have a throttle value of 0, because I'm hovering over a pool ring target.
2. Yes, in the next version of the app, you'll be able to click the camera icon to capture video! I'm planning to upload that to google play later this week, or early next week. Expect a walkthrough on this forum when I do ;)
3. Thruster direction and speed is controlled with the "trackpads." The trackpads are the regions that are cordoned off by the white lines (i.e. bottom left, bordered with "up" and "down" and bottom right surrounded by the white corners). These areas listen for finger contact, and translate your thumb's location on the screen to throttle values to send to the ROV.
To control vertical thrust, you'll place your thumb on the left trackpad. The middle line corresponds to a zero throttle value for the vertical props. To throttle down, move your thumb down, and to throttle up, move your thumb up. The top and bottom lines correspond to maximum (100) and minimum (-100) throttle values, respectively.
Controlling horizontal movement with the right trackpad is similar. Moving your thumb forward (or up in the picture) throttles the horizontal thrusters to move forward. Backward corresponds to reverse thrust, and moving your thumb to the left and right sides of the boxes will throttle the motors to rotate the ROV left and right, respectively. Any other location inside the horizontal controller will give you a pretty intuitive combination of thrust values. For example, full forward and left will let you carry out a wide left turn.
And yes, I'm always busy working on this, but a big part of that is sharing with people demos of what Blue Dot ROV's can do. Here's a video recorded at the Dana Point Ocean Institute showing a staff member piloting a Model C to pick up a pool ring.
Soon, though, I'll make sure to film a more thorough demonstration. I think it's a great idea to use the screen cap button to give an idea of fidelity between touch controls and actual movements. I'm looking forward to shooting that video, so thanks for the idea!
Could you please give some details on the interface layout and control? Sliders, square on the right etc, specifically:
1- numbers bottom centre (0.0,0.0,-100,0.59)? Is this the current thruster commands from the app or something?
2 - I've seen pics that has thruster icons top left and the camera servo lock / unlock and motor off slides (camera and motor buttons on pics here I think). I take it other buttons grab photo or turn on/off video recording?
3 - thruster direction and speed e.g. forward, reverse, left (port), right, (starboard).
I can imagine you are super busy but perhaps one day a little video or something showing a run round a course? This would be really useful to see to how its controlled and level fidelity of ROV movement e.g. pass through some hoops, land on a crate, creep approach to a point on the wall or mid water and then backoff.
Anyway, thanks for the info and posts to date, really interesting to see this developing.
What is the goal max depth for these subs?